There were at least four major sideshows early Sunday morning, three in Oakland and another in Richmond, but the one near Piedmont in Oakland drew 500 people, went on for three hours, and left a probably stolen Infiniti completely torched.  

It is a fairly common Monday morning headline around these parts to see that there were massive sideshows in Oakland over the weekend, especially when the weather is nice, and often in the very early hours of Sunday morning. Sure enough, KPIX reports there were three sideshows in Oakland in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and KTVU adds there was another sideshow in Richmond with “hundreds of people” on hand. But one of these four sideshows that happened in Oakland at Howe and 41st streets stands out from the bunch, as it drew an estimated 500 people, and lasted “between 2:15 am and 5:30 am,” for a duration of longer than three hours, according to KTVU.

KTVU’s Henry Lee got his hands on video from that sideshow, and it’s a donnybrook of donuts, laser pointers, and fireworks galore being set off. KRON4 describes the scene as “a frenzy of illegal fireworks, drivers performing donuts in crowded streets and participants stomping and burning a car in the middle of the public intersection."

About that car. It was a presumably stolen black Infiniti, and in the lower left video above, we see it break down from all the stunt-driving abuse it has taken throughout these proceedings. A half-dozen people jump on the windshield (this quickly turns into a dozen people), and a mob starts just destroying the car however they please. The upper right video shows the aftermath of the burnt car, with flummoxed drivers trying to navigate their way through the scene.

In the lower right video, some guy comes along with a fire extinguisher hoping to put out the car’s flames. A police officer announces on a loudspeaker, “Sir, the fire department is coming. Do not get closer to that fire.”

This did not technically happen in Piedmont, as the above tweet says, but it was about five blocks away from the Piedmont city limits. So that feels like an unusual provocation that the sideshows are creeping into previously unfamiliar neighborhoods. Meanwhile, KPIX reports that the other Oakland sideshows were at 23rd Street and Barrett Avenue, and at Market and 45th streets. The Richmond sideshow was at Hensley Street and Richmond Parkway.

And there’s certainly been some grumbling about a slow-footed police response, particularly in the light of the Sunday night Facebook post below where the Oakland Police Department said that “This weekend, OPD will be collaborating with our law enforcement partners to deploy additional resources on the streets” to prevent “illegal sideshow activities.” That message went up at 6 pm Sunday night, well after all of these sideshows had long finished.

But certainly the Oakland police union sent out a press release through spokesperson Sam Singer that the department had only six police cars available to "address the chaos," and decrying that the department is more than 350 officers short of a full staff.

"Police are doing everything in our power to help residents," Oakland Police Officers Association President Huy Nguyen said in that statement. "We ask neighbors to demand the city council and mayor hire more officers and retain the ones we have now."

But some residents of these sideshow-stricken neighborhoods are dismissive of that argument.

"Poor excuse. Poor excuse. Get in there and do something," Oakland resident Glen Collins told KPIX.

Other residents complain that the department is not making good use of its hefty overtime pay.

"OPD doesn't really respond to things and they like to get a lot of overtime pay, so they usually draw things out and don't react to things," another neighbor named Alexis said to KPIX.

Police representatives have said in the past that, in the absence of a very large and coordinated reponse, a few squad cars are no match for an enormous sideshow, and officers could be putting their lives in danger by intervening among armed and often intoxicated participants.

Thus far there have been no arrests or leads from these four sideshows, though plenty of video seems to have made its way to TV outlets and social media engagement farmers. The Oakland police union is pointing its fingers at City Hall, but some frustrated residents are pointing fingers at the Oakland Police Department.

Yet the reality is that no Bay Area community seems to have yet developed an adequate strategy to deter sideshows, and until someone does, these sideshow stories will remain a regular Monday morning headline.

Related: Sideshow With Cars, Snake, and a Ring of Fire Leaves One Dead In Vallejo [SFist]

Image: A station wagon burns brightly at night. (Getty Images)