Watch Sideshow Driving: Go to Jail?

Mayor Jerry Brown, former Calfironia Governor and current candidate for California Attorney General wants to criminalize being a spectactor. Read the story in the Los Angeles Times (free registration required) here:

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown proposed tougher laws Friday to curb nightly displays of reckless driving called “sideshow” that have resulted in eight deaths and hundreds of arrests over the last year.

At a news conference, Brown said he had introduced a “spectator ordinance” that would criminalize sideshow attendance.

“If no one was watching, there wouldn’t be a sideshow,” he said. “We have to get the dangerous drivers — and the dangerous spectators who cheer on their violence and mayhem.”

The City Council is expected to consider the ordinance June 7. If it is adopted, convicted sideshow spectators could face a fine of $500 for a first offense. A third offense could result in a $1,000 fine or six months in jail.

Sideshow is a uniquely Oakland phenomenon — a chance for drivers, almost exclusively young men, to perform elaborate stunts in their cars, often with hip-hop music blaring from their stereos.

The events start out as late-night caravans of up to 100 cars that speed through major thoroughfares, picking up participants along the way.

From midnight to dawn, spectators gather at intersections to watch the exhibitions of driving maneuvers, such as spinning in circles while passengers — and sometimes drivers — hang out of open car doors.

“It’s a bizarre ritual that became a part of the night culture, and it’s hard to root out,” Brown said.

I wonder what the Moonbat Mayor Brown wants to outlaw next – in his era of limits?

At his request, the Alameda County district attorney’s office has begun imposing a special driving curfew on people convicted of sideshow-related crimes. Under its terms, those people are barred from driving city streets Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

The strategies are a response to mounting demands for more protection from residents of neighborhoods that sideshow activity has hit hard.

Flap smells a First Amendment abridgement here: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

“Nothing is going to stop sideshow in Oakland; it’s a whole culture,” Zazaboi said. “Are these new laws going to stop it? No. Are they going to put a lot of people in jail? Yes.”

Most communities do not tolerate this type of stunt driving on city streets from 2-6 AM in the morning.

Earth to Moonbat Mayor Jerry, just have the police enforce the traffic laws, other California statutes and your local ordinances……DUH!

Watch a video showing the Sideshow Here.