Take back Bakersfield’s streets!

Illegal street racing has been a problem for generations in Bakersfield, California and across the nation. But the vehicles today are more powerful and louder. Racers and their spectators are more daring, reckless and lawless.

And it’s everywhere. No corner of Bakersfield or Kern County escapes the nuisance and carnage. One observer likened it to playing whack-a-mole. Connected by social media, including posting their own boasting race videos on YouTube, street racers constantly move around to evade law enforcement. As the COVID-19 pandemic cleared many streets of traffic, their race tracks expanded and reports of street racing increased.

Responding to the escalating danger, Assemblyman Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield, has introduced AB-3, which will increase penalties for exhibitions of speed that include burning out of tires, revving of engines, performing stunts and other activities intended for an audience or “sideshow” that ultimately leads to a speed contest.

While Fong’s legislation, which is making its way through the Legislature, is a good effort, more is needed from law enforcement, prosecutors, the courts and elected officials to tighten the reins on these criminals.

When we talk of street racers, we think of teenagers behind the wheel of monster cars. In fact, these criminals come in all ages — young and old. They are men and woman. They can be killers.

Consider just a sampling of headlines from the nation’s newspapers over the past few days. Two Houston mothers were among more than 100 arrested in a four-day crackdown on street racing. The women were racing with their children in the back seat.

A 52-year-old Birmingham, Ala., grandmother was killed when her vehicle was struck head-on by a street racer. The alleged racer, who is charged with murder, provoked outrage by posting an expletive-laced video on her Facebook page that blamed the dead driver for the accident.

A Los Angeles socialite has been charged in the deaths of two young brothers, who she ran over in a crosswalk, while allegedly racing a car driven by a former major league baseball pitcher. He has been charged with reckless driving.

You can easily find tragic street racing stories in any newspaper in the nation on every day of the week.

But it seems to take a particularly heinous crash to awaken public outrage and provoke often a fleeting law enforcement crackdown. One such Bakersfield incident was in 2019, when a grandmother was killed and her two young passengers were seriously injured by a street racer, who crashed into her minivan.

Up the road in Fresno, a December crash that claimed the lives of four innocent young people, including a promising Sanger High School senior, provoked such outrage that Fresno law enforcement agencies last month redefined what cracking down on street racers should look like.

Vowing to take back Fresno’s streets, the Fresno Police Department joined forces with the Highway Patrol, Fresno County Sheriff’s Office and the California Bureau of Automotive Repair. During a five-hour sweep, officers wrote 189 citations, impounded 44 vehicles, seized two guns and arrested 10 people on DUI charges.

A CHP plane, Fresno PD helicopter and drones flew overhead to follow and arrest suspects, while avoiding dangerous pursuits. Bureau of Automotive Repair officers issued citations for dangerous vehicle modifications and alterations that violated legal noise levels. Combined with the fines, vehicle impound fees and other criminal costs associated with street racing, the BAR citations and “fix it” orders added several thousands of dollars of pain to the “joy” of street racing.

Fresno’s Deputy Police Chief Mike Reid told a reporter that the February sweep was just the beginning. “We’re going to be out here a lot. Same group, same operation scheme, same thing, varying hours, the dates and times.”

Bakersfield and Kern County must put the same ongoing focus on controlling the local epidemic illegal street racing.

Kern law enforcement, prosecutors, courts and elected officials must treat street racing as a serious crime — a deadly serious crime.