Recently, many towns around York County have fallen victim to late-night “street takeovers.” This self proclaimed group surrounds cars and vandalizes roads. In late September, Kennebunkport was victimized by this group. Sources from Maine Public News say that the group of juveniles surrounded a police car at the intersection of Mills and Goose Rocks Road. Thankfully, the group did not harm the officer or her vehicle. This is not the first time this group has caused issues in the public eye. Kennebunkport is just one of five towns in York county that have been vandalized. Members of this group are masked and have not yet been identified, so there’s no telling where they’ll “takeover” next.
The group of unidentified individuals was reported to have set off fireworks and done donuts with their cars at the intersection in Kennebunkport. When police were called to the scene, the group surrounded her car to prevent her from leaving. Dashcam footage recorded by the officer has recently been released to the public on sources such as CBS 13 News and Maine Public News. In the footage, the officer claims to have seen upwards of one hundred people on the scene. As she approached the group, many fled towards her car to record and yelled at her. After a few minutes of chaos surrounding the vehicle, the majority of the group fled both on foot and in their cars. The officer on scene reportedly stated: “There was nothing we [could] do with this many cars,” as the masked juveniles fled the scene.
About an hour later, police got noise complaints from a Hannaford parking lot in Falmouth where about 60 people from the same group pulled a similar stunt involving street racing and setting off fireworks. About an hour after that, police in South Portland began getting the same complaints from the parking lot of the Maine Mall. Police say they are most concerned about drivers’ safety.
This begs the overarching question of, why are doing this? The group has stated in the past that their actions have never been motivated by being in the streets, but rather by creating a community of people who share the same passions. An anonymous member of the group spoke with a reporter from News Center Maine to discuss solutions to take these “takeovers” off the streets. The member claimed that “going in the street definitely isn’t right… but it’s the only option we have without getting in trouble.” They discussed the possible solution of the state of Maine funding an open area for these street racings to occur, so the group wouldn’t cause chaos on public roads.
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