The ongoing spate of doughnut-spinning sideshows on Oakland streets brought at least two separate sideshows in different locations Friday night, and one on Sunday that briefly shutdown the I-880 freeway. No injuries or arrests were reported this time, though as you can see in the video shot above at an unidentified location, there were a lot of close calls between spinning cars and onlookers!
Another incident caught on video and picked up by CBS 5 and KRON 4 shows a separate sideshow at the High Street on-ramp of 880, where circular skid marks now darken the whole intersection.
News reports have focused on the fact that Oakland Police were nowhere to be found, particularly at the High Street incident, though police can be seen attempting to approach in the video above. The Oakland Police and the CHP have been frustrated by the sideshow phenomenon for over a decade now, with a particular uptick in the last several years. Residents around High Street say sideshows happen there about twice a month now.
On Friday, as ABC 7 reports, two CHP cruisers had to be pulled away from a fatal motorcycle accident on 580 in order to go check on one of the sideshows.
It's now common for the sideshows to be set to music and uploaded to YouTube, like this one from January, and as you can see in both of the newer videos, multiple videographers are on hand to capture each event.
Further, here's video of another sideshow involving dirtbikes and cars that took place just yesterday, Sunday, in the "Sunday Funday" tradition of Oakland sideshows, snarling traffic on a section of I-880 in East Oakland.
A series of rolling sideshows like the one above on a Sunday last August led to the death of one participating motorcyclist who was trying to flee from police.
Earlier this year Oakland City Councilman Noel Gallo proposed a possible solution to the public nuisance and potential danger of illegal sideshows by providing fairgrounds for sanctioned sideshow events. It's not clear if his proposal has gotten off the ground.
