A Los Angeles neighborhood that served as a backdrop for the Fast and Furious films, was the scene of protests Friday against filming the next installment of the auto saga, arguing that its streets have since suffered from an epidemic of illegal urban races. ..

Residents expressed their anger ahead of filming scheduled for this weekend in Angeleno Heights, a historic district near downtown Los Angeles. The place is a fictional residence of Dominic Toretto, a character played by actor Vin Diesel in the saga.

It’s about the illegal race, “street takeover”, where crowds usually gather at night to watch car enthusiasts pull their engines at high speed on city streets. City.

For Damien Kivet, a local resident and founder of SAFE, who has spoken out against the practice, “Fast and Dangerous” could “glorify illegal activity” by turning Angelino Heights into a “tourist destination for illegal street racing.”

Damien Kivet confirms: “On Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday evenings, three, four, five, six cars will come here to do ‘fatigue’ and ‘cake’ maneuvers, where drivers squeak their tyres.

“There were no street races in the neighborhood before Fast and Dangerous,” he adds.

Bella, another resident, who declined to give her last name, says her children have been traumatized by the noise of cars outside their home that wakes them up in the middle of the night.

Now they are too afraid to go outside to play, she says, because “they saw the cars spinning out of control and they avoided running into pedestrians around the corner.”

For Bella, Universal Studios should move the filming location elsewhere, while SAFE urges the city to fix speed bumps and have a zero tolerance for street racing.

The association also asked Universal to add a sign in “Fast and Dangerous” to encourage people not to participate in such races.

Universal did not immediately respond to AFP’s requests.

The first Fast and Furious movie was released in 2001 and the franchise became the eighth highest-grossing movie series in box office history, grossing $6.6 billion across a 10-movie franchise.

“Fast and Dangerous 10”, the eleventh part of the saga, is scheduled to be shown in May.