SF police officers in riot helmets rushed into and blockaded intersections this evening near Dolores Park to shut down the annual “hill bomb.'
San Francisco police officers in riot helmets rushed into and blockaded intersections this evening near Dolores Park to shut down the annual “hill bomb,” where hundreds of people gather to watch skaters and bikers zoom down Dolores Street.
Those released carried the same three misdemeanor charges: Inciting a riot, conspiracy, and failure to disperse, according to their notice-to-appear slips. They were given court dates later in the month., SFPD said a total of 117 people were arrested — 83 juveniles and 34 adults; witnesses said the adults were largely teenagers.
Sabir, a 14-year old who was in the group before it was corralled, said the police trapped the teenagers between Dolores and Guerrero streets. “We were walking home and genuinely cornered, by two sides of the streets,” she said. “They said, ‘You’re under arrest,’ and sat us down for, like, an hour.” The alleged attack prompted the police to declare unlawful assembly at 7:15 p.m., SFPD said. The skaters set off fireworks and vandalized Muni buses and trams, according to police. By 8:12 p.m., SFPD officers decided to encircle one particular group that had, SFPD said, vandalized a Muni tram.
Compilation of footage, sourced from social media, of the Dolores “hill bomb” and the police response. Video by Sid Goldfader-Dufty.Joe Sciarrillo, a 39-year-old skater who has been to several hill bombing evenings at Dolores Park and watched the scene unfold earlier, wrote in an email that the police were much more aggressive this year — a tactic that “only led to more kids getting angry and shooting fireworks at the cops.
It is the second time in less than a week that a mainstay Mission event, albeit an illegal one, has been shut down with force by SFPD.that had been setting off fireworks and hosting sideshows earlier in the evening. Officers clad in riot helmets chased people from corner to corner, aiming less-lethal rifles and swinging batons., Captain Thomas Harvey, who has been the commanding officer at both events. Harvey is listed as the arresting officer on the juveniles’ charging slips.
A 17-year-old, who declines to give his name, says his younger brother, 16, was in the group being arrested. “They surrounded them; they boxed them in,” he says. “My kid was done with the event. I was going to come pick him up,” she says. Her son told her he was “walking down 17th when the police came and boxed everyone in,” she says.
She soon moves in with the rest of the spectators and parents, attempting to call her son. As the spectators shift, she gives a cry of recognition to another mother on the scene.Parents call their children via FaceTime and cell phones as their kids sit on the ground, waiting to be loaded onto buses. Some argue with the police.
“She’s 15, and she’s with her other 15-year-old scaredy-cat friends who also don’t ride skateboards and didn’t do shit,” she adds.One of the buses has driven off, barely filled with kids, two blocks away to Mission StationMembers of the teenage group have sat in the cold for hours now, some wearing little clothing. This reporter sees teenagers wearing crop tops, their stomachs exposed.
“Can he use his phone? Is it against the law for my son to use his phone?” he angrily asked the officer, as his wife filmed the encounter. “You’re not answering my question.” Families intermittently argue with police on the scene, saying there is no reason for them to arrest their children and siblings.
Two family members begin tossing a foam football to pass the time. One mother wraps herself in a blanket. Friends of those arrested skate and bike around, waiting for news; one skates to a taqueria nearby and returns with a burrito. Passers-by ask what is happening.“Who are you going to kill today?” he taunts the line of officers.“Your entire job is disrespectful,” the man retorts.
“Why are they treating them like criminals?” one mother asks, watching the children waiting on the bus.In the early morning hours, as a light drizzle starts to come down, the children are slowly released one-by-one from the Mission Station’s front doors. They come out with white slips listing their misdemeanor charges:
At the Valencia Room across the street, two fights break out over the span of a half-hour. The parents bang on the walls of the police station for an officer to respond, and an officer sticks his head out, saying he will call someone. Jason, the father of a 12-year-old son who was earlier released to him, stands waiting for his son’s 13-year-old friend. His son is asleep, waiting for his friend in the back of a pick-up truck parked within eyesight.
He recounts the night: The group was kept on the street for hours. They repeatedly asked officers to use the bathroom, to no success. One woman living in a house overlooking the kettled group even threw down a bucket, he says, and the boys started using that. Have been a resident of SF now for close to 10 years and the Dolores area for most of it. Have had a hard time recently trying to find the correct response between kids should get space to express themselves and hey that is my property and you are not entitled to destroy it without any consequences. Also not sure how I feel about folks coming to SF to do events and assume that residents should be ok with it.
Then fist fights started to break out amongst the kids. I watched two different kids get beat until they had bloody faces… by other kids in the mob. No idea what they were fighting over The kids just decided very suddenly and as a group to go after the train. It went from pretty calm to swarming all over and trying to aggressively smash out the windows of a MUNI train WITH PASSENGERS AND A MUNI DRIVER in it
The worst are the parents with the “not my precious child” attitude. Typical SF entitlement mentality–“there are worse things going on so I should be able to break whatever laws I feel like”You are exactly right. The parents who cried about their “babies” getting arrested, if they were responsible parents, would not allow their kids to attend such an illegal and dangerous event—with absolutely no safety gear or measures.
What a bunch of deadbeat parents. Imagine letting your teenage kids roam San Francisco as this time of night?! Getting arrested is probably one of the least worst things that could happen.Fantastic! Love it and it’s about time. “They’re only kids” yeah this is why your kids have no respect for anyone including you. Raise your kids right, so the rest of us don’t have to deal with them.I believe SFPD. In general, skateboarders are unsafe & terrorize the neighborhood on a daily basis.
It’s San Francisco.
I don’t love the hill bomb or skater culture as a whole. In general, skaters have a fuck everyone attitude and they enjoy making other people’s lives harder, which is a value system I can’t get behind despite running with anarchist punks in college. I was impressed by the absolute inefficiency and redundancy of the whole detention, transport, arrest, booking, and release process. They took my picture and asked me booking questions three times while I was barely conscious and ridiculed me for protesting as a disabled person — as if their violence against me wasn’t the exact reason I was having a health crisis. They finally sent me to the hospital where nothing could be done for me. I was one of the first people of our 33 released at 4:30am.
To say nothing of the fact that the cited charges — 409 PC failure to disperse, 404.6 PC inciting a riot, and 182 PC conspiracy — all beg the question about why the police kettled them in the first place.They failed to disperse as cited, when told to do so. Police do not just show up and start herding children and people. I would guess they were given at least 5-10 opportunities to leave and they chose not too. Good riddance & thank you SFPD.
Side note, I don’t think this was like the 5th of july thing because I don’t remember you reporting there were arrests.Sorry we watched those kids go completely out of control. People in Dolores Park started leaving as it was starting to get ugly. Did you see the vandalized MUNI trains and the kids flipping off the cameras? These are not the kind of people that residents of SF want in our beautiful city and the SFPD did a great job arresting as many of them as they could.
But the fewer such events, the better—and any event that can be held in a park instead of the street SHOULD be held in a park.Good job SFPD. Sounds like those arrested stayed. Those who didn’t want to be arrested and held simply heeded the multiple warning and left the immediate area. Pretty simple.
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