By Caden Gilbert
Sideshows create issues for everyone around them. Sideshows consist of doing donuts or burnouts in a very reckless manner. They are loud and usually happen late at night, which can keep people up. Further, these sideshows have been some of the reasons for people getting injured badly. There has also been very little support from law enforcement because Vallejo PD has very few officers and is slow to respond.
On the night of September 29th, there was a sideshow that could be heard across the whole town. Some of the people who lived where the sideshow took place were enraged. For example, Patricia Wiliams and her husband Paul, even said: “Had I known they were doing sideshows, I would have never moved here.” The people participating in the sideshow decided to climb onto the Williams’ house and destroy some of their property, including their lights, gutters, and roof. After this happened, the Williams family demanded that the city or police need to come out and fix this issue. But despite calling them twice, the sideshow still went on for another hour. The couple even had to pay for the damages, even though they weren’t at fault.
The Williams family and other surrounding neighbors started a petition to try to get city leaders to put a stop to the sideshows.
There are many incidents where sideshows occurred but no arrests were made and no cars were impounded. The Vallejo PD is very understaffed but still has help from Napa County, Solano County, American Canyon and the CHP. Despite this, they say that they weren’t able to stop all of the sideshows due to ‘officer’ and ‘public safety.’
Another reason to think about why these sideshows started happening so much in a short amount of time is news coverage. If the public didn’t show any attention, perhaps they wouldn’t happen as much?
The city of Vallejo seems to not have done anything about these sideshows, and the police aren’t much help either. There was even a sideshow where someone who was driving a yellow Mustang doing donuts before he crashed into a group of people near Sonoma Blvd and Lemon Street. Another incident left a man running with his clothes on fire after he was hit by one of the cars. These sideshows need to stop to better the city. There are people who are just trying to get by, and things like this are not helpful to them and their safety.
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