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.
As of 8:45 p.m., the San Francisco Police Department had kettled dozens of skaters and young people, keeping them trapped between rows of armed police officers. As the evening wore on, more than 100 officers took part in the operation and used four buses to take the juvenile offenders away and four vans to transport those over 18.
“Those are just kids!” onlookers shouted at 17th and Guerrero streets, as the dozens of teenagers sat on the street for hours, waiting to be transported a block-and-a-half way to Mission Station. Those over 18 were taken to 850 Bryant St., the Hall of Justice.
The juveniles arrested at the hill bomb were taken to Mission Station and released late into the night, as dozens of parents stood outside the police station to wait for their children. The last child was released at 4:15 a.m.
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.
In a Sunday morning statement, SFPD said a total of 117 people were arrested — 83 juveniles and 34 adults; witnesses said the adults were largely teenagers.
The hill bomb is an annual event that sees skaters from across the Bay Area come into the Mission to speed down Dolores Street as others watch and cheer them on.
It is not the first year with incident. Last year, a man was stabbed during the hill bomb, and a fight broke out. In 2020, a 23-year-old cyclist was killed after colliding with a skater. And, in 2017, an SFPD officer pushed a skater going downhill into a squad car; the skater sued the city and won $275,000.
Saturday’s operation was a concerted effort to arrest a group that had stayed after dispersal orders were given, according to Sgt. Stephen Benzinger, who was on the scene.
“This was not an attempt to move people and have them disperse,” he said. “This was an attempt to arrest people.”
The group arrested consisted almost entirely of teenagers, according to witnesses, largely ranging from 12 to 18 years old.
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.
They were “trying to trap us, I ran away, and [an officer] tried to hit me,” he said. “He swung [the baton] at me and said ‘Move!’ and now all of them are under arrest.”
One father, Nick Pernia, was furious at the idea that the teenagers should have simply obeyed police orders. “How many 15-year-olds know what unlawful assembly is and that it would lead to this?” he asked. “None.”
Carmen, a 15-year-old speaking upon her release, said she and two other friends were walking home from the hill bomb when they got caught in the police maneuver.
“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.”
Carmen, like dozens of others, was held for hours on the street before being loaded onto a bus and processed at Mission Station. She said the night was “dehumanizing”: She was freezing, the police “wouldn’t talk to us,” and the group was “handcuffed tight.”
Girls hyperventilated, she said, and several peed their pants while being kept zip-tied on the bus, awaiting transfer to Mission Station.
“Bad review, zero stars,” she said of her experience. “Would not recommend.”
SFPD’s account
Police said that officers had been in the area in preparation for the annual hill bomb and witnessed fireworks being set off at 6:15 p.m.
At 7:10 p.m., SFPD said, a police sergeant was spit on by a 16-year-old boy and attempted to arrest him, at which point a 15-year-old girl interfered. The sergeant “was assaulted during the incident and suffered lacerations to his face,” SFPD said, and the two were arrested and charged with assault and violence against an officer on the boy’s part, among other charges, and resisting arrest on the girl’s part.
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.
“It was decided that a mass arrest of the crowd was to be conducted to stop the ongoing unlawful assembly and destruction of property,” read the police statement. The police recovered several firearms and unused fireworks from the crowd.
“This behavior will not be tolerated in our city and I thank our officers for taking action to hold those accountable who brazenly engaged in reckless and dangerous behavior and violated the law,” Police Chief Bill Scott wrote in the statement.
The bulk of 117 arrested were cited with the same three misdemeanors: inciting a riot, failure to disperse after an unlawful assembly, and conspiracy. Some faced additional charges.
Earlier in the evening
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.”
A reporter with the Mercury News took video of teenagers scattering from officers wearing riot helmets and carrying less-lethal rifles, saying some teenagers threw glass bottles and set off fireworks in the cops’ direction. Other showed police holding intersections and teenagers posting in front of a graffitied Muni tram.
Naomi, a mother who lives on Dolores Street and was waiting for her 15-year-old daughter Carmen, said the police had barricaded the corner of Dolores and 20th streets in the afternoon, preventing most skaters from going down the hill.
After police declared Dolores Park was closed to the general public and threatened arrests, Sciarrillo wrote, the crowd simply moved to Church Street (between 18th and 20th streets) at 7:30 p.m.
He said that Church Street is much riskier because it is narrow, and has an increased slope, but when he left between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., police were not paying much attention to the activity there. He said he witnessed one young teenage boy flipping head-first from his bike and landing on his back at 18th and Church streets.
Line of riot police shutting down Dolores Hillbomb this year. Officers are walking with riot gear down Dolores Blvd., confronted by some skateboarders. pic.twitter.com/J1GWEGH63O
— Aldo Toledo (@aldot29) July 9, 2023
Oliver, a high schooler at Dolores for the hill bomb, said that the police had cleared Dolores Street early in the evening.
“The whole force marched up the street of the hill bomb and then after that they corralled people,” he said.
His friend Luke said that the police were moving corner to corner and that the skaters set off fireworks and “massive mortars” over the officers’ heads.
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.
On July 4, shortly after midnight, dozens of officers charged a large crowd 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.
The Mission recently got a new police captain, Captain Thomas Harvey, who has been the commanding officer at both events. Harvey is listed as the arresting officer on the juveniles’ charging slips.
In early June, a mass shooting in the Mission wounded nine and prompted Police Chief Bill Scott to declare he would increase the police presence in the neighborhood.
It is unclear if the recent operations are the result of that announcement.
Teenagers kettled, 9 p.m.
At 9 p.m., a dozen people wait at 17th and Guerrero outside the 500 Club, watching and taking videos of the scene.
In preparation for the mass arrests, officers have removed zip ties from large plastic boxes and loosened them.
By 9:40 p.m., police have begun processing the skaters and spectators for arrest. The teenagers and young adults are taken one-by-one to be zip-tied with their hands behind their backs, photographed, and then loaded onto one of four vans on the scene. At this time, only a handful have been processed.
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.
The 17-year-old, who had been watching the arrests for an hour, says he is worried for his brother, and hopes the police will call his family to pick him up from the station.
Officers processing the skaters and spectators that are being arrested. Photo by Joe Rivano Barros 
Those arrested are photographed, zip tied and then put into one of the police vans on the scene. 
Officers lined up to prevent the skaters from hill bombing. Photo by Joe Rivano Barros 
Officers lined up. Photo by Joe Rivano Barros 
Dolores Park . Photo by Joe Rivano Barros 
Earlier in the evening. Looking down Dolores where the skaters hill bomb. Already police had closed off the street. Photo by Joe Sciarrillo 
Clearing Dolores Park. Photo by a bystander. 
Officers clearing the park. Photo by a bystander.
Moms arrive, 10 p.m.
At around 10 p.m., a handful of mothers arrive at Guerrero and 17th and ask the officers when they can get their children.
“They said they can’t tell us at all,” says one mother of a 17-year-old, who declines to give a name. The officers tell the group that their children will be held at Mission Station and that they can retrieve them in an hour. “They politely told us not to come all at once,” says the mother, sarcastically.
Is your baby here? My baby’s here.
A mother arriving at 17th & Guerrero as the police arrested dozens of teenagers
Juveniles are loaded into a Muni bus at the scene, to be driven less than two blocks away to Mission Station at 17th and Valencia streets. Those over 18 are placed into vans for transport to the Hall of Justice.
Silvina Flores, another mother, says she was en route to pick up her 16-year-old when she got a call from her son: He was being encircled by police.
“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.
“He says they were just walking down this way and police peeled out and surrounded them in the blink of an eye,” she says. “They didn’t have a chance to explain, ‘My mom’s over there.’”
“There’s no reason to detain them for that; he’s probably terrified,” she adds. “It’s excessive use of force. They’re violating minors’ rights.”
Another mother arriving on the scene, rushes into the line of police screaming for her child. She is restrained, pushed back, and told she can pick up her son at Mission Station.
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.
“Is your baby here?” she asks. “My baby’s here.”
Teens loaded onto buses, 11 p.m.
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.
The majority of those arrested are awaiting transport to Mission Station. It is unclear why they were not released to their parents, and several parents angrily asked the police to hand over their children.
Naomi, the mother of Carmen, says her daughter and friends were in the Mission to watch the skating event — but are not skaters themselves.
“She’s a scaredy cat, not a skater,” she said. “I know she didn’t do anything.”
Naomi and her other daughter, Esther, stand by waiting for news from the police. They live nearby on Dolores, and bemoan the use of city resources on the operation.
“How many public resources are we using? We don’t have enough police and we’re out here arresting a bunch of kids?”
“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.
The first bus leaves for Mission Station at 11:19 p.m.
Temperatures drop, 11:30 p.m.
Members 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.
Nick Pernia, whose 15-year-old son is in the group being arrested, says his son had just arrived to watch the hill bomb with two friends minutes before the mass arrest.
“They got here around 8:30,” he says, adding that the group did not even arrive in time to catch the event. His son was an “innocent person walking down the street, and all the sudden you’re arrested and detained.”
Pernia is livid with the police, arguing with a sergeant about whether his son can communicate with him.
“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.”
The two, who are from San Mateo, say their son and his friends had attended a quinceañera in South San Francisco before going to watch the hill bomb. Thida Pernia says her son texted her that he was being arrested and she thought it was a joke.
“At first I thought he was joking, I said, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding right?’” she asked him. “He sent us a picture of him on the floor.”
“They came to Dolores to watch a thing that’s been in the world of skateboards for a long time,” Nick Pernia adds. “This is a fucking shame [that] this happens in America.”
Families intermittently argue with police on the scene, saying there is no reason for them to arrest their children and siblings.
“There were dispersal orders for hours,” a sergeant shoots back, raising his voice to the parents. “They could’ve left for hours. That was the time to leave.”
The family members shake their heads.
One mother arrives with water bottles for other waiting family.
Another woman, whose 16-year-old brother is being arrested, says he is a long-time skater who attends the hill bomb every year.
“I was born and raised in the Mission,” she says. “The kids have been skating in the neighborhood longer than I’ve been alive.”
She says it is “ridiculous” that the police aren’t immediately releasing minors to their family.
Her mother eventually joins her, and both wait in the cold.
“This is really excessive,” her mother says.
Midnight: Parents wait, tossing pigskin
As the night wears on, more parents arrive at the corner of 17th and Guerrero to await their children’s arrest and processing. They ask the police for more information and chat amongst themselves, describing how each of their children ended up at Dolores Park that day.
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.
An onlooker begins shouting at a police officer, yelling “ACAB” and “pigs.”
“Who are you going to kill today?” he taunts the line of officers.
“I appreciate the disrespect, sir, very disrespectful,” answers one of the officers.
“Your entire job is disrespectful,” the man retorts.
Parents laugh. “I can’t,” one mother says, chuckling and turning from the scene.
The sounds of karaoke emerge from the 500 Club on the corner, where patrons have for the last few hours exited the bar to watch the event unfold. Singers inside belch the lyrics of “What’s Up?” by 4 Non Blondes.
“I scream from the top of my lungs: What’s going on?! And I say hey-ey-ey…”
‘Es muy feo,’ 1 a.m.
The waiting parents split up into two groups: Some are at 17th and Guerrero, waiting for the children being held on the street. Others have gone to Mission Station, where busloads of children are slowly being released into the police station — a block over from the arrest site.
Children are unloaded in small groups and escorted, hands zip-tied behind their backs and accompanied by an officer each, into the police station’s parking lot. Some are walked over from the arrest site directly.
Parents try to identify their children, asking officers for more information, which they are reticent to give. One officer, Officer Byrd from Bayview Station, draws particular ire from the assembled parents. His answers to the parents, anxious for news of their children, are short and curt.
Why are they treating them like criminals?
a mother asks as she watches the children waiting on the bus
One father asks where he can pick up his child. “I told you already,” Byrd responds. Another asks when they’ll be unloaded from the bus. “They get here when they get here.”
Passers-by denounce the operation.
“Es muy feo,” one says. It’s very ugly. “Son niños, son niños.” They’re kids, they’re kids.
“Why are they treating them like criminals?” one mother asks, watching the children waiting on the bus.
“According to them,” answers another mother, indicating the police, “they are.”
Children released, 2-4 a.m.
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: 409 PC failure to disperse, 404.6 (a) PC inciting a riot, and 182 (a) (1) PC conspiracy.
Those who exit the station carry their belongings in oversized manila envelopes, embracing family and friends before leaving.
Carmen and her two friends hug and pose for photos taken by their parents. They kiss goodbye and say they need to get together tomorrow, to recount what occurred. Their parents shuffle them off.
Other parents wait for hours in the cold. One mother has a baby wrapped up in a blanket; another father has his own baby resting on his shoulder, also covered.
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.
No officer goes to the bar. A woman screams and rushes to hit another woman; both are held back by friends. She throws her shoes at onlookers.
A short while later, a man is knocked out cold by another man and drops to the ground. After spending the better part of a minute unconscious, with cars driving around his idle body, he is helped up by other bar patrons, and stumbles away, dazed. Neither the bar’s security nor the police respond to either encounter.
“Can someone do something?” shouts one of the mothers. Several parents remark on the fact that the station is filled with officers processing their children, but none are available to respond to the violence occurring across the street.
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.
At 3:30 a.m., Flores, the mother of a 16-year-old, has received her son. He says he was the 98th person arrested. “We’re gonna start a business for you called 98,” his mother jokes.
Another groups of teenagers are not so lucky: Their friend is at 850 Bryant and will not be released. They pace angrily wondering what to do and call the friend’s parents; one begins crying.
Several parents say they will seek to file civil rights suits against the Police Department. Flores, clad in her UPS jacket, says she will call her union for legal advice as soon as the work week starts.
“I’m calling the Teamsters on Monday,” she says.
The son of Nick and Thida Pernia is one of the last to leave. He exits the station and hugs his parents. He then reveals a small cut on his hand, received when an officer removed his restraints, he said.
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.
His zip ties were too tight throughout and his circulation was cut off, he says, resulting in swollen hands. “I couldn’t feel my fingers.”
After moving the teenagers from the buses, the officers kept them in a room outside “in the cold,” he says, for another 30 minutes before they could enter the station itself. “My shoulder blade was on fire.”
And he was told by an officer that the reason for their arrest was unpermitted skating.
“He said that unless you’re in a skate park, skateboarding is against the law in San Francisco.”
One of the teens, released earlier by SFPD, returns to the station, saying he is waiting for his brother. Informed that his 18-year-old brother is being held at 850 Bryant and will not be released, the boy looks dejected and confused. He wanders off, shortly after 4 a.m., walking home alone through the Mission.
Additional reporting by Lydia Chavez.
This story has been updated to note that a total of 117 people were arrested that day, 113 of them in the police encirclement.
You forgot to mention that:
1) this group of skaters shot fireworks at homes near Dolores park, &
2) they were vandalizing muni buses and cars nearby.
Be a good journalist.
A mother complains “my kid was done with the event; I was going to pick him up.” My question to her: why did you let him go in the first place if you knew there might be trouble? Seems a little irresponsible.
Like the previous article by this author we are hoping there is a follow up on this article with input from local residents rather than the “hill bombers” and their parents.
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.
10 years really isn’t that long.
Yes, we will follow up.
I have been a resident of SF for 31 years and I have never seen the City so dysfunctional in two respects: An inept government that is marred by one scandal after another and a public that is willing to give a free pass to this incompetent government no matter what.
Why aren’t conservative pro-police folks question the obvious: why is SFPD sending 100 cops to arrest a bunch of presumably non-violent kids while they’re AWOL in arresting real criminals?
And why do conservatives automatically assume that these kids are out-of-towners? Sounds awfully close to the same line they use for the homeless!
Mission Local’s coverage of this story has been bad reporting (at best) and more like intentionally disingenuous.
I watched these kids stop a MUNI J train coming up Church Street, block it, climb all over it, cover it with spray paint and then start smashing the windows
out with their skateboards. Then they started jumping on top of parked cars nearby, spray painting all over the walls of Mission High, and a few nearby homes as well.
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
This all happened at 18th and Church with the police more than 500 yards away, up in the middle of Dolores Park, not advancing and not doing anything
I was watching the hill bombing on Church leading up to this. It seemed like everyone was having fun… until the J MUNI pulled up to the stop at 18th.
The train would’ve gone by without impacting the crowd at all because the line curves away from Church into the park there.
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
When the police did finally start to advance down out of the park toward the 18th and Church intersection, I watched kids in the crowd shooting fireworks (pretty good booms) right at the police and throwing other stuff at them
I really like that we’re starting to hold people accountable! As a mission resident for 4 years, I’ve seen many people come to our neighborhood to create chaos at the expense of residents. We’ve had enough! It’s time to discourage vandalism by holding trouble makers accountable for their actions. Parents should also be held accountable for their kids behavior!
I also agree that future articles should reflect the sentiment of residents to give perspective that many of us have endures this for too long.
I’d be interested for you to find out how expensive it will be to restore damaged property after the event?
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8dUe9gN/
Did some kids who were just watching get caught up in things? Probably–but seems like there were MANY opportunities to leave.
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. And I saw more than a few “children” tagging public property and thinking it was sooo cool. Perhaps they learned a lesson about acting responsibly, but I doubt it, as they’ll buy into the “police brutality” narrative so popular with many so-called SF progressives.
Good. Its disruptive and dangerous to have these kind of events. Why are kids these days so difficult when following the law? Hopefully some jail time will help these kids get their act together.
They don’t have the resources to stop shoplifters, drug dealers, and real crime but they somehow have the resources to do mass arrests of teens doing harmless things. What a bootlicker you are.
Jail time rarely had that effect. Punishment based solutions are usually pushed by people who feel moral superiority and do not have any interest in transforming situations but merely controlling behaviors. Children being disrespectful and pushing boundaries is sort of the whole point of being a child.
Glad to see SFPD doing their job.
For all the whining in this article, no kids were injured, which would likely not have been the case had the SFPD stayed away.
This is not an “official Mission event” and don’t pretend it is. Neither is lighting off fireworks after midnight. Or firing a gun randomly into a group of people.
Glad to see SFPD wasting their time on harmless teen fun while drug dealers, burglars and other serious criminals get away with murder. What a whiny loser you are.
We have lots of problems in the city including skateboarders and the graffiti they ‘re covering the city with. Let me be clear these idiots, they’re not harmless teens, are just one of the problems we have in the city.
SFPD doing their job? 100 officers to arrest a bunch of kids? Is this the type of job they get paid overtime for? Is this the type of job they want to hire more officers for?
So long as the people of this city are as reactionary and right-wing ideologues that they are, no one would be held accountable and no improvement would take place.
Just reading thru this ra ra cops comments shows how broken this city is.
Such an interestingly-worded piece! The article didn’t say anything about how “these skaters regularly illegally shut down streets, annoying many residents.” Or, “these hill bombs regularly attract criminals that break into cars as the event is going on” (including that of yours truly on a previous hill bomb. The article didn’t say anything about “we reached out to SFPD on these claims but they provided no comment.”
So, did you just take the word of this person who claimed the cops tried to hospitalize them, and you didn’t reach out to the police? Which would be pretty shoddy journalism (but right up with SFPD-hating mission local norms). Or did you forget to put that part in?
Either way, what a fantastic piece of journalism here!
Omg!!! “My baby my baby”. SFPD did the right thing. These parents have no respect for police so their kids have no respect for police..that is so wrong. If their kids were watching a sideshow would they condone that also? Sounds like these parents are maybe in the 40’s age range & sad to know this will be the kind of people in our society that have no respect for authority.
Your blind respect for police and assumption that they were automatically right shows about as much awareness to basic police oversight statistics and critical thinking ability as one would expect from an indoctrinated toddler.
My son was at this event. He was not arrested but he recounted random acts of police brutality. This city has wandering psychotics and drug cartels, and enforces no laws against theft, but the idiot at Mission Station thinks the worst problem is skateboarding teens. I hope every kid sues SFPD.
Do you even parent? Is your kid allowed to go to everything? Does anyone actually give a damn about their kids?
Yes, that’s why we let them skate. So they don’t turn into dorks. Better spray paint a Muni bus than make millions off of child labor and mineral exploitation, the nerds working at Apple, Google and the like might be nice neighbors but they are the devil.
What a whiny lady you are. Kids are doing something relatively healthy and wholesome. They’re not shooting drugs, assaulting anyone. Just having a little fun. The SFPD seems to be understaffed for anything serious, but somehow have the resources to do mass arrests of teens doing harmless things. What a sad joke you are, lady.
Spot on. The parents not only allowed their kids to attend this notoriously dangerous event, but also set terrible examples for their kids in terms of interacting with the police.
I guess SFPD should just stand down and let the kids run wild, stab each other and vandalize the neighborhood like last year and years before? Residents are sick of this BS.
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. I am glad SFPD arrested them – they were fighting and throwing bottles!!! The parents complaining should also be arrested for raising little terrorists.
“During the arrests officers located and seized several firearms.”
It’s hard to see how anyone could have a problem with the police work here. Keep in mind that a mass shooting just happened in June: 9 people were shot. I’m glad the police were proactive here, stopped a dangerous event, and (as it turns out) potentially stopped yet another shooting. That’s an A+ grade in my eyes.
Absolutely ridiculous display by the SFPD. Another example of the growing hostility and authoritarianism of police forces across our country. Disgusting AND disappointing.
The most disappointing thing to read about was the enabling parents. Where were they when their little hooligans were wilding?
People say, “Oh, they’re kids! They’re kids!” But if they’re “kids,” why are they acting like juvenile delinquents?
Thank you SFPD for shutting down this illegal gathering which has led to injuries and deaths in the past. Perhaps next year the organizers will get a permit just like all of the hundreds of festivals obtain every year in the city. Maybe some of the very concerned parents of arrested children can help with that project. Thank you Mission Local for reporting the side of the SFPD. It was a small addition but at least it was there. Attempting to report both sides of the story is progress for you in my mind. Question, did you look into how much will it cost to repair the publicly funded muni light rail vehicle that was vandalized and if the police officer severely injured?
everyone in these comments must be some old grumpy people. Even if this was a rowdy event and the kids didn’t have the right permits the reactions of the police were excessive. Riot gear and arresting bystanders who weren’t skating and we’re just going home is insane. ACAB I say. These police should focus more on stopping actual criminals than just a rowdy event. Also if this is an annual event why not post information about the right permits to have to participate and best times to go home after to avoid trouble? It would be better than arresting a bunch of kids and zip tying them. This isn’t a learning experience for these kids, this is just a way to make them hate cops more. Cops are supposed to protect, serve, and educate. Not come in with riot gear and rubber bullets. ACAB.
Yeah, this is exactly how you radicalize the next generation! Doing shite like this!
Morale at SFPD must be way up. Nothing more exciting to them than disproportionate force, trumped-up charges, and overtime.
Yep!!! They must be pleased with themselves.
“How many 15-year-olds know what unlawful assembly is and that it would lead to this?” he asks. “None.”
And thus this becomes a learning lesson. As an experienced parent (my son and daugher are in their early to mid forties now), I certainly knew what unlawful assembly was, and is. I made sure my children knew right from wrong while they grew up, which is what this really is all about. That doesn’t mean that they didn’t have their moments, haven’t we all, but ultimately the responsibilty falls on the parents to make sure if their children are doing right or wrong. Take responsibility and you all can have your learning lesson. Follow the 3R’s – Rights, Responsibilty, and Respect and we’ll all be better off.
I would respectfully suggest the SFPD learns those 3 R’s rather than those children. No respect for these children’s dignity, no care for their human rights, and overall a complete disregard for their responsibility as peacekeepers rather than a violent military force. It’s disturbing to me that people think that children deserve this treatment, no matter what they did.
There’s a really simple solution. Just like other San Francisco residents and groups are required to do…Next year get a permit!
Daniel: The city will NEVER give a permit to Dolores Hill Bomb nor should it. Why? Because the city cannot legally sponsor an event where the participants refuse to wear safety gear or abide by “rules of the road.” The hill bombers pride themselves in courting danger (“thrashers”); they will never wear helmets, abide by safety rules, ensure that spectators stand well away from the skateboarders careening down the hill, or clean up after themselves. It’s a subculture that believes that it can do as it pleases. They have the maturity of small children. Hill Bomb is all about flouting the law, showing total disregard for how their actions affect the neighborhood, and rebelliousness.
I live on Dolores @ 17th and was told I would be arrested if I were to have attempted to walk home going up 17th Street the night this all went down.
I’ve been a 28 year resident of this city. Every single day I see open air drug use, I see open air markets of stolen goods. Humans are being targeted and attacked. I no longer feel safe in my city. The times i’ve needed to call 911 i’ve been told, ‘what do you expect?
It’s San Francisco.’ I do not understand how so many destructive and dangerous behaviors are simply overlooked or ignored, such as fireworks being detonated until 3am leading up to the 4th of July, but now skateboarding is illegal????
I am still reeling from my encounters with the unit of police in riot gear. RIOT GEAR…
How can we get involved? How can we surround our communities and our children and help raise us all up to a safer level of living here in the city?
They were not arrested for skateboarding 🛹, they were arrested because when the police told them to disperse they chose not to listen to the police. I was always told that if an officer tells you to do something then you do it. You do not argue, set off fireworks or create a disturbance. It is people who make comments like “they were arrested for skateboarding” and really think that when the police tell you to do something and you do not decide to do it that it is okay. Hopefully these kids, adults and parents have learned that when the police tell you to do something that it’s not a suggestion. You do it.
Land of the free.
Ho Ho Ho.
How about some Tenderloin action. What a waste of resources that can be put where it really hurts the city.
Just a quick follow up:
There is a paragraph that includes a quote, seeming from the police that says an officer suffered lacerations. Then the next paragraph starts with “the stabbing”
It’s not clear to me from the quote that the officer was stabbed or not. Surely the police would emphasis that in their quote.
It is possible to get lacerations without being stabbed.
Just want some clarification. And again, thanks for the work
Good catch. Typical copaganda, which is surprising for Mission Local.
“THANKS SFPD”
Those complaining how they were treated by SFPD at “the bomb”. Consider this, the number attending that ignited “illegal dangerous” M-80s . Ones that cause considerable harm, SFFD should be “Congratulated”
“I had sit on the sidewalk for hours” vs ” I lost my finger”
…or worse. The police couldn’t have handled better.
Interesting how only comments that won’t rattle a cage are posted. Being someone who was born and raised in SF -AND not being involved with any of these kids -we all know that these kids are far from what SFPD should hold as top priority. @missionlocal you know what I commented “thanks”for only sharing vanilla comments.
Sand —
These comments are monitored in real-time and I’m currently going through them from an airport while on my vacation. But go off, you seem like you know what you’re talking about.
JE
Didn’t like my one about the revenge of the nerds (wealthy tech dorks) making the Mission dull and unaffordable then huh?
No, once again, these comments are monitored in real-time and nobody is poised above a keyboard waiting for you to submit.
JE
Wish these cops would do the same to all the fentanyl, crack dealers , fencers, thieves, prostitutes , johns, gang members, pimps out freely doing their thing wherever they please.
This totally biased author obviously thinks that somebody cares about the damn kids. Thank you SFPD for finally doing something to maintain public safety.
Let me guess, the arrested people were excellent students and talented musicians?
It’s really interesting when LEOs lie about the law, which they are legally enabled to do. Skateboarding is not illegal outside of skate parks. It is illegal on hills above a certain grade (that section of Dolores certainly qualifies as illegal for skateboarding) and on sidewalks in commercial business districts.
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.
And for their own safety, history has made it clear that the hill bomb has to be shut down. They shut down Pink Saturday and Halloween in the Castro for similar reasons. The fact that these are children endangering themselves with parental approval makes it even more imperative that the event does not continue.
An interesting distinction between how SFPD has handled disruption of the aforementioned Castro events and both the Harrison St fireworks and hill bomb events this week is that the police prevent the Castro gatherings from the jump. They do not let a bunch of revelers assemble and then send in the riot police. This approach seems absolutely asinine, counterproductive, destructive to community relations with police, and a recipe for excessive use of force. It bolsters both the perception that police do nothing while they sit around and let mayhem occur and the perception that they violently harass innocent children. Both perceptions are correct and the police lose goodwill from everyone while endangering themselves and the public.
Furthermore, I can understand no reason why the police are so inefficient with processing large groups of detainees and arrestees. It is inexcusable for them to force children or anyone to pee their pants in detention, which is certainly a cruel and unusual punishment, nor to zip cuff people so tightly that they suffer circulatory damage for any length of time. I was assaulted and arrested by deputies while peacefully protesting at City Hall with the Frisco 500. The deputy who attacked and cuffed me made it clear that I was a target for him simply because I held my ground with other nonviolent protesters instead of running away when he initially threw me to the ground unnecessarily. He purposefully cuffed me so tight that the booking officers had to injure me with their scissors to get them off and I had nerve problems for weeks. The assault caused me to have a dysautonomia episode which the officers failed to attend to for hours while I was separated from the rest of the people arrested, and the jail nurse accused me of faking a medical condition without checking any of my vitals. Another woman who was not arrested with us was naked in her cell, clearly suffering a mental health crisis, banging on the window, and desperately screaming to anyone who passed to help her. Of those who could, no one did.
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. We had been arrested at 9pm. I heard the last of us was released around 10:30am.
What I learned is that law enforcement agencies have no desire to actually keep the peace even in circumstances where their intervention is warranted. They LIKE getting into riot mode and revel in the disrespect they engender because it reaffirms their narrative of belonging to a persecuted, holier than thou class. There is no reason why they have to add extra trauma to the basic trauma of detention and arrest or to claim they are too busy doing one thing to do another. They create these scenarios with their callous cruelty and cultivated ineptitude. Then they blame the public or bureaucracy or insufficient staffing for why they do the things they do. But it’s all by design, and it doesn’t have to be that way.
For those of us who suffer from having our neighborhood taken over by people of all ages who insist on bringing dangerous and disruptive behavior to our doorsteps yet also see how the standard operating procedures of the police make the situation just as untenable and unjust, it creates a painful catch-22 where there are no good options. Nobody on Dolores St last night — cops and kids included — was a good guy, and everyone ultimately made themselves into bad guys — parents included. Except for maybe the neighbor who tossed down the bucket. That person understands mutual aid and compassion.
This is an illuminating comment. Thank you for writing it.
(And thank you Joe for the excellent reporting.)
I love the San Francisco ethos of “rules for thee, not for me” and the confidence of citizens to choose which laws should apply to them and which should apply to others.
This was a gem. Kids had no choice by to aim explosives at police who dared to show up to enforce laws: “police were much more aggressive this year — a tactic that “only led to more kids getting angry and shooting fireworks at the cops.”
Wow how much money was spent for riot police for some kids on a skate board instead of going to people selling and using drugs and crapping on the street. Who’s really getting paid?
Great Job SFPD!! Parents control your kids! If my kid was a part of that I’d be pissed off. Those kids have a cool story to tell their homies who were not there. This is a one sided twisted article. “Children” HaHa
What did the kids do that was actually illegal? Is riding down a street on a skateboard a crime now?
To say nothing of the fact that the cited charges — 409 PC failure to disperse, 404.6 (a) PC inciting a riot, and 182 (a) (1) PC conspiracy — all beg the question about why the police kettled them in the first place.
I feel really sorry for the kids involved. What a stressful experience and a horrible waste of resources.
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.
Those who know not to wear out their welcome left appropriately. This isn’t a permitted event but not once has it been completely shut down. They were asked to cease and some chose not to. Regardless of age, you know what “stop” means. For those who got arrested that’s on them. If police didn’t get involved, the rowdy ones left (who obviously can’t follow rules and direction) would have turned this into something much more dangerous for themselves and the community. Think of the bigger picture to those who are complaining. There are more people around than those who participated. Repercussions, people!
Thank you SFPD. I live in the area and have seen what happens at this “event”. Cars being vandalized, houses spray painted huge groups of kids brawling and people seriously hurting themselves on the hill bomb. This was an excellent use of city recourse to keep people safe. My neighbors and I greatly appreciate the response from the City this year, these kids from out of town to terrorize us. Maybe they’ll think twice next year.
I wonder what the Teamsters will do if they spring into action!
Isn’t it unsurprising that so many kids will grow up to have contempt for the police (who are having enough trouble recruiting)?
Just curious if any of their, likely affluent, parents are going to pay for the damage that was caused. Probably not, they’re going to take their children home to Marin and Danville and tell them it was all the police’s fault and buy them new skate boards. Kids who don’t learn accountability turn into adults who think the world caters to them.
What’s particularly stupid about this is every one of those kids will now despise the police forever, as will their friends. You sit handcuffed in the cold peeing your pants for hours for skateboarding (my goodness, what hooligans!), you’re never gonna trust a cop again.
So the silver lining here is heavy handed tactics like this plant the seeds of their own demise. Younger generations have had it up to here with this kind of behavior, and all the research suggests they aren’t moving right as they age. When they’re the voters and property owners of San Francisco, they aren’t gonna support the government wasting time and money charging kids with ridiculous misdemeanors when there are actual shootings and violence to address. Can’t come soon enough.
Was their pre-arrest behavior reflective of respect for law enforcement? It certainly wasn’t reflective of respect for other people.
Having lived and skated (and still skate) in SF for nearly 25 years the neighborhood is the place that has grown less respectful. Sorry but money and home ownership does not an angel make.
No one cared about bombing Delores until the revenge of the nerds turned the Mission into an unaffordable mess and Zucks backyard.
When the police showed up in riot gear they turned kids into criminals. Bad move on SFPD.
Lopsided article. Author fails to mention the vandalism of muni/nearby parked cars or fireworks shot at homes by the group of skaters.
Be a better journalist.
It’ll get tossed, but conspiracy is completely over-the-top.
Excellent work. Get some rest.
Of course this is stupid. Complete waste of time and resources. But I have to wonder if this was related to the 2017 incident where a cop clotheslined a skater coming off the hill. I don’t have any follow up but I assume the skater was injured badly and I also assume that he sued.
Side note, I don’t think this was like the 5th of july thing because I don’t remember you reporting there were arrests.
Officer Flint Paul. The city settled the claim for $275k. John Burris’ was the attorney for the skateboarder
Thank you all for documenting this very ugly behavior from the cops.
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. They have zero respect for our city or people’s property. Thousands of dollars in damage done. Shame on you for supporting crime like this.
Oh good heavens, there were teens flipping off cameras???
“Ugly behavior by the cops.” Are you kidding! How about the ugly behavior of the skateboarders??? Tagging everything in sight, setting off M-80s, destroying a Muni bus with graffiti and trapping the passengers while they did this, etc. etc. The police did exactly the right thing, the first time SFPD showed up BEFORE the start of the event, then shut it down after about an hour. Not everyone in the arrested group was part of this behavior but they were the final group that refused to leave and ended up at 17th and Guerrero when they should have gone home. I have zero sympathy for the arrestees. And those who shed tears for the poor little dears are living in another world, where any behavior is deemed OK. SFPD finally showed some courage. THANK YOU, CAPTAIN HARVEY!
“He said that unless you’re in a skate park, skateboarding is against the law in San Francisco.”
SINCE WHEN?
If some tech company sponsored this the cops would have provided security. What a waste of resources. This new police chief needs to refocus!
Does anyone have a copy of the video where the skateboarder gets closelined? EPIC!
the police should not have as much authority and those weapons when dealing with crowd control. there were no crimes being committed beyond traffic control. they should not be able to kettle groups of people for observing. regardless of their calls of illegal assembly. hope some of those parents are wealthy lawyers and the city fires who ever was in charge.
The City leadership has such a lack of imagination. They should try to formalize it like Bay to Breakers or something. Get sponsors, engage the skating and Mission community.
This is a good idea. But what it needs is a corporate sponsor, because the city shouldn’t pay for it.
An official event would have a schedule. The street wouldn’t be closed without warning by a mob, but instead it would be posted in advance. Most importantly, the event organizer would assume liability.
One thing not considered by many here is the liability. If one of these kids hurts themself, and the city knew this was going on and didn’t stop it, that’s another expensive lawsuit.
This reminds me of Castro Halloween, which I loved and really miss, but after there were stabbings and shootings, SFPD shut it down and regrettably it hasn’t come back.
Occupying the entire width of a public roadway for several hours for anything other than normal traffic is no joke. Even on a weekend, some people still have to use the street to get to and from work and/or do their jobs. (Deliveries, rideshare—whatever!) And those who live nearby need the option of LEAVING and/or RETURNING TO THEIR HOMES and the neighborhood AT WILL, using their usual mode of transportation. This is why cities require permits for street fairs, marathons, and other such events, and don’t—and shouldn’t—allow them very often. (And yes, groups that can’t afford a permit should be allowed to organize a street event without paying.)
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.
Isn’t there a nice skate-and-bicycle park where these kids can take their hobbies?
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.
Anyone who parents, needs to learn what the laws are regarding their teenaged kids, and it is a good idea for youngsters to be given realistic instruction as well – including what to expect and how to behave when police show up.
At peace demonstrations we were given multiple warnings to disperse. Those who did not were detained. One can be detained up (Go to jail) to 48 hours. Weekends and holidays do NOT count. Jail food sucks.
It takes an especially long time to release minors from police custody because of all the effort needed to verify identity of those who say they are parents and guardians. One year there was an hours long delay leaving Burning Man because just one minor was missing and had to be accounted for.
time for a new police captain.
Time for a new Captain? The first Mission Station captain to show courage in the face of total lawlessness? On the contrary: Captain Harvey should be awarded a prize for doing the right thing when other captains in the past shied away from letting SFPD do what it’s supposed to do; ENFORCE THE DAMN LAW. You are clearly part of the “defund the police” crowd that seems to think that society can go on just fine without police. Dream on!
I agree, great job Captain Harvey. I appreciate you showing up and trying to get a head of the situation, rather than waiting til it’s an all out free for all.
Wrong. Time for parents to do their jobs and discipline their criminalized kids.
What about the vandalized tram?
Exactly. Who’s going to pay for that damage? Parents should be held responsible.
SFPD is still probably pissed off that in the 2017 hill bombing on Dolores that the city paid $275k to a skater that an officer shoulder bumped the skater causing injuries.
There will be complaints and lawsuits from these juvenile arrests if crowd control and juvenile policies weren’t followed. Not allowing an outlet for persons to leave the event, Sitting juveniles in the streets is probably not permitted, food, water bathroom not provided. Parental contact within a certain time limit. Just put up 2-3 street bumps on each block and problem solved re skateboarders or sanction the event each year. Wonder what the police and other city costs were for this police action
The city can clear 4th of july crowds in the mission and break up a hill bomb but then do nothing about open drug markets in the TL and Soma???
Exactly. I’d call this “Police Theater”.
Of all of the public safety concerns facing San Francisco, rioting against revelers on 4 Jul and skaters today is all the SFPD’s can be bothered to address, probably because they find this enjoyable.
SFPD could not make charges in the Embarcadero traveling gun battle.
SFPD not only failing to keep us safe from violence, they’re violently defending us from ourselves as an object lesson on power.
It is long past time to disband the SFPD and replace it with a community rooted largely unarmed public safety function.
Right, that seems unrealistic. So when you are being robbed at knife point you want a community rooted unarmed group. Where do you find these people.
Cowards, these police officers can only pick on children and other easy targets. When the motorcycle gangs driving around without helmets and terrorizing neighborhoods and people in traffic, nowhere to be found. The same thing with sideshow events, never a cop around. Total cowards always picking on kids or other easy targets.
In fact I have seen police completely ignore the wheelie-ing motorcycle riders who are running red lights and weaving in an out of traffic. I guess they’re harder to catch so they just let them do it and attack kids on skateboards instead.
So much worse crime to tackle in the city, why don’t they let these fun events happen? It’s what makes SF a cool city 🙁
ACAB
What a joke! SFPD finally decides to crack down and they choose to take on a bunch of skater kids. Lame! Go down to Market/Mission anywhere between 5th-9th, the Tenderloin, the Mission, Union Square…take your pick then take care of real crime. Get rid of the tents, get the drugs off the streets, catch the car vandals and thiefs. Do your actual job. But no, the skater teens are the real threat. Waste our tax money only to haul a bunch of teens downtown so their parents can come pick them up. SFPD, London Breed, Brooke Jenkins, William Scott and all their cronies are the real problem in this city.
“Last year, a man was stabbed during the hill bombing event and a fight broke out. In 2020, a 23-year-old cyclist was killed after colliding with a skater.”
Thanks for adding this history. Pretty clear the cops had a reasonable reason for putting an end to this. Will be interested to see if any of those charged were actually innocent of the charges – otherwise, it’s just cops arresting those engaged in criminal behavior, as we hired them to do. If they did arrest people who violated no laws, that is a problem.
Absolutely pathetic from SFPD. Seems they’re trying to do everything they can to domineer over others, except for solve actual crime. They quietly realized that the more they let perceived crime go up, the more funding they get from pearl-clutching techies.
I appreciate that kids have been doing this event for years, and that police and residents want to make sure it remains under control and doesn’t turn into that party in Stern Grove, or the big fight at Stonestown, but 100 officers on a Sat.night?? Skateboarding is a crime? You know what is actually a crime? Women all over the city being jumped for their phones, peoples catalytic converters being stolen while the police don’t respond (https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayarea/heatherknight/article/catalytic-converter-crime-police-18140152.php), where are the 100’s of cops responding if at all to actual violent crime? On 4th of July with adults, they just cleared the area and were done in an hour, but with youths, they spent the entire Sat. night booking over 100 people who are all going to have the charges dropped. How much overtime was involved from 8:30 when the crowd was dispersed and 4am? How much other crime in the rest of the city went unresponded to? Would we want kids to end up with a record for skateboarding? No reason they couldn’t have released kids to their parents with a warning
++++1 to this comment. This was an absurd over-reaction by authorities and reeks of a police force who feels disempowered or disinclined to do something actually useful.