Editorial: East County Must Take Regional Approach With Sideshow Ordinance

Antioch City Councilmember Mike Barbanica came out strong with a proposal for sideshow ordinance and it’s sad no one is talking about it.

This comes after the cities of Antioch and Pittsburg were hit with a dozen sideshows on June 1-2 which resulted in Antioch Police impounding 6-vehicels, issuing 11 arrests/citations and found 1 person in possession of a stolen vehicle. Over the past year, these sideshows have caused damages around the city, gunshots, blocked firefighters from responding to calls and even started a fire on a hillside. We can also swap war stories of the multiple quality of life issues they have caused.

In the video Barbanica released he calls for elected officials to come together and pass an ordinance that cites anybody involved in a sideshow from the organizer to any active participants. He is right. So where is everyone?

Supervisors Diane Burgis and Federal Glover remain silent. The entire Pittsburg City Council, silent. Three of the five Antioch City Council, silent. Cities of Brentwood and Oakley are silent. Just because there is not a news story every weekend doesn’t mean they are not occurring. The silence is stunning.

Its like most are scared to be shouted down from the “protect the criminal” crowd. Enough with that. Its time to raise the bar and go zero tolerance across the region–especially given the disrespect to law enforcement by participants when they do respond.

Sideshows are not going away anytime soon so its time to show leadership on the issue by having a unified policy that targets organizers, participants active spectators.

For Antioch, it shouldn’t take over 2-years to create a sideshow ordinance or actively finding reasons to kick the can down the road with a debate to only target organizers. The tire marks around town shows what nothing can accomplish–more chaos and destruction of property. At the very least, copy what the city of Oakley or City of Pittsburg did:

• Antioch – no ordinance
• Brentwood – no ordinance
• Oakley – addresses sideshow participants and spectators: Any person who violates this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor subject to a maximum of six months in jail and a fine of $1,000 (see code)
• Pittsburg – addresses sideshow participants and spectators: Any person who violates this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor subject to a maximum of six months in jail and a fine of $1,000, unless at the discretion of the district attorney the violation is reduced to an infraction (see code)

Should Antioch only target organizers, its sending a message that the region is not unified.

Furthermore, given the history of sideshows in Antioch, consistent outside aid needed to assist Antioch Police for responses, the Antioch City Council has a responsibility to the region to have the most strict sideshow ordinance possible under state law– organizers, participants and spectators, plus the impounding of vehicles, fines and possible jail time.

For those who may complain on if the punishment would fit the crime, who cares? We are told these organizers and participants are not even from the area, so then what does it matter? Create policy that encourages these sideshows to go elsewhere in the State.

For those who urge a facility be created to host sideshows. Again, if they are not from here, why would you use local tax dollars for folks out of the area to come do sideshows? Let another city or county spend their tax dollars on a facility and let them deal with the residual effects before and after sideshows.

Given geography and the limited entry and exit points to the area, technology also is a beautiful tool to assist with the ordinance by capturing participants on video. The cities should all work together to ensure the area is off limits because its too cost prohibitive if caught while law enforcement is also unified.

What good is going after a single organizer if there are 300 people in the street causing damage and tying up police resources? Go after everyone involved.

Let’s get it done because we are halfway there with Oakley and Pittsburg! Antioch and Brentwood need to step up with the same ordinances so every city and law enforcement agency in the region are on the same page by establishing both the rules and consequences–along with buy in from the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office. Over time, hopefully East Contra Costa County sees a reduction in sideshow activity and the area become known as a place of zero tolerance and no messing around.

Lets create a regional model that hopefully works and others can replicate. Its time we raise the bar, not continue to tolerate bad behavior. Then, we can focus on the rest of Contra Costa County.

Mike Burkholder
Publisher of ContraCosta.news
[email protected]

In case you missed it, below is Barbanica’s 4:30 minute video, or for those who don’t’ want to watch it, the transcript:

“Hey there, Mike Barbanica, some of you know me as a councilmember, some of you know me as a candidate for Contra Costa County Board of Supervisor district 5. So, lets talk sideshows, I am sure many of you are aware I retired as a police lieutenant, I did 21-years with the Pittsburg Police Department and absolutely loved the career.

However, that being the case, I have been on scene where we have had large groups of individuals and had to work with those large groups of individual to break up that activity. Whether it be sideshow type activity or large parties.

 I will tell you from experience, if you hear that all we have to do is cite an organizer and the whole thing is going to crumbling down. That is ridiculous. We should be giving our officers the tools, as elected officials, giving them the tools to be able to go out and cite anybody who is there depending on the situation. I am not talking about people who are stuck in their cars waiting to get through a sideshow. I am talking active participants who are out their videoing, cheering them on, jumping ahead to the next sideshow and doing it again. These are causing havoc in our communities.

Recently, I was talking to some of the firefighters and they had an engine stuck in a sideshow and could not get to an emergency they were headed to. What would happen if, heaven forbid, they were on their way to a house fire, on their way to a non-breathing person, what if the police couldn’t get through if a violent crime was occurring. What if an ambulance couldn’t get through if someone was in a car accident and they needed to be taken to the hospital. These aren’t just innocent little sideshows and people expressing themselves as we have been told by elected officials.

This is much more than that. This is property damage to our communities, out of all of our pockets, anyone paying taxes, damage to our communities. This is the potential for emergency services not able to get to wherever they are headed. Its only a matter of time before somebody is seriously hurt, or worse.

I am asking you to push your elected officials, reach out to them and tell them enough. We have had enough. And to stop playing games and taking potentially a very strong ordinance and watering it down.

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about.

I proposed that we not only cite anybody involved with the sideshow, but active participants. The folks with the video cameras, surrounding the sideshows, those obviously there to participate. And that was met with resistance from politicians. For the life of me I can’t understand why we would not want to give our officers the tools to do that.

It doesn’t mean they are going to cite everybody that is there, it means it’s a tool that they have when they get there and they need to break up a sideshow. Start passing out citations and see how fast that breaks up.

But, what happens. We have elected officials that say what we need to do is just cite the organizers. Do we want to cite the one organizer sitting behind their computer or the many out there causing these issues. I say both. We do both.

Don’t let your elected officials fool you. Put pressure on them to enact these municipal codes that give our police the authority and ability to take action. Right now, and I just spoke to a police chief, do you have the ability to cite spectators surrounding sideshows, cheering it, on egging it on, videoing it, posting it on social media, that chief told me no. We have no ability to do that.

So as long as we continue to tolerate this, as long as we accept this from our elected officials, we are going to see this continue. Push your elected officials to put a stop to this. Please!

My name is Mike Barbanica and I a running for Contra Costa County Board of Supervisor District 5, have a nice day.”

Related stories:

• June 2 – Antioch Police Impound 6 Vehicles, Make Multiple Arrests During Sideshows
• March 14, 2024 – Antioch Rejects “Absolutely Useless” Sideshow Ordinance
• Nov 16 – Antioch Opts to Place Ordinance Focus on Sideshow Organizers
• Oct 26 – Antioch Agrees to Create Ordinance Directed at Sideshow Spectators
• Sept 25 – Antioch Police Say 1 Arrested After Weekend Sideshow Activity
• Aug 15 – License Plate Readers Coming to Downtown Antioch
• Aug 9 – Antioch Mayor Claims Sideshows and Crime is Down
• Aug 9 – Antioch Man Charged with Reckless Driving and Felony Hit and Run
• Aug 6 – Antioch Sideshow Damages Water Main, Vehicle Also Enters Delta Waters
• July 5 – Updated: Hundreds Gather for Fourth of July Sideshow in Antioch
• Jan 12 – Antioch Police Tow 2 Vehicles, 1 Citation in Latest Sideshow Response
• May 16, 2022 – Antioch Mayor Says Council Will Take Up Policy to Target Sideshow Spectators
• May 15, 2022 – Antioch Police Respond to Two Sideshows, Officers Vehicles Attacked