ROCHESTER, N.Y. — ​The use of illegal dirt bikes on Rochester area streets continues to be a problem, as many people experienced just last weekend.

Dozens of dirt bikes and ATVs buzzed in and around the streets of Rochester in one large group on the evening of July 18, which is not an uncommon event.

One of those riders in the pack: Raheim Drisdom.

“This, this is a blaster. It is a Yamaha blaster," said Raheim, describing his four-wheeler. He says he rides on the street, admitting that he knows it's not street legal.

The 20-year-old from Rochester spends hours on his Yamaha during any given week.

“It’s freedom,” he said. “It's a stress reliever when I'm out on the bike. I don't even think about riding the bike, I'm moreso thinking about the people around me, the feeling that the people around me give me. It makes me happy. I get a chance to be myself."

The increase of illegal dirt bikes we’re seeing on Rochester’s streets is not going unnoticed by law enforcement and local leaders.

“What we’re seeing with these ATVs is a brazen disrespect for the law … It’s out of control and I think what you’re seeing is just lawlessness out there," said Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter.

Local law enforcement announced a crackdown, teaming up to seize illegal bikes and four-wheelers. And in Monroe County, legislation has passed allowing for a $500 penalty for an impounded ATV or dirt bike for a first offense and $2,000 for further offenses. The effort is to prevent more fatalities.

“Somebody’s going to end up dead,” Sheriff Baxter said. “One of these young folks is going to end up dead. And if our job as public safety we plead with these kids to think twice. We plead with the parents.”

“The last thing that we want to do as law enforcement officers is to go to somebody’s family to tell them that their loved one passed away in an accident,” said Irondequoit Police Department Chief Alan Laird.

Raheim knows it's against the law, but says it's worth the risk because of "the way that I feel as a person, it’s more than worth it.”

There is a theory by some who ride that doing this illegal activity on the streets is keeping many young people off the street corners doing potentially worse illegal activity. In fact, in many cities, it’s known as urban dirt bike riding — here in these parts it’s called “Bike Life Culture” by some.

And those who are part of that culture are fighting to keep it.

“To put all this extra money into a task force against us, it seems like a misdirection, it’s a wrong direction," said Lorenzo Jones of Rochester during a recent public Zoom meeting, leading to discussions about a potential location in the city bikers for to use, much like the Skatepark.

Jones says the biking community is getting the message about safety.

“Have helmets. Have boots. Have gloves. Have protective equipment. Ride more safe. Don’t speed through the traffic lights. No speeding. Things of that nature, we do agree with that. We do agree with those things," said Jones, who heads up an unofficial dirt bike group and works to spread the safety message and to keep young people out of trouble.

“Me, personally, if I could save every kid out here from going down that path, jail or destruction or death, I would do that,” said Jones. “If it’s even five or 10 kids a year that I see and I can help them out, to me that’s a blessing and that’s good enough for me.”

“If I didn't have this bike right now, I would probably be, I don't really know,” Raheim added. “I'd be probably walking around in town and trying to make friends, whoever those friends are, bad and good like, I'm not a people person but whatever's around is like, that's the only thing to do. Rochester is only so big, so there's only so much to get into. And usually, nine times out of 10, that's bad stuff.”

Illegal and dangerous yes, but for many, the Bike Life Culture is about far more than just riding a dirt bike.