NYPD Needs to Quash Violent Car-meetup ‘Street Takeovers’ IMMEDIATELY

By The New York Post Editorial Board

It’s outrageous that Saturday night’s 40-car “street takeover” in Queens devolved into arson and assaults on residents who dared intervene, but it’s also horrific if a 911 dispatcher told callers that the vehicular melee was a “quality of life” non-emergency, so they needed to call 311 .

As all New Yorkers know, 311 is where complaints go to die.

OK, the NYPD has no record of that 911 call, and says it responded rapidly (on an insane night in the precinct) to what it first registered as just a “drag racing” complaint.

Still, it took cops at least 23 minutes from the “drag racing” call to reach the quiet Malba neighborhood, while a dozen thugs physically brutalized a local couple and others torched a private security car with a Molotov cocktail.

Street takeovers, or “sideshows,” are a nationwide trend — fueled by social media and movies like the Fast & Furious franchise — where bozos invade wide intersections with stolen whips and perform dangerous, rubber-burning “drift” maneuvers.

Instagram and TikTok are filled with videos of idiots peeling out, pulling “donuts” and losing control, knocking into spectators or smashing into lampposts.

Though common in car-friendly locales like Los Angeles or Detroit for years, this idiocy hasn’t been unknown in New York.

Neighborhoods across the city — usually less populated than leafy Malba — are all too familiar with the “meetups”: Intersections scorched with dozens of tire marks bear witness to the mayhem.

The NYPD has cracked down on illegal dirt-bike and unlicensed all-terrain-vehicle parades that swarm major avenues in intimidating shows of force; it now needs to get vigilant on these “meetups.”

City Councilwoman Vicki Paladino (R-Queens) has extracted an apology from the NYPD and a promise the local precinct will keep police cars on alert for more Malba madness; that’s a good start.

But this is a serious quality-of-life offense: Self-righteous hooligans invading neighborhoods for riotous criminal chaos.

If the NYPD can’t control the streets, it’s losing control of the city.

NYPD needs to quash violent car-meetup ‘street takeovers’ IMMEDIATELY https://t.co/1AHQTrzGoC pic.twitter.com/e2ThFylclO

— NY Post Opinion (@NYPostOpinion) November 24, 2025