Halloween rideout brings chaos to south London
Riders set off fireworks, run red lights and mount the pavement in ‘Halloween shutdown’
A HALLOWEEN rideout by a group called UK Raise It Up brought disruption to parts of south London on Saturday night.
The group used Facebook to coordinate the ride, posting the following instruction for taking part: ‘TONIGHT WE RUN THE STREETS INBOX FOR INFO IF YOUR [sic] WANTING TO JOIN’.
Some of the participants are shown in the video above, entitled ‘London bikelife halloween shutdown’. Reports confirm that as many as 200 riders were out in convoy across Lambeth, Southwark, Croydon, Bromley and Lewisham.
Members of the public reported seeing riders pulling wheelies, mounting pavements, jumping red lights and putting in reckless overtakes. At times the group split apart to set off fireworks in parks or near main roads and riders were seen setting off fireworks on Streatham High Road and Hilly Fields in Brockley.
Police in Lewisham tweeted at the time: 'We are aware of reports of groups of scooters causing nuisance around the borough & are deploying officers to assess & deal.'
The police received so many complaints, they said they were putting a ‘pan-London plan’ in place to deal with the group. When members of the public asked why the group weren’t being stopped, the police responded by saying: ‘Only specialist trained officers can stop motorcyclists. At this time we can’t engage at all and are awaiting a tactical plan from specialist units.'
There were no reports of any arrests, but with the amount of traffic and CCTV cameras in the capital, it's difficult to image these guys getting away with reckless behaviour like riding on the pavement and ignoring red lights.
Footage from a similar ride last year can be seen here. UK Raise It Up have been the subject of a documentary by Vice.
