Somewhere between 80 and 100 people robbed a 76 gas station on Hegenberger Road near the Oakland Airport last week, ultimately causing more than $100,000 in losses. The thieves came in waves, owner Sam Mardaie told a local news station. 

“Everything is destroyed. This is what I feed my family,” Mardaie said. “Whatever they couldn’t take, they destroyed.”

The mob that destroyed Mardaie’s life had just come from what is known in California as a “sideshow.” Sideshows are when large groups of people informally take over an intersection so that drivers can do tricks like doughnuts and ghost riding, the latter being where a driver climbs out of the car and onto the hood while it is still running.

These exhibitions almost always include loud music, fireworks, and cars set on fire. The inherently lawless mob often then goes on to rob local businesses as they did to Mardaie’s business.

“My aunts, my uncles, were talking about how the U.S. is the place to be, and then you turn out to this and see something like this happen, and it’s scary. It just shouldn’t be happening,” Mardaie said. 

Other Oakland residents are fed up too. “We are in the West, but we are not in the Wild West,” Oakland resident Dedie Stevenson-Bailey said. “It definitely feels like the Wild West, unfortunately.”

Thanks to Democratic Party control of the state and local government, police don’t have the resources or the authority to crack down on the lawbreakers.

“Our main concern is the safety of the public,” California Highway Patrol officer Mark Andrews told the press. “We would ask that those who are considering or actually engaging in these activities would think twice before they do so.” But the police don’t actually do anything to stop the lawbreaking, other than disperse the crowd without issuing a single citation.

“That is not enough,” Oakland resident Zach said. “Catch whoever the last person is that’s in front of your cop car, give them a ticket, and if you do that enough times, it will just be too expensive for them to take the risk.”

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Republican-controlled states are, of course, doing far more to make sure sideshow culture doesn’t become common in their community. In Miami, taking part in a sideshow is a felony offense and carries a $4,000 fine. In Texas, any car involved in a sideshow can be immediately seized and impounded.

If Mardaie and his family don’t want to rebuild their lives in California, law-abiding Florida and Texas would be happy to have them.