Tyre debris, empty beer bottles and discarded cigarette butts have Ocean View residents fed up with spinners damaging their roads and polluting the air every Sunday night.
Chair of the Community Policing Forum (CPF) Mansoer Ismail told People’s Post the issue has caused a lot of “headaches”.
“We have headaches over this, people are contacting us to say that they are spinning in the street again and they ask for law enforcement.
“Children sit on the roof of the church to watch the spinning in the road, what if they fall off the roof?”
He added that many older people living in flats complain about the smoke pollution that enters their home.
“On a Monday, the road looks like graffiti with tyre marks, empty beer bottles and cigarettes.
“The spinners leave the roads dirty.”
Ismail added that people drink and smoke and do all the wrong things in front of children.
“We have notified law enforcement, but then they send only two vehicles for 1 900 to 2 000 people.
“Last time the crowd stoned the police vehicles, we have had road blocks to stop the activities, but as soon as law enforcement leaves the spinning starts.”
He added that the spinning has been occurring for many months, every Sunday evening.
“My concern is, the road where the spinning is taking place, there have been a lot of gang shootings.
“What happens if there is a shooting in front and cars spinning in the back, where will people run to?”
Ismail added that spinners felt they were uplifting the community.
“The spinners say it is uplifting the community. One person has already been knocked over while standing on the pavement. From the CPF side, we have done everything we can. When there is a complaint we notify law enforcement but two vehicles is not going to work for 2 000 people.”
Ismail says the spinners have been advised to use Killarney race track but are not interested.
“They want a pitch in Ocean View, it’s not going to happen because it’s a residential area. There is a track in Killarney but they say it is too far.”
The state of roads caused a row among residents on social media.
Terence Daniels wrote in a Facebook post that drivers had once again left without cleaning up after a night of spinning.
“So, the spinners want a pitch, just look at how a small piece of road looks after they are done. If you can’t look after this small piece of road, you’ll never get what you want.
“The only statement that is being made here is that you don’t care about your community,” wrote Daniels.
He added that police and law enforcement are stoned away when they try to intervene.
However resident Insaaf Brenner disagreed: “As far as I can remember no police or law enforcement was ever stoned. So give the spinners of Ocean View a proper and safe place where the sport can be practised.
“Before the voting took place everyone was so eager to help the spinners of Ocean View, but now that it’s done they want to stop it. Get to know the sport before making bad assumptions about it,” he wrote.
Ward 69 councillor Patricia Francke responded on Facebook that the situation in Ocean View was very sad.
“If I come to church on a Sunday my spirit is so down that I just want to turn back. This is our own people and then while the spinning is on, you can find children on the roof of the church.”
Francke told People’s Post that the spinners do not reside in Ocean View.
“I’m so frustrated, because the spinners are not from the area. This group is trying to do something illegal by spinning in the road.
“Every Sunday pieces of tyre are lying in the church yard, you must walk into that black mess, we don’t deserve that.”
She added that there had also been three to four break-ins at the church.
“There’s a guy living in Ocean View who is the forerunner organising the spinning. I grew up in Ocean View, it was a place people could walk around. But now, these youngsters don’t want to obey the rules. Last year when the city blocked the roads they started burning tyres.”
In a Facebook post community member Graham Psalmist Jehoma wrote that spinning was not creating jobs in the area.
“Spinning has created no jobs for unemployed unskilled youth of Ocean View. They can at least brag about a phone full of Tik Tok spinning videos.
“Spinning is not a bread-and-butter issue. Focus people. There is little to zero economic activity in Ocean View hence crime and drugs will remain a problem. No amount of policing will stop that.”
