This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog. 

Every night, huge groups of young people are literally taking over streets in large cities all over America.  In many cases, major intersections are completely blocked off for stunts and dangerous competitions involving vehicles.  These events are called “street takeovers”, and they are often accompanied by theft, violence, and other acts of crime.  You have probably heard of “street takeovers” happening in big metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, and Chicago, but at this point they are even happening in many rural areas.

In fact, I just came across an article about how street takeovers have become a major problem in the state of Maine.  As you will see below, the scale of these events is often so large that police will just sit back and do nothing to stop them.  When they are outnumbered a hundred to one or a thousand to one, the police are often extremely hesitant to try to break things up.

Some of the biggest “street takeovers” in the nation occur in northern California, and this past weekend was certainly no exception…

Acrid smoke is greeting San Franciscans on their way into work this morning after another terrifying night of sideshows took Oakland and the waterfront.

Police refused to intervene and not a single arrest was made among the thousands who risked their lives as cars tore round their city centers in what has become a routine occurrence.

The police know that these events are going to happen.

But they do nothing to prevent them.

And as they are taking place, the police just watch and make no arrests.

I suppose that is one way to get the crime rate to go down.

Of course, lots of crimes are being committed at these events, and in many cases, people are being seriously hurt…

Onlookers were sent flying as cars plowed into them at one event in Oakland, and a torched Chevy provided a grisly centerpiece to the Embarcadero spectacle as tire smoke reduced visibility to near zero.

‘We are on our own here,’ tweeted one resident. ‘Why do we pay taxes again?’

I think that is a very good question.

Why should residents pay taxes if the police are not going to protect them?

It is being reported that a Chevy Camaro was actually set on fire, and at one of the street takeovers a motorist “was beaten and hauled out of his car”…

A Chevy Camaro which broke down in front of the of Pier 1 building was set on fire as cheering spectators leapt on top.

Vehicles and spectators melted away as police eventually arrived with reinforcements but by 3am the action had moved to the intersection of Valencia and Cesar Chavez streets in the Mission District where passengers clung to the vehicles as their drivers struggled maintain control.

A motorist was beaten and hauled out of his car which was then stolen when he accidentally drove into an area taken over for a sideshow in Menlo Park in April.

Video showed him apologizing to a fellow spectator, who proceeds to pull a mask over his face and force him out of the car before driving off and pulling ‘donuts’.

Meanwhile, chaos was also erupting on the streets of Los Angeles.

During one street takeover, a mob of approximately 50 young people decided to loot a nearby AutoZone store…

The latest chaotic example of California’s criminal and social justice reforms backfiring erupted in South Los Angeles early Monday morning, where a street takeover resulted in a mob of looters ransacking an AutoZone store.

Local media outlet KTLA reported that the Los Angeles Police Department received multiple calls of a street takeover at the intersection of Century Boulevard and Hoover Street around 0400 local time. Then, minutes later, a mob of 50 people looted a nearby AutoZone. Officials believe other stores in the area were hit as well.

“At least three businesses were hit within a four-mile radius and authorities were working to determine if the crimes were connected,” Fox 11 said.

Video footage that has been shared on social media shows the mob ripping open a metal fence and ruthlessly looting the store.

Sadly, this sort of thing has become a regular feature of these street takeovers.

Of course, the criminals in Los Angeles are going to steal stuff whether that is a street takeover going on or not.

At this point, theft has become so rampant in Los Angeles that even fire hydrants are being stolen on a daily basis…

A California state water company has responded to an ever-growing rash of fire hydrant thefts in Los Angeles by installing locked shields to cover the bolts on hydrants to stop thieves.

Golden State Water Company owns and operates the fire hydrants and says thefts happen daily. South Los Angeles is one of the communities where thefts are high, with two of the most recent believed to have happened last Thursday, without neighbors even realizing it.

“It’s mind-boggling that someone would just come into a neighborhood and just steal a fire hydrant,” neighbor Krystail Cousins said. “You’re now putting a whole neighborhood in danger.”

Similar things are happening on the east coast as well.

In New York, panic buttons will soon be required in all retail stores because violence and crime have become so widespread…

On Friday, the New York State Senate passed legislation that would make most big retail chains, including Walmart, to put panic buttons in their New York stores where employees can easily access them or provide staff with wearable, or mobile-phone-activated, panic buttons that summon emergency services.

The law, which is a reaction to rising threats to store clerks from thefts and violence, was already passed by the state’s Assembly and now goes to Governor Kathy Hochul for signature.

Our politicians can’t reverse what is happening to our society.

We are descending into chaos and they are powerless to stop it.

Needless to say, our national migration crisis is helping to fuel a lot of the crime that we are now experiencing.

Earlier this week, CNN published an article about an extremely violent gang from South America that is causing massive problems all over the country…

An alleged multistate human trafficking ring forcing immigrant women into prostitution. The mysterious killing of a former police officer in South Florida. Attacks against police officers in New York. The arrest of a drug dealer in Chicago.

Local and federal officials say these apparently unrelated crimes have a common denominator: Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal gang that originated in a Venezuela prison and has slowly made its way south and north in recent years. They say it’s now operating in the United States. The scale of its operations is unknown, but crimes attributed to alleged members of the gang have worried elected officials and some Republican members of Congress have asked the Biden administration “to formally designate the vicious Tren de Aragua as a Transnational Criminal Organization.”

For several years, the criminal group has terrorized South American countries, including Venezuela, its country of origin, as well as Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Peru. Retired general Óscar Naranjo, a former vice president of Colombia and chief of the Colombian National Police, told CNN Tren de Aragua is “the most disruptive criminal organization operating nowadays in Latin America, a true challenge for the region.”

But even though most Americans desperately want our wide-open borders to be closed, the politicians in Washington won’t do it.

No matter how bad things get, our politicians just continue to pursue extremely self-destructive policies that are literally destroying our communities.

All over America, our communities are being plagued by looting, violent crime, hordes of addicts, criminal gangs, and wild throngs of restless youths.

Every night is a new nightmare in major cities across the nation, and if we stay on the path that we are on soon there will be very few areas in this country that are truly safe.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream, and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.