Angry Los Angeles residents slam Fast and Furious series for ‘glorifying’ illegal street racing
- Locals protested against the filming of Fast X in Angelino Heights, saying the neighbourhood was plagued by a spate of dangerous street racing
- A resident said her children were traumatised from being constantly awoken by the sound of cars outside her home at night
A Los Angeles neighbourhood featured in the Fast and Furious movies held protests against the filming of the franchise’s latest instalment on Friday, claiming the community has been blighted by a spate of illegal and dangerous street racing.
Residents voiced anger at this weekend’s planned taping of Fast X in Angelino Heights, a historic area near downtown Los Angeles which is home to Vin Diesel’s fictional character Dominic Toretto in the wildly popular, long-running film series.
The movies depict the underground world of street racing, helping to popularise practices such as “street takeovers” in which crowds gather – usually at night – to watch cars rev their engines and screech at high speeds around city streets.
Damian Kevitt, a local resident and founder of Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE), said the Hollywood film series “glorifies an illegal activity” and as a result Angelino Heights had become “a tourist destination for illegal street racing.”
“Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights, there’ll be three, four, five, six cars coming through here, doing burnouts, doing doughnuts,” said Kevitt.
“There was not street racing in this community before Fast and Furious was filmed here,” he added.
