Atlanta Police Arrest 4 In Organized Street Take Over Bust
Various metro Atlanta media outlets, including Rough Draft Atlanta and WSBTV are sharing reports that a group of four individuals who reportedly were a part of organized street takeover activities have been arrested. APD held a press conference on Thursday to discuss the arrests and their efforts in general to address auto-related crimes.
A key to the arrests was a video, reference by authorities from the site ATLScoop of the takeover, occurring at Memorial and Candler road according to the the description of the video on Instagram. In the video, the intersection can be seen being blocked, with cars beginning to turn around out of frustration that traffic is not moving. Fireworks are fired, which has become another mainstay of take over videos.
All 4 drivers are facing charges, though most reports did not indicate the specific charges. At least one of the suspects authorities also suspect being tied to additional street takeover events in the metro area.
ShiftAtlanta has elected not to publish the names of the individuals.
Authorities Still Mislabel Street Takeovers Racing
Obviously, those of us here at ShiftAtlanta do not support street takeovers or street racing. Still, authorities continue to mislabel activities such as these. While the term street takeover is finally replacing the ever generic “street racing” term used for years after the trend started. Yet, once again, authorities in quoted in news reports continue to label these activities as “racing”.
While minor in the larger scale of the problem, it does illustrate one of the challenges facing legitimate car enthusiasts and racing events. The conflation of any type of “car racing” with not just an illegal activity, but the general term “racing” makes it even harder for legitimate car events and outlets to survive. We certainly hope authorities will think twice before labeling all activities racing and stick to labels that both make it clear activities are done unlawfully and outside of controlled environments, and differentiate those that re organized and safe competitions from those that are simply takeover activities.
No Word On Additional Arrests
There were no reports of additional arrests related to the activities. The video itself showed dozens of people out of their cars in the intersection. Authorities also made reference to linking one of the arrested subjects to other takeover activities, but none of the media reports we’ve seen noted additional forthcoming arrests from this or other takeovers.
Screenshot of the video courtesy of ATLScoops.
