Mothers and fathers, arriving in a panic to the Mission on Saturday night to see their teenage children trapped between police lines and arrested en masse after the Dolores Park hill bomb, swore that San Francisco and its police department would pay for the treatment of their kids.
The parents’ revenge appears to be underway.
Several parents reached by Mission Local in the days after the arrests say they are in contact with civil rights lawyers building a possible case against the city.
Rachel Lederman, a longtime civil rights attorney now with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, has spoken to some two dozen parents, teenagers and young adults, she said, gathering information about the Saturday hill bomb arrests for a possible civil lawsuit.
“These children were held incommunicado, in the cold, outside, and they didn’t notify parents until right before they were releasing children in the early morning hours,” Lederman said. “The vast majority of the arrests were unlawful, and the conditions in which the kids, in particular, were held are outrageous.”
Several parents are planning to attend Wednesday’s Police Commission hearing and demand an investigation into the treatment of their children after the hill bomb. Police Commissioner Kevin Benedicto said he would ask Police Chief Bill Scott about possible policy violations during the arrests.
“Myself and a lot of commissioners are going to have a lot to ask tomorrow,” he said. “I was very troubled, watching these events unfold.”
On Saturday, 117 people, 83 of them juveniles, were cited for various alleged crimes — the bulk for inciting riot, failure to disperse, and conspiracy after police declared unlawful assembly during the annual Dolores Park hill bomb skateboarding event.
The event is a tradition where skaters and some cyclists from across the Bay Area come into the Mission to “bomb” Dolores Street by going as fast as possible downhill.
SFPD has said that the group was involved in illegal acts, including vandalism and assaults on officers with fireworks and glass bottles. Lederman said the police could not have known that those encircled had committed those acts earlier in the day, and several parents said their children were in transit across the Mission when they were ensnared by police.
“These were unlawful arrests and violated the kids’ Fourth Amendment rights, as well as, potentially, their First Amendment rights to freedom of assembly and association,” she said. “These kids were just swept up for being near the skate event, or even after the skate event wasn’t going on any longer.”
Any potential case is in the earliest, information-gathering phase, Lederman said. She will seek to call a meeting of as many hill bomb parents as possible. If the parents want to sue, and she believes there is a winnable case, her firm will do so, she said.
The parents, for their part, are feeling litigious.
“Oh, yeah,” said a mother named Lisa, asked about her interest in a civil suit. She has been contacted by several private civil rights attorneys, she said, adding that if there is a winnable case, she will likely sue.
“It’s not about the money, I’ll be honest; it’s just that this cannot happen again,” she said.
Thida Pernia, whose 15-year-old son was one of the last released from Mission Station at 3:30 a.m. on Sunday said she, too, had been in touch with lawyers and wanted legal recourse.
“It’s just unbelievable that this happened, that they handled it in the way that they did,” she said, adding that she and her husband have been preoccupied with the treatment of their son for the last few days.
“It’s just not right, these kids sitting on the street asking, ‘Why are we being held? Why are we being arrested?’ without anyone answering them,” she said. “Do we live in the United States still?”
SFPD “need to learn their lesson,” added Cristina Galvan, another hill bomb parent who has been in contact with Lederman and said she, too, is interested in filing a civil suit. “If our kids need to learn their lesson, they need to learn their lesson, too.”
SFPD juvenile policies discourage long detentions, use of police stations
The San Francisco Police Department’s General Order 7.01 outlines the department’s policies for arresting and detaining juveniles.
The order states that the Police Department “shall choose the alternative that least restricts the juvenile’s freedom of movement,” and that officers “should avoid bringing juveniles into any police facility (including district stations).”
Starting before 8:45 p.m. on Saturday, July 8, San Francisco police officers had encircled dozens of teenagers on 17th Street in at least two groups, one between Guerrero and Dolores streets, and another, smaller group between Dolores and Church streets.
They were held on the street for hours, some forced to sit down on the pavement, others zip-tied and forced to stand up against a wall.
“All the kids were shuffling like they had to pee,” said eyewitness Dimitry Yakoushkin, who said he pushed past a handful of officers and stayed with the teenagers, filming their detention. “They were walking back and forth, a couple of kids were crying … their hands were hurting, they were hungry, they hadn’t had water.”
One by one, the teenagers were zip-tied, photographed for mugshots, and loaded onto police vans or Muni buses. Many parents watched as their children were driven two blocks away to the Mission Police Station. The first bus left at 11:19 p.m., two hours after the arrests.
The department’s general order on juveniles also advises that “Members should make reasonable efforts to investigate, facilitate release, or arrange transfer of the juvenile from the field” or other juvenile facilities. It’s unclear why the teenagers were not handed over to their parents at the park.
At the police station, the juveniles waited on the buses for as long as an hour, their hands zip-tied behind their backs. Several said the zip-ties cut off their circulation; some said teenagers urinated themselves on the bus and suffered panic attacks.
The teenagers were taken in small groups from the buses into the police station’s parking lot, before being escorted into the station itself. There, they were held for hours longer, shuffled room to room and processed by different officers filling out paperwork. One by one, they were released to their parents waiting in a throng outside.
The department’s policies explicitly guarantee bathroom facilities, as well as food and drinking water, to detained juveniles. The policies also guarantee the reading of Miranda rights and the immediate notification of parents.
Several parents appear to have quickly received notice of their childrens’ arrests, arriving on the scene in waves starting at 10 p.m. Still, they did not receive their children for several hours.
Others, however, were only notified well into the night.
“I had no idea where he was, I just knew he never made it to his friend’s house,” said Lisa, who said her son was riding a scooter through the Mission when he got caught in the hill bomb encirclement. She learned of the incident on the Citizen app, she said, but received “no call, nothing” from SFPD until 3:30 a.m.
One grandmother, arriving to pick up her grandson just before 4 a.m., said she had just received a call, as she was asleep earlier.
The last child, waiting for his parents, was not released until 4:15 a.m. One of the teenagers, released to a friend’s parent, waited at the police station for his 18-year-old brother, but was informed that his brother was taken elsewhere and would not be released. He wandered home alone through the Mission early that morning.
Parental, teenage anger & fear
Parents uniformly expressed rage at the treatment of their children, saying their kids were scared for their futures and more hateful toward the police.
“He’s in the mad phase right now,” said Lisa, the mother of a 15-year-old. “If anything, they made him into a hater … he’s just a different person now, on how he’s going to think about cops.”
Galvan, the mother of a 16-year-old, added: “If I’m not around, I want to tell my daughter that she can trust the cops, but now she’s not going to trust them.”
She added that her daughter is in a business internship, but is now scared the charges will affect her future. “Those charges are really scary for kids.”
Lederman, for her part, is demanding that “all charges be dropped,” and that the Police Commission investigate the incident. The District Attorney’s Office has said it will treat the arrests on a case-by-case basis to “ensure there is appropriate accountability.”
Yakoushkin, the eyewitness who is also a therapist, said the teenagers he saw on Saturday night, forced to stand for hours against a wall, were exhibiting tell-tale signs of trauma.
“You could write a book on trauma response just by going down and filming and talking to them [that night],” he said. “They were fawning, darting around and running around. There were some that were definitely in fight mode, and some that were completely dissociated and in shock.”
As for the adults, it is unclear if they will join a lawsuit. Those over 18 were taken into vans to 850 Bryant St., the Hall of Justice, on Saturday night. Most of the young adults were cited and released there; one 22-year-old, charged with possessing a concealed firearm, was booked into jail.
This story has been updated to reflect that 117 were arrested that day, not 113.
Why is this story getting so much traction online. Oh yeah cause ppl click on it, still others leave comments creating engagement. Opps. Yikes. 😔
This would be funny, but not if the City has to pay a dime to the parents of these delinquents. Skateboarding is not a crime. But you can’t abuse the cops and not expect a reaction.
Irresponsible parents raising irresponsible children and now they want to sue because police tried to stop their irresponsible children from going on even worse violent rampage. That’s what’s going on here
Didn’t we spend millions of dollars building skate board parks for skateboarders? I guess we just could have closed off Delores st.
Every skateboarding criminal should be tried as an adult and charge with felonies. These skateboarding criminals attacked a public servant and sent him to the hospital, attacked neighborhood children and homes, set fires, and destroyed Muni buses. Their parents can bring groundless lawsuits but hopefully these skateboarding criminals will spend a long time in prison. Thank you San Francisco Police Department for protecting and serving all of us.
Sue? Really? A muni light rail vehicle at the cost of around 3 million dollars was vandalized and probably want run anytime soon. Maybe they didn’t watch the same video we saw. Their children were behaving like a pack of wild dogs. You want to know where my 15 year old son was? He was at home do school work. Those kids have zero home traing and do what the F they want to do because of parents like that.
London Breed and Brook Jenkins are a joke! I’m no Chesa fan but things have actually gotten worse under Jenkins watch.
Tell this to any Gen-Xer, especially one who skated or was arrested as a teenager, and you’ll hear a chuckle. I’m laughing every time I think about this.
What trash parents honestly how about raising your kids to not riot and get arrested in the first place? On the other hand how come the police can round them all up but can’t do a darn thing about the open air drug dealing?
So let me get this right, cops came to shut down a risky skateboard event in riot gear (but Bring Your Own Big Wheel, full of liquored up adults and plenty of children is ok, no problem, no police in sight). Knowing skateboarders are often marginal kids with issues and rather anti-establishment, you come to yell them down and shut down their event… again on par with other risky events instead of allow it. Then predictably kids on margins that found something to do for fun get yelled at. A few do crimes. You then kettle hundreds of angry marginalized kids, let them wet their pants and go home alone at 4am. Meanwhile people are PISSED and take over the light rail. Ok so anyone with a brain can see this a mile away, this isn’t how you handle shit. This is piss poor leadership no pun intended and the city should have found a way to get some hay bales and put up security like they do with Pride and Big Wheel. The end. But instead you traumatized kids and lied to the public about the order of events. Grown people. Coming after CHILDREN! It’s sick. These kids are on the verge and picked up a skateboard to stay away from fentanyl and dealing. Instead of make it safe for them, you intentionally set up a failure based on publicly KNOWN beef that has been stewing for decades. You can’t stand anti establishment children and decided in advance to treat them like this. It’s gross and so are the people supporting it. Get over yourselves. Constitutional rights aren’t just for your friends. They are for everyone.
Sue for what? So far, I haven’t heard of a single person who was arrested who is innocent of the charges. That person may exist, but none of the coverage I’ve seen so far has mentioned anyone. And a civil lawsuit requires that the SFPD not even have probable cause (i.e. the arrestee may be ultimately innocent, but there may have been probable cause for the arrest, a fairly low bar). Violating internal SFPD policies (if that occurred) doesn’t create a right to sue for anything. The tell is the line from the plaintiff’s lawyer trying to find some client with a claim, who is still “gathering information about the Saturday arrests for a possible civil lawsuit.” “Gathering” and “possible” are doing a lot of work there. We’ll see if any facts of any actual claim develop.
So walking near an event that’s chaotic is criminally guilty of what exactly? Are there Bona fide plaintiffs among those arrested without probable cause? I’m sure there are. Civil False imprisonment cause of action comes to mind.
Just because probable cause for arrest exists doesn’t mean the 4th Amendment becomes null and void, or that protections under the 8th and 14th Amendments are lost.
Regardless of the circumstances here, your comment is an embarrassment to your profession. Everyone arrested is presumed innocent, hello?
Mass congregation of teenagers is crime and violence waiting to happen. If they were told to disperse, then disperse. The idiot parents need cited. Everyone is tired of your idiot teenage kids acting like asses. Teach them to get a job or be a productive citizen. It’s clear they don’t know what disperse means. How sad. The parents should be cited. I don’t feel sorry for teenagers with moron parents.
How come there is never 100 police walking through the Tenderloin to arrest the drug dealers? What about 100 police – or any- to shut down sex traffickers, solicitation on Capp St? Chronicle has huge article on how the dealers hide their drugs and money and how the police play along. Ask the neighbors about police barely responding on Capp St as people have sex for money in their doorways and take over the street. Walk from 16th BART down Mission at any time and never see a cop but drug dealing and theft and sale of stolen goods everywhere. Sure, break up the party at Dolores and arrest the identified vandals (maybe don’t let a known event get out of hand to begin with), but what a waste of resources to arrest and book this # of kids that you know you can’t prove conduct for and won’t get prosecuted. Meanwhile, what was the response rate in the rest of the City that Sat night?
Boy-o-boy, did this get botched.
It may not be her fault, but London just lost her re-election.
Hey Mission Local: it seems to me that you may want to revisit your comments policy and better define what civil means. There are a number of comments here that clearly aren’t concerned with being civil regarding the mass arrest of young folx. “Delinquents”, “thugs”, “vandals” all used towards minors seem pretty uncivil to me.
Yeah, I’ll bet the little darlings weren’t involved. What else are these parents going to say? And to say it’s not about the money? Now who’s telling a lie?
Cops f’d up arresting white kids…lol… People that side with the police, have never had real interaction with them. But, one day it will happen to YOU too, and they’ll be no one left to hear your cries.
So these so these so called skateboarders vandalized three Muni light rail vehicles putting them out of service, spit on and accosted a San Francisco police sergeant, threw cherry bombs and firecrackers not just at the police but at bystanders as well and committed other acts of vandalism.
And the police are criticized for trying to stop this? That’s nuts.
Agreed 100%.
It was actually four (4) MUNI that they vandalized. I am thankful the police stepped in. My own kids can’t even go on MUNI anymore because they are so afraid of being beaten up and hurt. It’s high time someone stand up to this lawlessness.
As a parent myself these parents need to be held accountable for not being more responsible for their own kids.
If this is their response to the unlawful behavior of their kid, perhaps they shouldn’t be patents in the first place.
Sooo yt kids detained parents gonna sue hmm wonder if these had been Black what would article say?
Such a tragic incident! I’m a 39 year old skater who was there at Dolores and was shocked to see such a militant response from the police, especially for such a young crowd. Joe Rivano Barros and MissionLoc@l has been consistently doing the most thorough, accurate accounting of that night’s events. Respect and props to you all. Hopefully these articles can reassure the families impacted that these witness accounts will help them win their justifiable lawsuits. It’s been such a let-down to see so many other Bay Area news outlets simply take the SFPD press releases at face value. Solidarity!!
I believe 3 Muni buses were vandalized(graffiti and tagging), residences had their windows and property damaged by few bullet holes, BB gun, and other means, and those who came to protect the illegal event getting out of control were assaulted.
The parents were not here so they have no idea what happened, only what their kids told them. If the parents had taught their kids to respect the police no one would have been arrested.
Break the law, go to jail. These parents should be teaching their children respect, not suing the city.
Sue the parents for all damages.
Good for the police. These teen thugs have been terrorizing our neighborhood for some time. Thet must be held accountable for their crimes and their parents are shameful!!! Enough already.
The lawlessness in this city is primarily the responsibility of its citizens. It is becoming increasingly evident that the people of San Francisco are more willing to let the city decline like Detroit did in the 80s and 90s than acknowledge that their outlook on law and order is irresponsible, destructive, and immoral. These parents should offer apologies, not complaints, and certainly not lawsuits.
looks like the were retaliating fir the events that happened earlier. and abused theur powers by punishing people without following their own policies. the police chief should be fired for endorsing it.
Hopefully the command staff and participating officers will be sued personally and wiped out financially for violating the civil rights of minors.
It sounds like these kids were out of control and behaving like spoiled brats. This can’t keep happening or the next generation will have no ability to take responsibility for their actions.
It doesn’t sound like any of these parents is upset that they raised their children to behave so badly.
And if anyone of those teenagers would have gotten hurt, the immediate family members would sue the city and the police department for not shutting down the illegal event.
This is outrageous. To spend city dollars on teenagers having fun. Instead of occupying the tenderloin and surrounding area, riding the area of drugs, homeless, users, and the dope dealers. It’s killing people. The mayor and sfpd has let my city go to waste. I’ma San Franciscan born in 1970 at children’s hospital which is now kaiser.
And if anyone of those teenagers were hurt or victimized, the city would be at fault. So, IMO, those who have voiced their support for such illegal activity , put forth the funds to make the event legal.
Typical crappy parents raising another generation of undisciplined kids. Maybe try to raise your kids with respect. Oh ya, also teach them about frivolous lawsuits because their feeling were hurt. They should all be ashamed. But instead… pay me
Maybe we should sue the parents for letting their kids riot and act like delinquents.
O the children. O the little ones.
They are traumatized!
Harm was done to these juveniles. “The police must pay for upholding the law.” (Oh, it is not about the money; it never is).
This is my neighborhood. I support the police.
Annnd, we get to the core of it. These parents of scofflaws want to use their kids’ vandalism to take money out of the city budget.
You’re on the wrong side of this, Mission Local. You’re not stupid over there. You know the city isn’t wealthy like it used to be. And this is how you want to see city funds spent?