Two ‘hoods that do not see many sideshows were both hit with them this past weekend, as both West Portal and the Outer Sunset hosted uninvited sideshows late Saturday night and early Sunday morning.
The news from KRON4 that both West Portal and the Outer Sunset had sideshows this weekend begs a few obvious questions. Have the usual sideshow proprietors moved from their typical locations out to the western neighborhoods? Or have residents of the western neighborhoods decided to have their own sideshows?
]“Where are the police?” This was the question after a late night sideshow of spinning cars, screeching tires, and cheering crowds took over the usually quiet residential streets of San Francisco’s West Portal neighborhood. 1/12 pic.twitter.com/g4cJUxkYUL
— Joel Engardio (@JoelEngardio) November 28, 2021
The answers to these questions are not yet clear. But what is clear is that the Recall Chesa Boudin crowd, as well as serially unsuccessful political candidates hoping to finally make headway, are fuming on Twitter that the alleged lack of SFPD response is somehow definitely the district attorney’s fault. (Though the district attorney cannot direct police response, and SFPD claims they responded to and shut down both sideshows pretty quickly.)
When you stay in your quiet neighborhood bubble and vote for politicians who want to defund the police, don't complain when your kids are awake at 1AM because a few hundred people (mostly bridge and tunnel btw) gathered on your street to have some "Real Bay Area Shit". pic.twitter.com/uKRqXryZSj
— Kai Sparnas (@kaisparnas) November 28, 2021
The tweet above shows the aftermath of the West Portal sideshow, which according to KRON4, started shortly after midnight Sunday morning “in the area of Claremont Boulevard and Ulloa Street near the Beacon and Valero gas stations.” The above tweeter noted in a separate tweet that “@SFPD I was there for 15 minutes, no trace of you guys!,” though NBC Bay Area reports that police responded to another sideshow “after breaking up this one” [in West Portal].
Sideshow on Lawton street in the quiet Sunset District in San Francisco last night. Unbelievable pic.twitter.com/3z8NXPUQL9
— Asian Crime Report (@activeasian) November 28, 2021
That other sideshow can also be seen above, from an anonymous account that is virulently anti-Boudin, but the thread has plenty of clips. It’s in the Outer Sunset, with KRON4 reporting it started “roughly 10 minutes later [after the first was broken up] on Lawton Street and 29th Avenue in the Sunset District, approximately three miles away from the West Portal sideshow.” The station says police broke it up, and the thread in the above tweet shows that police did indeed arrive and manage to disperse the cars and those milling around.
This is how unhinged the DA recall folks have become. A bunch of people did a sideshow last night, police did not arrive, maybe because many were on shoplifting/theft beat after Louis Vuitton incident. DA does not decide SFPD deployment, nor make arrests himself. Get a grip. https://t.co/D6GFs228BI
— John Hamasaki (@HamasakiLaw) November 29, 2021
This will all contribute to a “lawlessness” narrative, particularly among people paying or being paid to get Boudin recalled. And maybe SFPD is exaggerating their quick response, but it does seem like in both cases they showed up and did their jobs. No one was arrested, but also no one was hurt. And if the worst of it is a coating of skid marks, we’ll hope that law enforcement can figure out how these things are getting organized and promoted, and it will just be one more grievance in a parade of complaints about crime in the city.
Related: Huge San Jose Sideshow Results in 205 Citations, a Mere One Arrest [SFist]
Image: @sfvas via Twitter
