Oakland saw another series of chaotic sideshows Saturday night beginning around midnight and extending well into the morning hours of Sunday. And police did try to intervene, and multiple people were taken into custody.

Sideshows spanned the city of Oakland, with some dispersed quickly by police and reforming elsewhere. As KTVU reports, there were sideshows at 40th and Broadway and at Castro and 7th Street, which is under the I-880 freeway. Both of those were dispersed, the first in 25 minutes and the second within 10 minutes.  

"There were other sideshows where spectators gathered and drivers drove in screeching circles at Claremont and 62nd Street, Excelsior and MacArthur Boulevard, and Mandela and 7th," KTVU reports. Others were reported at Alcatraz Avenue and Telegraph Avenue, and East 12th Street and Derby Avenue.

Fireworks were set off and at least three vehicles were set on fire during these roving sideshows. Video obtained by KTVU shows a man climb onto the roof of a vehicle while flames were rising behind him.

One video posted to X shows a male spectator get hit by a spinning vehicle and thrown in the air. He appeared injured but conscious afterward.

Foothill Boulevard and High Street was the location of a significant sideshow that unfolded around 3:30 am Sunday. By 4:30 am, Oakland police had barricaded multiple exit routes from the area, as KPIX reports, after which they began writing tickets and towing some cars.

Several arrests were made, but the number of arrests has not been disclosed.

Footage from the scene showed a white Infiniti sedan approaching several Oakland police cruisers at an intersection, appearing to taunt them. The car then escaped by ramming between two of them, and then spun one last donut in the intersection before taking off.

Other drivers were able to escape by driving onto a sidewalk.

One 65-year-old neighbor, Debbie Wilson, tells KPIX she's happy with the police response. "I applaud them, I applaud them. They need to arrest them and keep them in [jail]," she says.

Wilson added, ""I take seizure medication. I've been having strokes and seizures so this kind of chaos I don't need around me. It terrorizes me and it scares me."

Oakland City Councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents the Fruitvale District, tells KPIX, "What impressed me is [police] not only came, they cited those that were in the middle of the sideshow and they arrested other people." He says the police typically say they don't have enough staff or enough overtime budget to crack down on sideshows.

It has already been an active early spring season of weekend sideshows around the Bay. Last weekend saw roving sideshows on the San Francisco Peninsula that culminated with one that shut down the eastbound lanes of the Bay Bridge last Sunday morning. And on March 16 there were multiple sideshows in San Francisco as well.

Photo: mf_thelatin/Instagram