Sideshow Draws Attention On 24th And Mission

San Francisco CA

24 August, 2021

2:32 PM

Description

By Annika Hom, Mission Local August 23, 2021 A boisterous sideshow occurred on the evening of Sunday, Aug. 22 at the intersection of Mission and 24th streets, according to police and residents who live in the area. On Monday afternoon, giant circular tire skids remained from the event, which entails cars performing illegal stunt driving such as figure eights or donuts. Just before 9 p.m. on Sunday, a "huge, screeching, noisy" sideshow revved up at the major intersection and lasted "at least 20 minutes" — even blocking Muni buses, according to one nearby resident who declined to be named for the story. Several police cars were parked at nearby 24th and Folsom Streets, and a few sideshow participants apparently fled the area, the resident said. The San Francisco Police Department confirmed that officers responded at about 9:07 p.m. to break it up, and "dispersed the vehicles and the people involved in the incident." "It was pretty popping, and very active," said an employee at La Santaneca de la Mission, a restaurant at 2815 Mission St. near 24th Street. Other customers that came in confirmed the spectacle, too. Sideshows are a common occurrence in the city, especially in the Mission, the Excelsior, and Bayview. The Board of Supervisors and the Police Department introduced strategies in late 2020 and early 2021 to discourage them, including impounding involved cars for as long as 30 days and implementing a specific police unit to catch the culprits. Increasingly, these stunt driving events pop up on social media. Anyone with information is asked to contact the SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and start the message with SFPD. Mission Local covers San Francisco from the vantage point of the Mission, a neighborhood with all of the promise and problems of a major city. You can support Mission Local here.