Street racers risk death, injury for social media fame

The street races and intersection takeovers bedeviling Los Angeles police and residents recently are mostly the result of people seeking internet fame through death-defying stunts and dangerous driving.

That was the conclusion of LAPD commanders who took a look at the department’s data on street racing activity in the city from 2020 to 2022, officials said in Tuesday’s Police Commission meeting.

Deputy Chief Donald Graham, who commands LAPD’s traffic divisions, said the street racing and “sideshows” police have tracked look different across L.A.’s neighborhoods. On the Westside and central L.A., caravans of racers roam from place to place, searching for an iconic backdrop — a beach, the Hollywood sign, etc. — to film themselves in front of. In the San Fernando Valley, where the streets are wide, long, and largely follow a grid, racers tend to seek out the best boulevards for pop-up racetracks.

But they all end up showing off for the same reason: Social media fame and money.

“My honest belief…is the popularity of (street takeovers) is that the monetization for social media,” Graham told the police commissioners Tuesday. “Every piece of footage that you look at … these people are not hanging out of the cars whooping and hollering. They’re hanging out of the cars and they’re filming themselves live.

“The more reckless, the more dangerous the footage can be, the more they increase their following on social media.”

In the years they studied, LAPD found police responded to 19,506 calls for service related to street racing incidents across the entire city. In some areas where street takeovers and races have led to increased complaints from locals annoyed with thunderously loud engines and sudden traffic breaks, the tide of racing activities actually receded: In the Valley, street racing calls increased 13% in 2020, but fell by more than 30% in 2021 and more than 50% last year. On the Westside, the numbers also showed similar declines.

But in other areas, calls have increased for three straight years: Across much of central and south L.A., street racing calls have shot up by double digits each year.

Traffic Detective Ryan Moreno said at least 16 people died during street racing incidents in the years they looked at. He did not say how many people were injured in that time, but Moreno said police were worried there were far more deaths and serious injuries occurring that were not reported to law enforcement.

The street racers behind the wildest antics police are seeing on L.A.’s roads are not trying to cover up their activities — they’re broadcasting them to as many people as possible to try to turn their exploits into cash and fame on social media. Because of that, Morean said videos he’s seen showed what seemed to be deadly and violent crashes that never were reported.

“We see people with broken legs, others who were flipped by cars, who were ran over,” Moreno said. “They never surface, they never pop up. But we get tons of videos every weekend.”

The L.A. City Council asked LAPD to look into what was happening amid a series of dangerous street racing events seen in the city, including one on Christmas Day that left a 24-year-old woman dead during a Hyde Park street takeover.

Moreno said that case illustrated a new dynamic: While some racers in L.A. are experienced drivers, others are young and with fewer skills, but who still want to chase glory.

During that takeover, 28-year-old Dante Chapple Young of Orange County was performing a donut in an intersection when two more drivers appeared. Both started spinning out, too. As he tried to maneuver around the other drivers, Young lost control, police said, clipped a tow truck and was sent spinning into a crowd where the 24-year-old, Elyzza Guajaca, was standing.

Guajaca died. After a manhunt that stretched into January, police found Young in New Mexico. The L.A. County District Attorney’s office charged him with murder.

Moreno said police were still looking for others who participated in the Hyde Park takeover.

“These other guys, these younger guys, when they do stunts, it ups their street cred,” Moreno said. “In that instance, it went wrong.”