A large number of cars, apparently operating in concert and in a manner intended to split and confuse police, descended on Walnut Creek again early Saturday morning – conjuring memories of the chaotic Nov. 20 blitz robbery on the local Nordstrom store.
There were no reports of theft during Saturday’s incident.
That store and almost all others were closed when the group, estimated at between 70 to 80 cars and possibly more, arrived downtown in another example of organized movement by a large number of individuals, some going as far as to use fireworks or smoke bombs to further conceal their movements.
A sizable number of local law enforcement, made up of officers from various jurisdictions, were on hand to monitor the group, with some officers pulling members of the sideshow over in apparent enforcement stops. One witness reported seeing several units behind a car at Alpine Road and Olympic Blvd.
As in past gatherings, members of the group kept police guessing by splintering off from the main body and traveling in different directions.
Let me get this straight.. 70+ cars take over the downtown streets, break laws, speed, drive recklessly, create havoc, endanger lawful citizens… and the result is they’re “monitored”?
I think they just stuck another finger in the eye of “woke” Walnut Creek police and city council.
Some cars were pulled over and checks/enforcement action taken, as we said.
I agree Mark! Why are the police just letting these punks do what they want. Unbelievable!!
I agree mark I think you need to personally go outside next time and start yelling at them to leave maybe that will work. These punks are to smart for police to stop soooo…
The cops did not “allow” those lawbreakers to do what they wanted. It happened at 1 am. There could not have been many cops on duty at that time. Perhaps the cops who were on duty were dealing with more important and more pressing issues. In any case, there are reports that some of the perpetrators were apprehended. From what can be seen from the video, there was no damage to life, limb or property. Perhaps there could have been, but there was not. We saw lot of noise, smoke and crazy driving. I’m 80 years old. Young people have been doing that sort of stuff all my life. I will confess to having done similar things in my youth.
I heard a bunch of cars drive past my place, in saranap which is just outside wc; i thought it was motorcycles though. no mufflers. also heard one firework.
Splinter group…
What is going on?!?!?
I’ve never been so glad to be as old as I am,
because I don’t want to live in the world that I see coming. Keep it up, and HE will shut it down!!! GOD help us all!
Amen to that! I’m so glad parents are not here to see this mess. I think of how my father and generations before him served in the military, putting their lives on the line to protect this country and to have a narcissistic generation so selfishly rip things apart.
Can you elaborate on how god has anything to do with a side show in Walnut Creek sir or is god just your go to when everything is wrong
KAREN,
Bless anyone who goes to God in good times and in bad! Goals for everyone 🙂
It’s really mistaken to see this as the result of a narcissistic generation. This is what happens when you have a society ripped apart by income inequality, a vanishing middle class, growing poverty, rampant debt and so many stuck in non-livable wage jobs, the decimatiIon of unions, so many college educated youth unable to find skilled jobs, a scarce social safety net, a government beholden to corporate donors and the placing of profits over people. This is the symptom of a very sick society. Some young people have lost hope.
@Andrew… I totally agree that all that you mentioned are real problems. However, this, with $30K+ cars, is not caused by non-livable wage jobs. This IS the result of a society where it seems nobody is held accountable for their actions.
I hope that this discussion is not deteriorating to the point of class warfare. Every single human is our society is responsible for two things regardless of ‘class’: Obeying and upholding the law; and, assisting anyone else with that same objective.
Hopefully ALL classes will disappear and there will be no such reference to human distinctions, particularly in our mutual commitment to safety and security. Money has nothing to do with moral & ethical characteristics.
Karen, I have to agree, behavior trends by young people AND our “representatives” in Washington DC and State Capitols all scare me. I fear for our Country’s and World’s future.
Why arrest anyone?
Most likely, the DA won’t prosecute them.
And if by some chance someone is prosecuted and jailed, Gavin will just let them out.
At least it helps us track the Hooligans, confiscate any illegal guns, and send even a weak message.
San Francisco is allegedly clamping down, and Oakland wants to hire more officers (Good luck) given the spike in gun violence.
Why arrest anyone? Because it’s your job. Don’t use the DA or Governor as an excuse to not do your job. Pretty sure police can impound a car for reckless driving.It may not be a felony but it will cost at least a few hundred dollars to get the car out of the impound yard. If local lawmakers wanted to be proactive they could introduce larger fees to get your car back. Americans love their cars and would pay anything to be reunited
SS
I belive your priorities are in the wrong order.
The police do arrest many of these miscrants. The miscreants are often release from jail without bail.
The DA is reluctant to prosecute people these days.
If mescreants are prosecuted and jailed, there is a good chance the governor will release many of them.
The Police are our first line of defense and they do a great job.
It’s the DA and the Governor who need to be replace with people with good character values.
No prosecution needed. Impound the car for reckless driving and the ‘ miscreants’ can find their way home and pick their car up from the impound yard after paying a hefty fee. Bypass the DA and Governor. Job of the police is to make arrests or issue infractions. Do your job, stop whining and making excuses!
Raising impound fees is a war on the underprivileged. This would not only effect side shows but also folks who are a few months behind on registration trying to get to work so they can pay it off etc. Or folks who sleep in their vehicles but you probably think they should just dissappear off the face of the earth anyhow
Impound fees are for CRIMINALS, not for the ‘disadvantaged’.or ‘underprivileged’. No one has the ‘privilege’ of criminal behavior without suffering the consequences. Lock them Up!
Have classification fees for impounds. Seems simple. Sideshow 3k etc.
Disheartening. These people really have a bone to pick with our town.
Seems like they’re feeling very dissed.
THEY’RE feeling dissed? I’M feeling dissed..
Can investigators go thru the various social media sites, phone carrier services, etc to help find the individuals responsible for posting the information and organizing the event? Maybe they already do this…
We don’t think it’s that easy, George. They appear to be using instant messaging services. It’s also possible they work in “cells,” much like intelligence service operators who buffer themselves from others to avoid being caught. One group may not know what the other is doing until they get a message to mobilize and meet. It’s not un-smart.
Patriot Act: let’s finally use it for something meaningful.
George no one cares that much
Small group! Oakland, West Contra Costa, Vallejo get more than double that, on a regular basis. The sideshows are very violent and dangerous. They’ve arrested organizers, recently, I read.
Meh. Kind of boring. I’m not impressed or scared by this action. If they really wanted to do harm, they’d have arrived when stores were open or started shooting since you know they had guns with them.
This was all about trying to scare people and make people afraid to shop. I shop from home not because of these punks but because people, in general, are annoying. Get off my lawn unless you’re the UPS or Amazon delivery driver.
First of all how does this have anything to do with ur dying lawn, no one cares about your house or your family. These people are showing the police they can’t do anything to stop them. If they wanted to loot and shoot guns u best belive it would of been a different story
Get off MY lawn!
Practice run.
Yes – you have to wonder if they’re just testing response times, police practices. The way they took over that intersection.
Most of you wanting everyone to be arrested and every car impounded are so out of touch with reality. Every agency including WCPD are extremely under staffed so realistically with the numbers they have there may be 10 cops (probably less than that) on patrol at the time this happened. Say they decide to chase a car and it takes off. They won’t chase because if that car crashes into another car or person and kills them guess who has the finger pointed at them for the blame…the police. The risk/reward is not there all for reckless driving to potentially cost someone their life. The finger does need to be pointed at the DA’s and Newsome because that is who allowed all this to go on for the past 1.5 years. The CA justice system is a joke and now all these mayors, DA’s and newsome are reportedly cracking down because the law abiding citizens are pissed that they have let this continue to go on and it’s time for the re-election campaign for must of these people in power so now they are trying to get votes on their side. Also if you really want to Monday morning quarterback about how police do their job and you think you can help fix it, every agency is now hiring so before you hop on a thread and start criticizing you should turn in an application to become a cop then see how you look at things.
MIsty,
Spot on and I did the cop thing for fifteen years. 108RS
Two words…spike strips. Then impound and fines. Make fines in the thousands. Watch these little babies cry with no car and no money. WAKE UP you moron liberal Calif. politicians and pass new laws and get tough. But it does say a lot about their generation…easily amused by running in circles and goin nowhere. LOL!
Yesss 😄
Most of these kids have stacks of money and will have their car out in a few hours and not even give a shit! 🤣
Crush the cars publicly.
How about allowing the community who live here to handle this? 🤔 we aren’t under staffed. Eventually they will go away one by one. Take a bite outta crime
What do you mean?
Community volunteer security & spike strips?
Or we could just blare some Mozart at them, they’d flee pretty quickly.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CXnnTL_Pz0X/
I wouldn’t be standing around watching those cars. That’s a great way to run over.
This is the only news covering this stuff
What an idea! Put a brown paper bag of dog doodoo on WC’s porch and light it on fire.
This went on for 7 minutes at this one location. 7 minutes.
Please invite these people into your home. Just for 7minutes. 7minutes.
Yes and there not done seven minutes wasn’t enough to show this town there not a gated community and anyone and everyone will come there.
Wait, back in the 70’s and 80’s my friends and I were forced to stop cruising the Main, but this stuff is allowed to go on?!
Taking over streets now.
It’s all fun and games until someone gets killed…where the hell are the police, what’s their excuse this time?
Oh they where there just can’t do anything.
If monitoring is ineffective: Defund the police. Done sufficiently they won’t even be there to ‘monitor’.
Our understanding from neighbors is that police adopted a more aggressive stance overnight. This has yet to be confirmed by law enforcement.
There is a very basic and nu-complicated measure of an ‘aggressive stance’. Forgive the math: #of prosecutions X years of imprisonment. Otherwise, (in the words of the SF Mayor, it’s just “BS”)
This sucks, I moved from Oakland to WC to get away from this crap. So over it.
Two words: spike strips!! We need a plan for immediate mobilization of spike strips around downtown and on onramps.
I’d just take all of you to jail. Hey, my record is 21 arrests in one day, don’t make me do it. 108RS