Products are selected by our editors, we may earn commission from links on this page.
A traffic citation usually settles a dispute rather than starting one, especially when the underlying law is specific and long established. That is not how it played out for a Los Angeles father cited alongside his 13-year-old daughter this week. Marvin Deleon did not just disagree with the ticket. He told officers, on camera, that no such law even existed in the first place.
Deleon and his daughter, Leilani, were among 78 people cited Sunday afternoon, according to the LAPD. A mass minibike gathering had taken over Los Angeles’s 6th Street Bridge. Officers said the group was blocking the bridge, performing donuts and wheelies, riding on the wrong side of the road, and weaving through traffic before the department moved in with a coordinated stop.
Deleon disputed the citation on camera, describing the event as a birthday rideout rather than a street takeover and insisting his daughter had broken no law. An ABC7 reporter corrected him in the moment, explaining that riding a minibike in public is illegal in Los Angeles regardless of the occasion. Deleon was not persuaded. That disagreement became the real story.
This article was created with the assistance of AI and reviewed by our editorial team for accuracy and clarity.
The Law Is Specific: No Minibikes on LA Streets at Any Age
The law itself is not ambiguous, despite the back-and-forth on camera. In Los Angeles, riding a motorized minibike on public streets, sidewalks, or in parks is illegal at any age, for any rider, regardless of who is riding alongside them. The bikes are barred specifically because they lack federally required safety features like headlights, taillights, and mirrors, equipment that makes them legal only on private property.
Even after the correction, Deleon kept pushing back. “Where is the law that says that?! You don’t have a law!” he told the reporter, before demanding to see documented proof his daughter had done anything wrong. He also argued that Leilani would be legally allowed to ride at 14, a claim not supported by the actual statute, and pointed to prior encounters where officers reportedly let him and his daughter go without any citation at all.
None of that history changed the outcome Sunday. The law, and the citation issued under it, applied the same way it would to any other rider, whether accompanied by a parent or not. What actually happened to Leilani during and after that citation is worth understanding in specific, concrete detail rather than through the argument alone, since that is where the real friction happened.
78 Citations, 80 Impounded Bikes, and Two Adults Arrested for Aiding Minors
The scale of Sunday’s operation was significant. LAPD’s Street Racing Task Force ultimately issued 78 citations and impounded roughly 80 minibikes, dirt bikes, and e-bikes. Riders ranged in age from 13 to 50, with roughly half of those cited being minors. Two adults were separately arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting the activity, and two pickup trucks connected to the group were impounded as well.
Leilani, who was briefly detained during the sweep, described the experience afterward. “They zippy tied my wrists, and they just kept us there,” she told a local outlet, adding that the group had not tried to run. LAPD maintained that protecting young participants, not punishing them, was the actual priority. “The goal was never to criminalize these young people,” the department said in a statement, adding that it hoped to prevent a genuine tragedy.
Deputy Chief German Hurtado, who oversaw the operation, said officers had been tracking the group before the bridge gathering even began, waiting for the right moment to safely act. This was not spontaneous. It was part of a pattern the department had already been watching closely for a while, one that reached well beyond a single Sunday afternoon.
This Was LA’s Second Major Street Takeover Crackdown in a Week
Sunday’s bust was not an isolated event, either. LAPD had issued more than 500 citations during a separate street takeover crackdown just one week earlier. The 6th Street Bridge specifically has developed a reputation as a recurring magnet for these gatherings since it reopened several years ago, drawing repeat enforcement operations rather than a single memorable incident each time.
The political reaction arrived quickly too. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she was “disappointed” that parents had actively participated in the takeover, framing the operation as a chance to educate families about the real danger involved. Online reaction to Deleon’s comments specifically was harsher and less measured, with critics on social media calling his parenting decision reckless and accusing him of setting a poor example for his daughter.
The real disagreement here was never actually about whether a law against riding minibikes on public streets exists. It clearly does, and it applies regardless of age. The actual question was whether having a parent riding right beside you should change how that law gets enforced. Sunday’s operation answered that question plainly: it does not, no matter how many parents at the gathering seemed to believe otherwise.