San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said the Dolores Park hill bomb arrests of 117 people, including 83 minors, was the was the largest mass arrest of teenagers in his tenure.
“Is it possible that there hasn’t been this number of juvenile arrests in your tenure here since you started?” asked Police Commissioner Kevin Benedicto, during an exchange with the police chief.
“Since I started, yes,” the chief answered. “That is yes, true.”
Chief Scott was sworn in on January 23, 2017. The arrests, in which a group of more than 100 was kettled between lines of police officers, have angered parents, and several have promised to file lawsuits. City investigations into the Police Department’s actions are underway.
The chief also said it was likely the largest mass arrest in general since the George Floyd protests in 2020, during which SFPD had arrested dozens for violating a city curfew. In one of those instances, a Mission Local reporter was detained alongside 23 protesters on Mission Street following a Black Lives Matter march.
On Wednesday, almost two weeks after the arrests, the San Francisco Police Department presented its first report on the operation, along with video footage, to the Police Commission.
The brief clips of officers’ body-worn camera footage, released on Wednesday, primarily show officers on the receiving end of lit fireworks, a glass bottle and a metal can.
Footage of the juveniles’ arrests, however, will not be released, as it is protected under state law.
Police had shut down the Dolores hill bomb on Saturday, July 8, issuing dispersal orders. Officers then kettled the remaining crowds and arrested dozens of teenagers and young adults.
The footage shows officers telling skaters arriving at Dolores Park in the late afternoon that the event was canceled. Skaters then congregated at different parts of the park, according to witnesses, including near police barricades.
The purportedly precipitating incident, in which a 16-year-old boy spat on a police sergeant, who then attempted to arrest him, was not shown on video. But Chief Scott said the sergeant was cut on the forehead by a 15-year-old girl with “possibly a nail.” Video of the incident shows three officers taking the boy to the ground and the girl yelling, “Get off him!”
Scott confirmed on Wednesday night that police used force on both children. Officers discharged “less-lethal” foam rifles 15 times that day and, in three total instances, used physical force. He said none of the people affected have reported the force to the department.
Commissioners asked Scott to explain the reason for the heightened enforcement action, when the department learned about this year’s hill bomb event, and how it prepared the community, and to respond to claims that juveniles’ rights were violated during their arrests.
Several children and parents who gave public comment on Wednesday night said those kept by police until the early morning hours of July 9 were not read their rights or provided toilets or shelter from the cold. In response, Scott said all those arrested were read their Miranda rights, and that the department could not corroborate claims that teens urinated themselves. He said the department is still reviewing hours of camera footage.
“I really don’t understand why we were treated like animals and zip-tied the way we were,” said Leslie, a teenager from San Bruno who was arrested at the hill bomb and gave public comment with two peers. She said she understood that some of the attendees’ behavior was unacceptable, but did not understand the police response.
“Just let us skate, please!” she said.
Earlier interviews with skaters and some city officials indicate that the hill bomb could become a sanctioned annual event.
The department’s video montage slowed down portions where bottles, cans, and fireworks were thrown at officers. It also showed a foam rifle being shot at people climbing onto a Muni light rail car in operation.
The timeline provided by the department largely matched that created by Mission Local from witness accounts and social media footage.
Scott reported on Wednesday that 42 Latinx and 18 white children, as well as small numbers of Asian, Black, and other racial groups, were among the 83 total arrested juveniles. One 12-year-old was among them.
Police are not authorized to speak with or question juveniles when they are detained; they are required to bring in the Public Defender’s Office to advise youths. This also did not happen on July 8, a deputy public defender said.
Zac Dillon, who works at the Public Defender’s Office’s Integrity Unit, said in public comment today that the first call came to alert the office, but the promised follow-up call to facilitate next steps never came.
Dillon warned Wednesday night’s divided audience against blindly trusting the police department’s version of events: “Police reports are not a recitation of facts; they are documents that are written to justify an outcome.”
Scott said that the SFPD only learned about the hill bomb event in the few days before July 8, implying that the department had little time to prepare.
But Mission Station’s Captain Thomas Harvey, who declared the event an unlawful assembly and ordered the attendees at the hill bomb to disperse, announced the planned July 8 event date at a community meeting in late June. Records obtained by Twitter user HDizz also showed that District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman’s office called in late June for police to prepare for the upcoming event.
At last week’s Police Commission meeting, commissioners were unable to discuss the topic because it was not added to the agenda in time. But some commissioners took the opportunity to preview their opinions: Commissioner Jesus Yáñez said he was “embarrassed” by the police action, and called it a “clear failure of de-escalation.”
Yáñez and Commissioner Kevin Benedicto, who also spoke out against the police action last week, this week both also condemned violence against the police officers.
Both the Department of Police Accountability and the SFPD’s Internal Affairs division are conducting separate investigations into the incident.
“I think that this investigation should be as expeditious as possible,” said Commission President Cindy Elias.
Scroll below for our live updates from tonight’s discussion:
That’s it for the hill bomb discussion. Commission is moving on to the rest of their agenda.
Claire Amable, the director of advocacy at the San Francisco Bike Coalition, talks about how skating is a form of active transportation, primarily used by young Black and brown people, that has long been “criminalized or viewed negatively” by the SFPD.
“Time and time again, this department has said we cannot prioritize focus on the … types of stops that prevent traffic fatalities and serious injuries, because resources are limited.”
Nina Parks, a former case manager at the Excelsior community center, says the issue around juvenile procedures is not a new one. She worked to organize youth during the creation of SFPD’s community policing general order.
“Our youth were also zip-tied for things like jaywalking, or throwing candy wrappers on the street.”
Jose, a father of one of the arrested teenagers, says that the messages from SFPD that day were in legal speak, not teen speak, and that teens could not have known the ramifications. “I don’t believe that teens understood that message at all.”
Police accountability expert Barbara Attard, who formerly worked with the Department of Police Accountability, comments next.
“As a longtime investigator of police misconduct, I’m stunned at the heavy-handed response to the hill bomb, to the Fourth of July,” Attard said. She points to a regression to “the bad days of policing” of arresting Rodney King protesters and Black and brown protesters in the Castro.
One father of an 18-year-old arrested that night says he respects “law and order” but that the police operation was a “dragnet.” He says his son is an aspiring filmmaker who was there filming the event and got caught up speaking with a senior near the police action.
Then he was encircled by the officers.
He also says though his son is technically an adult, he is “just as innocent” as any of the teens there that night
Another woman said she never got a call from the police department, and her son didn’t tell her that he was arrested, so as not to not worry her.
Later, when another parent picked her son up, the police did not confirm whether they were authorized to do so or check their identification. “Nothing saying, like, you’re an adult who’s taking a minor — nothing.”
Another commenter points out that carrying a knife is legal in San Francisco.
“The discovery of the self-defense weapons after arrests cannot retroactively be used to justify the the premeditated deployment of a massive gang of cops armed with weapons.”
Dillon goes on to tell the audience that “police reports are not a recitation of facts; they are documents that are written to justify an outcome.”
He reminds the audience the 12-minute video shown earlier by SFPD was edited down from hours of body-cam footage.
Zac Dillon of the Public Defender’s Office urges those listening to contact the office and get their records expunged under the Clean Slate program. He said SFPD called the Public Defender’s Office and said that 90 youths were detained, but a promised follow-up call to allow the office to advise the youths never came.
Another commenter notes the difference between this week and last week in the audience.
“I also find it very funny and convenient that all the people that speak in support of the police actions were not here last week,” she said. “They’ve suddenly arrived once the false heroes in the SFPD have been critiqued.”
Nick Pernia, Thida’s husband, echoes his wife’s comments that his son’s rights were not read to him, and that he and his wife received no call about his child’s arrest. He says Scott has spoke “half truths or mistruths” when saying kids were Mirandized and parents contacted. “We need to make sure that we get the full truth, all the truth and don’t get any white-washing or lies.”
Thida Pernia, who says “I’m just a hill bomb mom” when approaching the mic, speaks about her son’s experience being arrested.
“My son says they never read him his rights,” she says. “The police never notified us personally, we never got a call from the police. The only reason we knew my son was there was when he was able to use his phone secretly.”
Thida and her husband Nick were some of the last parents in front of Mission Station, receiving their child Rocco after 3 a.m.
Kisai Henriquez, a case manager at Huckleberry Youth Programs which oversees CARC — a program that diverts youths facing misdemeanors away from the criminal justice system — said she hopes the minors arrested can avoid their program altogether and have their cases dismissed.
She also says 20 of the youths arrested were from out-of-county. She urges their charges be dropped, as other counties do not have the same diversion services as San Francisco.
A commenter said he was at an “unpermitted, illegal” Grateful Dead campout this weekend, and it was left without any police action. “I know the Police Department’s hand wasn’t forced like they’re trying to tell us that it was,” he says.
Kevin Ortiz, of the Latinx Democratic Club, says that Calle 24 initiated its own process to reach out to leaders in the skateboarding community, unlike the SFPD, which he said only did outreach to residents of the Victorians along Dolores Park.
“The police fucked this up, not the youth.”
Break is over.
“You came into this event knowing you didn’t want that it to happen. You came prepared,” says a commenter, a nurse who was born and raised in the city.
She shows a graphic photograph of a severe bruise on the projector — apparently an injury sustained during the recent police interaction. “I’m sure there’s plenty of kids at home right now that haven’t said shit.”
Rocco, 15, another teen arrested that night, also speaks outside the commission chamber, reiterating some of what teens have said in the past two weeks: “A lot” of teens “peed their pants,” he says. He also describes the bucket being thrown down and used by the teens.
He says when the teens were first taken from the buses into the parking lot, they were kept in an outdoor “cell,” still zip-tied, for 30 minutes before entering the station.
He also notes: He is Asian, but was marked “Hispanic” by an officer. “An officer looked me up and down and said, ‘Hispanic male.'”
Lesley, 15, one of the teens who spoke earlier, describes some of that night outside the commission chambers: While the teens were kept on the ground, a neighbor threw down a bucket for them to use for the bathroom; several boys and girls did use it. “It was either that or piss themselves.”
When she was on the bus, waiting to be let into Mission Station, she sat next to girls who clearly needed to pee.
When she asked an officer to pull up her jacket, as she was cold, he instead shoved her into the seat and she bruised her elbow. Several of her friends said they say her purple bruise in the days after.
“My hands were red for a few days,” she says, because the zip ties were kept tight.
Her sister pipes up to say she and her mom were worried that night because Lesley had not called them. They had to call SFPD to get information.
Another commenter calls police the real bullies and accuses police, most of whom live outside the city, of not being truly engaged with San Francisco.
People begin chanting “Defund SFPD” and Elias calls for a 10-minute break. Audience members continue to chant and others argue amongst themselves.
Several commenters discuss that police must be allowed to do their jobs of enforcing the law, and that the Police Commission must allow them to do so.
“If my teenage son had your orders to disperse and taunted police he would lose his phone and be grounded for a year — or maybe his life!” says one commenter. The crowd jeers.
“SFPD at one point claimed that they showed up to the event to make sure participants were safe,” says another commenter. “Must be a coincidence, then, that people participating only had to come to them after officers got involved.”
Far more commenters this week are speaking to support the police response and criticize the parents who send children to the hill bomb. Audience members are divided — many shout out in disagreement, others clap loudly.
Another commenter asks about Supervisor Rafael Mandelman’s involvement in the police action at the hill bomb. Email records show he, like Captain Harvey, knew the date of the hill bomb in late June.
Lisa, the mother who spoke on the steps of City Hall earlier today, says she does not condone firecrackers. She shares her son’s scooter route and puts it on the projector. She says her son was with his friends trying to go to their friend’s house and had nothing to do with the hill bomb event.
She is unhappy about the fact that the full body-worn camera footage won’t be released — “How are we gonna know what happened?”
Another youth who was arrested says she wasn’t able to call her mother because her phone had died, and so her parents didn’t know where she was until she reached Mission Station late in the night.
“I really don’t understand why we were treated like animals and zip-tied the way we were,” says another youth named Leslie from San Bruno. She says she understands some activity was unacceptable at the hill bomb.
“Just let us skate, please!”
“A lot of them were scared and vulnerable,” says one youth from San Bruno. “I don’t understand why they treated us the way they did.”
An argument breaks out in the audience over whether to let three teens speak first, who were at the hill bomb together and come from San Bruno. Elias allows it.
Commenter Magick Altman points to Mission Local article about how SFPD did not tell the community or issue PSAs ahead of its planned enforcement action.
“Do you want the city to pay millions of dollars in lawsuits?”
“The most important role is to keep the peace,” says another commenter. She doesn’t believe the police escalated the incident. A small subset of attendees “were there for violence,” she said, “but that’s not necessarily the police’s fault.”
Dimitry Yakoushkin, an eyewitness who filmed the teens’ detention and also spoke last week, says “prevention is not outreach.”
“What I saw in that video was an escalation of violence.” He calls for the teens’ fingerprints and mugshots to be deleted.
First public comment is supportive of the police response, criticizing vandalism of the Muni trams and other acts. The second one is markedly not, filled expletives aimed at the chief and SFPD.
Discussion is now over, and public comment is starting now. The audience lines up.
Yáñez asks about the racial breakdown of those arrested. Scott says five were race unknown, two Native American, five Black, eight Asian, 42 Hispanic, 18 white.*
Of the adults, 22 were male and 12 female, but Scott doesn’t know their races.
*The total is short of the total of 83 juveniles that SFPD reported arresting.
In other situations, like the July 4 police response, Scott said attendees dispersed when they were told — and arrests did not ensue. At the hill bomb, however, that did not happen.
Commissioner Larry Yee echoes Byrne’s earlier comment about diversion and avoiding actual arrests of juveniles.
(Last week, after hearing nearly two hours of public comment denouncing the SFPD’s handling of the hill bomb, Yee’s only comment was: “Si se puede, huh, we got it.”)
Department of Police Accountability’s Diana Rosenstein directs parents to the Clean Slate program at the Public Defender’s Office if they need information about getting their records expunged.
The existence of a criminal record for the arrested teens has been a source of worry for parents.
Byrne said he understands that the police were “between a rock and a hard place” in deciding how to handle the hill bomb incident, saying his only qualm is whether the teens could have been released to their parents more quickly.
Commissioner Jim Byrne is asking for an age breakdown of the juveniles who were arrested. Scott answers: One 12-year-old, eight 13-year-olds, seven 14-year-olds, 27 15-year-olds, 24 16-year-olds, and 18 17-year-olds. (Thirty-four adults were arrested.)
Benedicto turns to O’Sullivan, who reported on the July 4 police deployment earlier. He asks about how much force was used during the deployment at 24th and Harrison streets. O’Sullivan will add them up.
Benedicto asks about the city’s last mass arrest incident. Scott says it was during the protests after the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
Scott confirms that the hill bomb incident this year was the biggest mass arrest of juveniles during his time as chief.
Benedicto reiterates that both the independent Department of Police Accountability and the SFPD’s Internal Affairs are investigating the incident.
Elias asks for an update in August.
Scott is doubling down on the department not knowing when the event was planned to happen. “It’s not as scientific, it’s not as predictable as you might think.”
Scott says that the event has been more organized in the past, which several veteran skaters have said as well. Those past events had more older skaters involved.
Now, the event is largely put together by high schoolers, informally.
Benedicto asks whether SFPD held any community meetings specifically on the hill bomb. No, Scott says. Any posters in the area? No. Any social media posts by the department? No, Scott says.
Benedicto asks again about when the SFPD learned about the hill bomb event. Earlier tonight, Scott said the department learned of the event just a few days prior.
Scott said he knew only generally that the event would likely happen in July.
(Again, Captain Harvey announced the date of the July 8 hill bomb at a June 27 community meeting.)
Commissioner Kevin Benedicto said he stands by his comments from last week that he doesn’t believe the hill bomb was handled appropriately.
But upon hearing from Scott, he also says the alleged assaults on officers were unacceptable.
Yáñez asks what will happen to records taken by SFPD during the arrests (mugshots, fingerprints) if the cases are dropped. Normally, during the week, police do not process juvenile detentions — they are diverted to the Community Assessment and Referral Center and the Juvenile Probation Department.
Scott is unsure, saying record of the arrest is kept, but not released. He will follow up with more information.
Yáñez asks about whether juveniles’ rights were adhered to. Scott said families were contacted, and Miranda warnings were read to everyone.
Scott said zip-tying youths during the arrests were necessary due to the violent nature of the event. (Earlier tonight, he listed the weapons that were confiscated from the people arrested.)
Scott said he understands what it is “to be caught up in the moment” and points to the SFPD’s dedication to diverting juvenile cases away from the criminal justice system.
But, he said, “this was not all just fun and games” — talks about the risks involved with fireworks blowing off fingers or causing permanent hearing loss.
Commissioners nod and appear to agree.
Scott disagrees, he said there were attempts to de-escalate. Officers kept their distance, officers called for a slow approach. But when the scene grew chaotic, with people climbing onto Muni buses and trains, he said the police had to react.
Scott clarifies that the report of gunshots was never substantiated and may have been a neighbor calling about fireworks.
Commissioner Jesus Gabriel Yáñez said he can see the event “devolved quickly” and that he doesn’t condone throwing fireworks near children at the park.
But, he stands by his statement from last week that there was a failure of police de-escalation.
Walker said she is “all for streets closing for these kinds of events” and wants to look into getting the event permitted and carried out safely in the future.
Scott said he doesn’t know if public defenders came out to the scene on the night of the hill bomb.
Commissioner Debra Walker asks about the long wait times for juveniles who were arrested, and the possibility of medical needs and language barriers.
Scott notes that per SFPD policy, officers can get basic information and contact parents, but the Public Defender’s Office is supposed to be the first point-of-contact. Officers are not allowed to speak with juveniles when they are detained.
Scott reports there were 15 total discharges of “less-lethal” foam rifles, and three total instances of physical force.
“I think that this investigation should be as expeditious as possible,” said Elias. She asks the SFPD to cooperate with the Department of Police Accountability so they get the incident reports, video footage, and other records in a timely manner.
Elias asks if any complaints have been received. Scott says one complaint has come in to his office.
Paul Henderson of the Department of Police Accountability said complaints started coming in immediately — from civilians, legal entities, goverment entities, etc.
Scott said adults, and male and female juveniles were separated. “Processing” time involved waiting for a bus to transport arrestees a few blocks to Mission Station.
“Why?” asked Elias. If officers were prepared for the event deployment-wise, she asks why transportation for possible arrests wasn’t prepared.
Scott said it’s possible some people got caught up in the arrests, but points to several dispersal orders read aloud, making it illegal to be in the area. “It’s really hard” to distinguish, Scott said.
Elias pushes back. Many gave testimony at last week’s commission meeting that they were trying to leave and were unable to.
Elias asks what efforts were made to distinguish between those who were actually involved in the hill bomb, and other juveniles who happened to be in the area.
Scott said the intent to shut down the event, however, was not announced. “We tried to get there early enough to tell people as they arrived.”
And if they had, he said, the event might have just moved elsewhere.
Scott said SFPD did reach out to skateboarding community and received advice on how to do it safely. He says the department found out about the specific date of the hill bomb “a couple days before.”
Captain Harvey, however, knew about the event — he discussed it at a community meeting on June 27, almost two weeks prior.
And staff with Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, Harvey, and others in City Hall emailed each other about the event in the weeks prior.
Elias has questions for Chief Scott. She questions his claim that there was no event organizer to reach out to beforehand, considering the hill bomb has been going on for years. The SFPD has social media, community policing plans, etc.
“I’m just wondering why the department didn’t engage any of those strategies?”
Officers were wearing helmets and held batons and “less-lethal” rifles with foam bullets. Some of those rifles were deployed in the effort to disperse the crowd of a few hundred, O’Sullivan said, but like the Dolores Park hill bomb, no one came forward to say they were shot.
Unlike the hill bomb, no one was arrested on July 4.
The SFPD made the decision to add additional staffing to the Mission District this year. Beginning around 3 p.m., dozens of officers were deployed to the 24th Street corridor with different assignments.
Later in the evening, O’Sullivan said, commercial grade fireworks were set off and sideshows began, at which point orders were given to disperse.
Last year on the 4th, O’Sullivan said, there were many fires and the SFPD was worried about old buildings susceptible to fires.
This year, the department came in with riot gear and dispersed groups of people around midnight.
Deputy Chief Rob O’Sullivan will now speak about 4th of July events. “Illegal use of fireworks, public intoxication, and unfortunately violence” are recurring issues in San Francisco, O’Sullivan said.
Events like July 4 are non-discretionary days off for police, because the department prioritizes staffing on these days.
SFPD will continue to identify those involved in alleged assaults and vandalism in their body-worn camera footage, Scott said.
Questions that remain to be investigated, Scott notes, are whether the arrests were lawful, whether processing was unnecessarily delayed, and whether juveniles were allowed to use a toilet.
The allegations that juveniles urinated on themselves, Scott said, have not yet been corroborated. People in the audience groan loudly.
Each juvenile was given a “know your rights” card, Scott said. All were read their Miranda rights, Scott said, though two teens last week said they were not Mirandized.
Scott says this was an “extremely challenging” situation — 83 juveniles and 34 adults were arrested. They confiscated two firearms, one pellet gun replica gun, six knives, and nine fireworks.
Another clip shows an officer standing in the middle of 17th Street, where a large group of teenagers stands between police lines, shouting “San Francisco police! You are all under arrest! Sit down!” at a crowd of people in the distance.
Scott reiterates that video of the arrests themselves will not be released, as footage of juvenile arrests is protected by state law.
Another video clip shows people climbing over a Muni train and tagging it with graffiti. An officer appears to shoot a “less-lethal” foam rifle repeatedly in their direction.
Officers can be heard swearing when fireworks are thrown toward them.
Now Scott is showing snippets of video footage from the incident. Mission Station Captain Thomas Harvey can be heard declaring an unlawful assembly over a megaphone and calls for people to disperse.
Chaotic scenes are shown as objects — a metal can, a glass bottle, and two fireworks — are thrown at the officers. Faces of juveniles are blurred.
At 8:16 p.m. the SFPD encircled the “main group” of people who refused to disperse, and began arrests at 8:43 p.m.
The timeline generally matches Mission Local’s, published earlier today.
At 7:35 p.m., Scott says there were reports of a gunshot at 18th and Church, then a sideshow at 19th and Church streets. Around this time, vehicles, including Muni buses, were being vandalized in the area.
SFPD shot 15 foam rounds at the juveniles during the incident. This is being reviewed, Scott said, and no member of the public has reported being hit or injured.
At 7:09 p.m. the SFPD declared unlawful assembly and began issuing dispersal orders. The orders were read aloud “at least 12 times.”
Scott said some began to dismantle the barricades, and throw bottles and cans at officers.
At 7:07 p.m., he says a male juvenile spat in a sergeant’s face and a female juvenile struck the officer with a sharp object, “possibly a nail,” and cut his left temple. Camera footage, Scott says, shows the alleged assaults were unprovoked.
Scott confirms that force was used to arrest both children. The boy and the officer were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Scott begins giving a timeline of the event. At 6:15 p.m. about 200 people were in the park, fireworks were being set off, and officers got reports of vandalism.
Now, he is playing a video for the audience with testimony from attendees, and clips from TV news reporters about how dangerous the event is.
When the video ends, an audience member calls out, “Great propaganda, guys!”
Scott will now begin to explain the staffing decisions.
In July 2020 the SFPD struggled to find adequate staff to respond to the hill bomb that brought out hundreds, Scott said. A bicyclist was killed. Another hill bomb event that summer brought out 1,000 people, he said.
In 2022, a stabbing occurred at the hill bomb.
Video of the juveniles’ arrests is protected and will not be released, Scott said, and the department is still going through hundreds of hours of body-worn camera footage that was captured the night of the hill bomb.
Scott says officers did not point any lethal firearms, or use tear gas or rubber bullets. Officers did not put on their helmets the evening of the hill bomb until they became necessary, he says.
Chief William Scott is starting off the discussion with his presentation. He says that “no one was arrested for skateboarding” and that skater culture is important to San Francisco.
Never mind! Elias is calling items 9 and 10 on the Dolores Park hill bomb and the July 4th deployment.
She takes a moment to point out the members of the Department of Police Accountability, with whom civilians can file complaints about police.
The hill bomb doesn’t come up until item 9 on the agenda, so the actual discussion may come later in the evening. The hall, however, is full of media and people waiting to provide comment.
Commission President Cindy Elias, who was absent at last week’s meeting when many parents and community members gave almost two hours of public comment, begins the meeting by demanding an investigation into the hill bomb incident.
Lisa says her son is “a good kid, he gets straight As, he volunteers at the rec center.” But as a result of the police action, she said, the 83 teens arrested on July 8 now view law enforcement differently.
Though there have been reports of the juvenile cases being dropped, Lisa said she got a call from the Juvenile Probation Department on Sunday that her son’s case is still under investigation.
Ortiz said the use of force under the new police leadership under Mission Captain Thomas Harvey is impacting the Latinx community, after the July 4 riot police action and the approach to the hill bomb days later.
“There’s an approach that we’re gonna come in with batons first and ask questions later,” Ortiz said.
SFPD rushed crowds on July 4, breaking up unruly crowds at intersections long known for their street fireworks.
Lisa, a mom, says her son left dinner with her the night of the hill bomb and was suddenly corralled by police, zip-tied, and given no food or bathroom.
“He was supposed to be home between 11:30 and 12 and that’s when I became frantic,” she said.
Attorney Rachel Lederman discusses how traumatic the experience was for the youth, and says she is discussing pursuing civil litigation.
Jeffrey Kwang of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club discusses deescalation and how it’s especially important with youth. “We look forward to the police showing us ALL the videos, not a snippet.”
Organizer Kevin Ortiz of the San Francisco Latinx Club kicks off the rally at City Hall before the Police Commission meeting. He calls the police action at the hill bomb a “stain upon our city.”
I think the police should just avoid that area completely from now on and let the innocent teens peacefully ride their skateboards around, spreading joy to everyone.
SFPD Chief Bill Scott was on KTVU last night stating that SFPD could not defend retail from theft, so it is incumbent upon retailers to defend their own inventory. The evening before, an undercover SFPD made the same statement.
SFPD’s crime clearance rate has been pathetic. SFPD won’t enforce vending laws along Mission Street. Won’t enforce against open air drug markets. Won’t enforce against public fentanyl use. Can’t keep the streets safe for peds and cyclists.
Apparently all SFPD can do is to riot against 4th of July revelers and Dolores Hill Skate bombers. SF would do best to dismantle the SFPD, use those resources to make retailers whole, and reconceptualize public safety.
SFPD picked the wrong target for their pathetic projection this time, as these parents are not gullible youth and know what side is up. SFPOA was already on the skids with public opinion in SF. Fortunately, this diminishes the prospects of a threatened ballot measure to centralize more control of SFPD in the Mayor’s office so that SFPD can be “governed” like SFMTA and Muni.
Fruits of a poison tree.
The problem is most SFPD officers do not live in the city and don’t really have a stake in the community. They just commute in, do as little as possible, commute out, collect their pay check and eventually their fat pensions.
When one doesn’t respect the peace officers that this city keeps to protect the citizenry of all citizens in check one should expect the most uncomfortable response. I realize parents want to protect the children. Why not start with respect of the SF police. One must cooperate and ask the tough questions later. “I gotta pee” isn’t where you start and I was “on my way to pick up my kid” either.
One should expect a reasonable and proportional response wherein law and policy are followed, and civil liberties respected.
And all the crimes come in, day by day
And no one stops it in any way
All the peace maker turn war officers
Hear what I say
–Lee Perry / Junior Murvin
Painting with a big ole sarcastic brush, Chief Scott seems to deserve a big ole medal of achievement.
If the police want to play at war with guns and other weaponry, then they should have joined the military instead of the police. I’m not surprised there is a morale problem at SFPD: The place is dominated by a few right wing tough talkers who look the other way at the very few bad cops. All the police who care and work hard for us day in and day out must be tired of being represented by that.
Why do you keep defending these privileged white suburban kids, who came into our city and did $70,000 in damage to public transportation?
Investigation “as expeditiously as possible”? That’s hilarious. I say over a year, and a year would be short by SFPD standards. The longer the investigation, the more it’s forgotten which is the aim. The slow, troubling, inconsequential investigations of the cops (which always managed to conclude no harm no foul, as documented by an SF Grand Jury in 2014 (https://missionlocal.org/2017/04/perez-lopez-and-the-sf-way-of-investigation/). It was a major reason why there was an effort to make the police more transparent and accountable From last night’s travesty it seems that effort has failed.
GC 3304 (police officer bill of rights) requires investigations into police officer misconduct to be concluded within one year from when the complaint is filed. However, there are many exceptions including when multiple agencies investigate and multiple officers are involved. Already DPA is claiming their investigations have started but recently they stated they just had 4 investigators leave the agency so they are short staffed. This will take over a year to complete the investigations and they will claim policy failures findings thereby not holding any officer or command staff member accountable.
SFPD failed utterly in creating a safer event for anyone, instead creating more conflict and harm. They’ve had a year to reach out to and coordinate with community. Instead, they’ve again chosen to see anyone not representing a homeowner association as a threat to be subjugating. Don’t know why I was expecting any remorse or reflection from Chief Scott tonight.