Compton residents call on city leaders to take action against street takeovers
After a weekend of chaos, Compton residents descended upon City Hall to call for action to end street takeovers.
One of the many residents that spoke up during the city's latest meeting was Cindi Enamorado, whose brother was mowed down and killed following a street takeover that started in the city on Feb. 19.
"My brother was scheduled to get married on Dec. 16 for his 12th anniversary. And instead, I had to go pick up clothes for his funeral," Enamorado said as she cried.
She didn't have to say much more to get city leaders to understand how much these street takeovers have taken from her.
"Spectating, recording him. Posting him online. Bumping music," she said. "They made a joke out of my brother's passing."
Her brother, 27-year-old Raymond Olivares, was with his fiancé, who is still recovering.
"There has to be a stop to this," Enamorado said. "This is organized crime. There's promoters out there coordinating this."
Many others delivered their impassioned speeches imploring the city leaders to stem street takeovers, especially after a series of them turned into mobs of people moving from intersection to intersection, burglarizing, vandalizing and shoplifting from several different businesses.
During the meeting, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department announced that they plan to add additional deputies from across the county to handle street takeovers similar to how they handle civil unrest.
"So, if there is a street takeover at one location and one at another location we'll be able to handle multiple incidents at the same time, said Lt. Terrence Bell.
Despite the latest effort, residents questioned why it took so long for deputies to show up over the weekend after a crowd of hundreds of people broke into and looted an Arco mini mart this weekend.
"We had multiple street takeovers at the time," said Bell. So, our deputies were responding to those locations and dealing with that.
Mayor Emma Sharif announced that the city plans to add additional Botts' Dotts to two more intersections where street takeovers continue to occur.
"They act as deterrents because they cause damage to vehicles that try to shift on them," said Sharif.
However, videos show that sideshows have not stopped despite the implementation of Botts' Dotts.
