‘This is still terrifying’: Police respond to multiple citywide, social media-organized ‘street takeovers’

[ThatRobGuy]

‘This is still terrifying’: Police respond to multiple citywide, social media-organized ‘street takeovers’

Police in Cleveland said they responded to several “street takeovers” all across the city Saturday night.

www.wbtv.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) - Police in Cleveland said they responded to several “street takeovers” all across the city Saturday night.

According to Police Chief Dorothy Todd, the takeovers involved individuals shutting down traffic, shooting off fireworks, attempting to light fires and shooting at officers with pellet guns.

Todd said the calls came in for multiple locations of vehicles gathering and blocking traffic after 11 p.m.

Some of the locations included:

• West 25th Street and Lorain
• Roses Plaza on West 65th Street
• Steelyard Commons
• East 105th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive
• East 93rd Street and Opportunity Corridor
• East 55th and Woodland Avenue
• I-90 West Freeway near West 14th Street

Coming to a city near you "organized street takeovers"... I'm sure when another one of these happens, and someone gets run over or shot, the idiots participating in it will be the "victims".

 

[RocksInMyHead]

I don't think I've ever seen anyone defending street takeovers outside of participants. That said, bystanders killed or injured are still victims - they're not showing up planning to get hit by a car or shot. No need to dehumanize them just because they're taking part in something illegal.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I don't think I've ever seen anyone defending street takeovers outside of participants. That said, bystanders killed or injured are still victims - they're not showing up planning to get hit by a car or shot. No need to dehumanize them just because they're taking part in something illegal.

Did you see any of the footage that was recorded? Them shooting pellet guns and people, trying to reach into cars that were stopped on the highway, etc...?

They're not bystanders. If you block a strange vehicle on a road, shoot fireworks at it, and then approach it and start reaching in the window. A reasonable person might suggest they're "asking for it".

...that would be a FAFO (Mess Around, Find Out) situation in my book. Guy was getting swarmed by 30+ people, and when trying to roll his window up, once jumped up on the side and stuck his hand in to block the window. Again, these aren't "bystanders"

 

[Vambram]

Did you see any of the footage that was recorded? Them shooting pellet guns and people, trying to reach into cars that were stopped on the highway, etc...?

They're not bystanders. If you block a strange vehicle on a road, shoot fireworks at it, and then approach it and start reaching in the window. A reasonable person might suggest they're "asking for it".


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...that would be a FAFO (Mess Around, Find Out) situation in my book. Guy was getting swarmed by 30+ people, and when trying to roll his window up, once jumped up on the side and stuck his hand in to block the window. Again, these aren't "bystanders"

This kind of stuff eerily reminds me of scenes from "The Purge" movies. Sadly, it is happening in real life!!

 

[Aldebaran]

I don't think I've ever seen anyone defending street takeovers outside of participants. That said, bystanders killed or injured are still victims - they're not showing up planning to get hit by a car or shot. No need to dehumanize them just because they're taking part in something illegal.

You're defending them by referring to them as "bystanders" when they are actively participating in the blocking of traffic and the assault and intimidation of motorists.
Referring to them as being less-than-lawful is hardly dehumanizing them. But for you to defend what they are doing to innocent people trying to get to work or home indicates a willingness to look the other way when innocent people are being harassed, intimidated and assaulted.

 

[bèlla]

We've had similar mob action here in the past involving teens and there was property damage and someone was hurt. It's indefensible and their behavior is uncouth.

~bella

 

[RocksInMyHead]

Did you see any of the footage that was recorded? Them shooting pellet guns and people, trying to reach into cars that were stopped on the highway, etc...?

They're not bystanders. If you block a strange vehicle on a road, shoot fireworks at it, and then approach it and start reaching in the window. A reasonable person might suggest they're "asking for it".

Ok, fair - I thought you were referring to the spectators hit by people doing donuts in intersections - that's what I think of when someone says "street takeover". I hadn't realized things had escalated.

 

[RestoreTheJoy]

Did you see any of the footage that was recorded? Them shooting pellet guns and people, trying to reach into cars that were stopped on the highway, etc...?

They're not bystanders. If you block a strange vehicle on a road, shoot fireworks at it, and then approach it and start reaching in the window. A reasonable person might suggest they're "asking for it".


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...that would be a FAFO (Mess Around, Find Out) situation in my book. Guy was getting swarmed by 30+ people, and when trying to roll his window up, once jumped up on the side and stuck his hand in to block the window. Again, these aren't "bystanders"

Law enforcement needs to imprison all these people. This out of control nonsense must be stopped.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Ok, fair - I thought you were referring to the spectators hit by people doing donuts in intersections - that's what I think of when someone says "street takeover". I hadn't realized things had escalated.

This wasn't just a "people wandered into a protest sort of thing", this was a " organized street takeover" that was planned (evidently) on social media where hundreds of masked people showed up and blocked a major interstate (and 3 other key city blocks) at 11pm, wearing masks, shooting fireworks and pellet guns at people.

Obviously people have a duty to retreat before escalating things, but when you're outnumbered 20 to 1, and they're blocking your point of escape (so you can't remove yourself from the situation even if you wanted to), and reaching in peoples' windows... that could've ended quite poorly (with someone either opting to hit the gas when people started reaching in and beating their cars, or one of them getting shot...it is Ohio, people do carry here). I'm actually (pleasantly) surprised that this there were no serious injuries resulting from this (there was one officer who got hit with a pellet gun, and a few peoples cars got banged up)


The puzzler was that there still hasn't been any real indication yet exactly what they were doing... I haven't heard of a stated cause they were supposedly behind, or what the motivation even was (apart from creating general havoc)



The other thing I noticed too...all of these people (when surrounding cars) all had cell phones out and were recording the people in them and taking pics of their license plates. I presume so that if anyone did "confront them", they could release the final 20 seconds of the interaction, and then claim they were the victims.
(meanwhile, their cars that they parked cockeyed on the roads to block the traffic...they removed the license plates from, and most were wearing some sort of "scary" glowing masks)

So they wanted anonymity when creating the chaos, but presumably wanted to be able to "identify & pinpoint" anyone who dared to drive through their little "demonstration", and presumably send in anonymous reports to the police should someone pull a weapon on them, or merely intimidate them as to say "now we got your license plate, we'll find you later if you dare challenge us".

Ohio is one of the unique states where the BMV/Deputy Registrar locations are privately owned, which means way too many people (who shouldn't) have access to look up peoples information by license plate #.