Unfinished Acts: January Rebellions PAGE 11
sideshows are an easy scapegoat for violence that routine policing never diminishes. It’s mobile. If it’s occurring at High and Foothill, and we go there, they simply get in their cars and go to another location where we’re not. We can’t be everywhere. —Oakland Police Lt. Charles Gibson The big message we want to get out is Oakland is no longer the destination for nighttime cruisers. We want them to know that if you swing it [do donuts] or booze it, you will lose it. —Oakland Police Lt. Dave Kozicki, referring to Oakland’s aggressive towing policy. Participants of sideshows describe a general atmosphere of fun, not fear: It’s 3:18 [am] but now the sideshows fittin to start up... we got everybody gatherin in one central location. Everybody gettin together, that’s what the sideshow is all about. —Youtube video sideshow spectator 1 All he’s doin is swingin his car, know what i’m saying... He ain’t killin nobody. See him killin somebody? All he doin is swinging. And leaving, see him leavin? He gone. —Youtube video sideshow spectator 2 One tactic in the war on sideshows has been to associate sideshow activity with drunk driving, murder, and fatalities, such as the death of U’Kendra Johnson, who died in a car crash near the scene of a sideshow in 2002. An article about a law that was spun into effect to crack down on sideshows following the tragedy highlights this tactic:
It is against Oakland Police Department policy to “chase” an individual accused of a non-felony crime, as was the case in the U’Kendra Johnson death, when Oakland police officers went after a car which they had observed “doing donuts” in the middle of Foothill Boulevard near Seminary. So to keep from admitting that they broke OPD policy and “chased” a driver for a minor traffic violation, the police officers involved and OPD officials have consistently said that police did not “chase” the driver, but only “pursued” him. The difference in wording meant little to U’Kendra Johnson, who died instantly when the “pursued” or “chased” car ran a stop sign on Seminary Avenue and plowed into the side of the car Johnson was riding in. But the difference in wording meant Oakland police were able to get away with not breaking an OPD policy that directly led to the death of an innocent Oakland citizen... In Oakland, the original “U’Kendra Johnson Memorial Act” was designed to go after participants in Oakland’s sideshows, but since “sideshows” is not a term that is defined in state law, this has become a moving target aimed in many creative ways by Oakland police. —J Douglas Allen-Taylor, local journalist.
PHOTOS: GHOST RIDE THE WHIP DOCUMENTARY, 2008