For outgoing Oakland City Councilmember Larry Reid, election night 2020 began quietly enough, as he and others gathered at a storefront at Durant Square to follow the returns on his daughter Treva Reid’s run to replace him — then he looked out the window.

“It was just crazy,” Reid said. “About a hundred cars came pouring into the parking lot, and all these young people are just all over the place.”

Their target was a cannabis store that Reid had seen get hit in May during the looting that followed the George Floyd demonstrations.

This time, however, there were no demonstrations to otherwise occupy the police, and within minutes squad cars arrived. In the ensuing mayhem, most of the would-be looters jumped back into their cars and took off. Others stashed their loot under a pair of cars and ran, leaving the cars behind to be impounded by the police.