SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — People shutting down intersections to do donuts until their tires burn out may not sound like a First Amendment issue at first, but that’s exactly what it is, according to an Oakland journalist who argued Thursday to be able to continue reporting on the incidents without police intervention.
Jose Antonio Garcia, who reports for The Oaklandside under the name “Jose Fermoso,” has covered road safety for over three years and claims that a County of Alameda law criminalizing being within 200 feet of car stunt ‘sideshows’ to observe the event infringes on the right of reporters to gather news.
Garcia is asking for a preliminary injunction on the law to prevent police officers from enforcing the law so he can continue his reporting on what he calls a public safety issue.
“It criminalizes journalism,” said Garcia’s attorney and legal director at the First Amendment Coalition David Loy. “Our position is that the ordinance violates the First Amendment by imposing a content-based restriction on access to a public forum.”
Loy argued that despite not mentioning reporting by name, the law effectively discourages reporting on sideshows by restricting mere presence for the express purpose of observation.
“The government cannot evade the First Amendment with word games,” Loy said, adding that the law presents a clear chilling effect for reporters who fear arrest at these events under this law.
He also insisted that the law could punish people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, even possibly affecting people who record a sideshow to report it to the authorities or share information about it through social media.
“If you want to disrupt crime, you arrest people who are committing those crimes. Crimes can be punished, but speech cannot, and presence in a traditional public forum is necessary for that speech,” said Loy.
Chief U.S. District Judge Richard L. Seeborg asked if there have been any attempts yet to enforce the ordinance as Loy described it.
“It hasn’t been enforced yet, but that’s what the ordinance says,” Loy said. “I take the ordinance and the plain language of the law at its word.”
Alameda argued on Thursday that Garcia mischaracterizes the law’s goals and effects.
“The plaintiff’s vision is a radical vision of what the First Amendment protects,” said Aaron M. Stanton, an attorney for the county. “The ordinance is about protecting spectators from an increased risk of harm to themselves and others.”
Stanton also disagreed that the law’s restriction is content-based.
“The ordinance does not prevent people present on the sidewalk from talking about sideshows,” he argued, adding that joining an audience is not expression, and the government has the right to regulate non-expressive conduct.
He further argued that Garcia has successfully reported on sideshows in the past without ever needing to attend one for the purposes of reporting. Additionally, he insisted there are ways reporters can cover these stories without violating the 200-foot distance requirement, like using long-range camera lenses and directional microphones.
Under the law, penalties for being present within 200 feet at a sideshow for the purpose of observing or recording include either imprisonment in jail for up to three months, a fine of $1,000 or both.
The Oakland Police Department did not immediately respond to questions concerning the case’s effect on their ability to police sideshows in the city.
Seeborg did not indicate when he would rule on the motion, but Garcia, meanwhile, is optimistic.
“I think we have the stronger case,” he told reporters outside the courthouse. “If we get the injunction, I may potentially go out there,” he said, adding that he’d have to talk to his editor first.
Garcia filed the case in the United States District Court of Northern California, claiming that his lawsuit is in the public interest, noting that many people rely on Oaklandside’s coverage for avoiding these areas or for gauging public safety before they go outside of the house. Garcia’s reporting even goes as far as mapping areas of Oakland where sideshows are most likely.
Also called “street takeovers” in Los Angeles, sideshows are informal, illegal demonstrations of car stunts often held at intersections or in parking lots. Although originally hotspots for Bay Area youth culture that took on more of a block party mood, sideshows have become increasingly associated with violence and shootings in recent years.
Originally an Oakland tradition, sideshows have been popping up everywhere the last few years: L.A., Seattle, Oklahoma City, San Jose and even parts of Texas. Last month, a 100-person sideshow even took over the San Francisco Bay Bridge for 20 minutes before police dispersed the crowd.