That’s not a metaphor. That’s the actual statute.
DeKalb County Police say they received one call around 2 a.m. Sunday reporting speeding and reckless driving near the Glenwood Road exit. By the time officers arrived, the interstate was empty. Nobody was cited. Nobody was arrested. The videos, showing cars passing within inches of spectators lining the ramps, are the only record that anything happened at all.
It was the third street takeover DeKalb County had responded to in a matter of days. On Aug. 2, officers moving in on a takeover at Covington Highway and Wesley Chapel Road managed one arrest: 23-year-old Ruben Tejada Arevalo, charged with promoting or organizing drag racing, reckless stunt driving, felony fleeing, and illegal window tint. A separate video from another DeKalb takeover that same stretch of days shows a man firing a gun into the air before fireworks go off. Longtime resident Robin Peterson watched footage of the I-285 takeover and had one word for it: “outrageous.”
Georgia Already Wrote One of the Toughest Street-Racing Laws in the Country
This is the part worth sitting with. Georgia isn’t a state that shrugs at street racing. House Bill 534, signed in 2021, turned promoting or organizing an illegal drag race into a felony, created reckless stunt driving as its own standalone charge, and gave courts the power to permanently seize a driver’s vehicle after a third conviction. We’ve covered drivers who had their Mustang and Camaro impounded after a single street race, fined just $736 apiece, proof the state doesn’t wait for a third strike to start taking cars.
The Detail Nobody’s Reporting: Watching Is Now a Crime, Too
Here’s the part that didn’t make it into most coverage of this weekend’s takeover. Effective July 1, 2024, Georgia added a new offense under O.C.G.A. Section 16-11-43.1: knowingly attending or viewing a street takeover. Not organizing it. Not driving in it. Just being there, filming it. The penalty is up to 60 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000…