Until 2007, hundreds of thousands of revelers would mob the streets of the Castro every year for Halloween, flocking in from across the world for one of the country’s biggest holiday parties.
The streets were closed, Muni lines were rerouted to “Halloween Castro,” and costumed residents dangled out of their bay windows, showing off and greeting those below. Crowds stood shoulder-to-shoulder for blocks in all directions.
Then nine people were shot and wounded there in 2006, and San Francisco vowed to end the Castro’s Halloween.
“I went to the emergency room, talked to victims, talked to family members, and I looked around and I promised myself, ‘I’m not going to be here next year.’ This is it,” said then-Supervisor Bevan Dufty, speaking last week about the mass shooting. The supervisor and the mayor’s office spent the following year talking to bar owners, meeting with residents, reaching out to reporters, and taking out PSAs, telling everyone: The Castro would no longer host Halloween.
“We had a whole PR campaign, that there was going to be no Halloween in the Castro,” Dufty said. “We had advertising, radio. I met with every bar owner, and we had posters with all the bars’ names that were closing, and signs on the bars that they were closing.”
“We did a full-court press,” he added.
When October 31, 2007, arrived, the revelers, by and large, did not show. “There were almost as many cops as people,” Dufty said. The streets were open to cars, the bars were closed, and the costumes absent: Dufty estimates that fewer than 1,200 attended that year, compared to a 2002 high of some 300,000.
In 2023, however, none of those pre-event measures were taken in advance of another event some city officials wanted to shut down.
When the San Francisco Police Department moved to put the kibosh on the annual Dolores Park hill bomb skateboarding event, the lack of prior outreach and communications was jarring: More than 100 officers were at Dolores Park on Saturday, July 8, shuttering the event the day-of and angering the skaters already there. Officers donned riot gear and charged crowds of unruly teenagers. By the end of the night, 117 people — 83 of them minors — had been arrested, most trapped between lines of officers.
Dozens of parents, arriving at all hours of the night to find their children zip-tied and waiting in the cold, are fuming, and lawsuits are already in the works.
The Dolores hill bomb, an annual tradition among skaters across the Bay Area, sees hundreds “bombing” Dolores Street by going as fast as possible downhill. It has, like Castro Halloween, seen its share of incidents and violence over the years: Police broke up crowds and an ankle in 2017 (the same year a skateboard icon suffered a serious brain injury), a popular skateboarder landed in a coma for two weeks in 2019, a cyclist died in 2020, and a man was stabbed last year.
After the 2020 death, the city installed raised pavement dots on Dolores Street to deter skateboarding. This year, it brought out officers in force.
What it did not do is tell anyone about any of this ahead of time. It did not reach out to skaters, it did not announce its intention to close down Dolores Street. It did not plaster posters in the area — or post on Instagram — warning people to stay away.
“The city and the police should have said well in advance that [the hill bomb] wasn’t going to happen, and informed everyone about that, rather than making a hasty decision that led to opposing forces and mass arrests,” said Supervisor Aaron Peskin. “I think that’s what led to this conflagration.”
Much less did San Francisco actually attempt to sanction the event — as it does for any number of cycling events across the city, for example.
“There should have been general outreach to the skate community, like, ‘Hey, we like the hill bomb, but we have this concern, is there any way we can work this out to deal with some of the grievances of neighbors?’” said Ryen Motzek, the president of the Mission Merchants Association and co-owner of DLX Skateshop on Market Street. “But that discussion never happened. They took it into their own hands, and here we are.”
Amire Lofton, 19, an eight-year skater who was, in the past, the main organizer of the event — an informal role that involves creating an Instagram post announcing the event and watching it go viral — said he and his friends have “never” heard from city officials hoping to sanction the event.
Lofton was at Dolores on Saturday, arriving in the late afternoon to see the police already out and blocking off Dolores Street as more and more skaters arrived to bomb the hill. “They could’ve at least told us something. I had no idea,” he said. “And people kept coming in.”
SFPD response pre-planned
On Saturday, police officers, clad in riot helmets and carrying truncheons, rushed into crowds of young skateboarders, forcing them to scatter and skate and dash away in panic. The initial dispersal orders were, according to police, the result of a sergeant’s injury: A 16-year-old boy spat at the sergeant, the sergeant attempted an arrest, and his 15-year-old girlfriend yelled “Get off him!” and tried to interfere.
Three officers took the boy down and, in the scuffle, the sergeant “suffered lacerations to the face.” The “lacerations” turned out to be a cut, singular, perhaps an inch-long to the forehead. It is unclear what treatment, if any, the sergeant received.
The teens’ arrests prompted anger from the crowd, which threw bottles and lit fireworks. The police then declared an unlawful assembly and marched corner-to-corner across the area. Skaters moved over to the much-steeper Church Street and bombed the hill there; they were chased off. After being forcefully dispersed by police, the crowd spray-painted a J-Church tram, a nearby bus, and the walls of Mission High.
As the police moved block to block, forcing skaters and spectators one way and then the other, a group of more than 200 teenagers was purposefully targeted for arrest and penned between two lines of officers. Many escaped, but more than 100 were arrested.
The enforcement was hasty, chaotic, and ultimately violent — but it does not appear to have been impromptu.
Emails sent on July 3 by a member of the Dolores Park Ambassadors, a group of organized park neighbors, to Mission Station Captain Thomas Harvey show that the member requested Harvey take “proactive steps to shut down this dangerous and thoroughly illegal event.” It is unclear what, if anything, the police captain promised, but he did respond to the member asking to speak further.
Police Chief Bill Scott, for his part, cited “terrified” neighbors when justifying the operation, and said the planned response involved command staff, officers from different units, and a dedicated emergency dispatch channel.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, on June 22 and 30, installed more raised pavement dots on Dolores Street at the intersection with 20th and Cumberland streets, both at the request of Supervisor Rafael Mandelman’s office, a Muni spokesperson said.
No one, however, bothered to tell any of the skaters that the police would be there, and likely to shut it down. Several veteran skaters and longtime hill bomb participants said they have never seen city officials engage in outreach regarding the Dolores hill bomb.
Dufty, coincidentally, was driving through the area as the chaos was in full swing. “It was wild, how many police there were,” he said. “Nothing but barricades.” But, despite the dozens of officers, Dufty could not get an answer from anyone about what was happening or why — a mistake he said could have been easily remedied with prior outreach.
“There are resources that need to be brought together,” he said. “No matter how difficult the situation is, you’ve gotta talk to people.”
Police contact has lasting effects
It is unclear if ample warning or a sanctioned event would be appealing to the particular crowd that enjoys the Dolores hill bomb. Skaters are a rebellious group, and teenage skaters doubly so.
But the alternative was laid out on July 8, and now more than 100 teenagers and their parents are facing what, for many, is a first brush with the criminal justice system.
“I don’t know how to navigate the system. I don’t know what to do; it’s never happened before,” said Gabriella, a mother of a teenager arrested during the hill bomb. She, like other parents, has been making and fielding calls this past week to understand what consequences her child faces. “It’s confusing, it’s infuriating.”
And, though the majority of those arrested will seemingly not face charges, dozens still may, many of whom are technically adults, but teenagers nonetheless.
The initial arrests are enough to impact teenagers’ future development, to say nothing of subsequent charges, said Subini Annamma, a professor at Stanford whose research focuses on minors caught up in the legal system.
“Any police contact actually increases chances of kids’ grades dropping in school, and increases chances of kids dropping out of school, and that should make us rethink sending police to be the first responders when kids are doing something we don’t like,” she said.
The city’s elected leaders, for their part, have been largely silent. Supervisor Dean Preston has been the most outspoken, calling the arrests “an abuse of power, waste of money, and trauma inflicted on our young people.” He has demanded an investigation. And Board President Peskin, for his part, acknowledged that to be arrested is inherently “traumatic,” and that there were likely many teenagers swept up in the kettling who had nothing to do with the illegal acts that day. “For that, I’m sorry,” he said.
District 8 Supervisor Mandelman, whose district includes the park and hill bomb street, defended the police response, as did Mayor London Breed. Supervisor Joel Engardio said he was awaiting the results of SFPD’s presentation this Wednesday during the Police Commission, when parents and teens are once again expected to testify.
No other supervisors responded to requests for comment.
For the parents and teenagers, inchoate anger may yet give away to financial remuneration. The treatment for the teens detained that day, however, has left a lasting impression.
“I never liked cops, but it’s one thing to hear about it and see it; it’s a completely other thing to experience it,” said Eriberto Jimenez, 16, who was arrested that night. “Now, I’m quite anxious around any kind of police officer, especially after being zip-tied and held for five hours.”
“We were scared and angry at the same time,” added Lofton, the one-time organizer of the hill bomb, “because we felt like we were being bullied, pushed around like cockroaches.”
How about people obeying the law, a lot of the problems is people not listening. Peaceful protest is one thing destroying property and stealing from stores is not right. You have a problem you go to your government representatives and lawyers. Getting a broken body part is not worth it.
Hmmmm. Am I mistaken or was the Castro Halloween event a sanctioned and very well organized event involving Castro businesses, the Castro neighborhood association, and multiple non-profits. The Hill bomb had no city approval and was not very organized so the comparison is incorrect. Who are the current Hill bomb organizers? What are they doing to make sure the event is safe? You interviewed some owners of skateboard businesses who knew about the event. Why didn’t any of them take the initiative to organize this event especially after injuries and a death at the event in the past. When something goes wrong in the city, the response should not just be “Let’s blame the police”. I think the police did their job. I think that the organizers should take some responsibility in creating a safe and non-destructive event in the future.a
Castro Halloween became a sanctioned event before it was banned. The police may have done their job, but that just means someone else didn’t. When something goes wrong in the city, it’s the city’s management. They may point fingers at each other, but who else could possibly be to blame?
@RobertSF, perhaps the people engaged in the unsanctioned event could also be to blame?
The Hill bomb was discussed at the SFPD Community meeting on June 27th… I saw no members of the skating community there. I did however see many people that lived in the area that were very concerned as the event was coming up. I believe there was even a reporter from Mission Local there– as we all introduced ourselves at the beginning of the meeting. Outreach goes both ways- if the organizer of the Hill Bombs cries about no outreach from SFPD to them regarding the event– I wonder if he thinks that making an instagram post about the event an letting it “go viral” as he describes it, as being very responsible? You cant really have it both ways. Unfortunately even those who don’t like cops, need to be able to work with them especially recently as certain areas of the city fall apart.
https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/community/events/mission-station-community-meeting-062723
Telling skaters it is not allowed is a way to get skaters to show up.
How many of those skaters were SF folks or just folks wanting to show up to cause problems (a la the old Castro Halloween)?
Then there is the issue of folks getting hurt then suing the city for getting hurt.
Why are the cops always bad when they try to stop mayhem? I for one am actually happy they tried to stop it. Most skaters who actually skate are rad folks, but folks who show up at mob shows aren’t like most skaters.
Hah, this was an unorganized event. Who was SFPD supposed to contact? As if these skaters were going to collaborate with the police to run a fun and safe event. It’s not like the skaters were going to get insurance, bring in porta potties, erect safety barriers, stand up a medic team, have community input, and put up signage in advance to close down the streets.
I’m now over 50, but when I was a teen, I had a similar experience with a bunch of cops over-reacting, becoming violent, and *escalating* a situation. Even though the false charges were dismissed, I still have an arrest on my record that has caused problems getting security clearances at both federal and state levels. Even when adopting a child I had to get an attorney to have the now 20+yr old charge wiped from my record.
To this day, I distrust and avoid the police. Even friends who are SFPD, I keep at arms length. I’ve even trained my children, if they’re lost or in trouble, go to a store and ask an employee for help, not a cop.
I’m not sure SFPD understands, but those kids, rowdy and trouble makers, are going to hold a grudge against all police for the rest of their lives. And, like me, it will even be passed on to the next generation.
Look at how “critical mass” is handled. Here you had a bunch of rowdy trouble makers blocking traffic and causing chaos. The police now simply guide them through the streets. They could EASILY have been involved in a proactive supportive way, but instead they descended upon them en masse, by surprise, in riot gear – and expected a bunch of punk teens to do what exactly? They knew it would escalate.
Now, you’ve got another 50 people who will distrust the police for the rest of their lives. You’ve got thousands more who have had experiences, even decades ago, and point out to their own kids, “Look what they do. Things haven’t changed. Don’t trust the police.”
Terrible. We need to start a new organization of support officers that don’t walk around armed to the hilt, looking like they’re ready to go into a war zone, being seconds away from murdering you, knowing full well that they are immune from prosecution.
But, I don’t see it happening in my lifetime.
Likewise. I’m gay. And at various points in my past I was also a teenager, a skater, a punk rock kid, and a raver. For a while, I was four of those at the same time. And all five are groups whom the cops just love to get themselves their rocks off from harassing and griefing.
Now, I’m just gay and have left the other 4 long behind. Now that I’m middle-aged, middle-class, and boring; I know in my conscious mind that I am essentially invisible and immune to the cops. Hell… I may actually be affluent enough at the point in my life that it might be possible someday that they might be willing to lift at least one finger to help me if I needed them. Then again, considering how they cheerfully let Bob Lee and those kids in Uvalde be slaughtered, maybe not. Either way, regardless of what the intellectual half of my brain may know; the sight of that badge and uniform to this day triggers my reptile hind-brain to trigger the adrenaline and thoughts of: “That is my ENEMY. They wish nothing but ill upon me and mine. Don’t believe them. Don’t trust them. Don’t help them. Definitely don’t goto them for help. Basically, treat them like day-old roadkill and keep them as far away from me and out of my life as I can.”
And… goody for them… the the SFPD just created dozens or scores of new people who will, for the rest of their lives, feel in their gut as surely as I do that the police are their enemy and never to be trusted, liked, or supported. And these are not career criminals. They’re not mafia or gangsters or commies or terrorists or whatever we’re supposed to be afraid of these days. They’re just a bunch of kids… most of whom will grow up to be as middle aged, middle class, and boring as I have. But they’ll also vote. They’ll vote on ballot propositions and for candidates. Some of them may even eventually seek and attain public office and vote on legislation directly. And when they do; Every… Single… One… of them will remember how the police chose to treat them. Maybe some of them will be able to step back, suppress the past and their emotions, and not let this event color their voting choices in any way. But maybe not.
Good going SFPD. You’ve made enemies for life. ‘Better hope none of these kids ever finds him or her self in a position to vote on your budget or benefits. Because they’ll likely vote the asme way I will.
what the people must understand is that SFPOA is a political organization and SFPD is it’s armed wing.
don’t forget the history of the vigilantes.
Thanks for the article. We are seeing a lot of evidence that explains why City Hall does not function. We need a lot more communications between city departments and agencies and a lot more public notice. For some reason it has been the goal of City Hall to reduce public notice, not enhance it. That effort seems to be coming out of Sacramento, where the state legislators have turned the art of backroom dealing into an art.
Between July 4 and this incident, this Thomas Harvey guy seems to be making the Mission Police a lot more aggressive.
Is that their new policy? Shock and awe?
Who are they going to attack next?
And let’s be clear.These are not the actions of trigger happy cops or a handful of racist individuals, or otherwise “bad apples”. The “cruel and unusual punishment” meted out to the teens is on the SFPD brass, probably all the way to the Chief (and who knows who was involved in the decision, the Mayor?). They made a decision without telling anyone, but they were ready with riot gear and extra troops. This incident could not have made the situation with the police more clear. The SFPD brass has blocked reform, improved training, and routinely violates, and encourages violation, of their own policies without shame. SFPD brass either is incredibly incompetent or incredibly cruel. Or both. How can the police do their job when they are led by self-serving bureaucrats?
Why is this type of action by the police targeted at teenagers on skateboards next to a public park and not at the drug dealers at the open drug markets flourishing in the Tenderloin and SOMA?
Teenagers are soft targets. Drug dealing ultimately involves people w/guns.
The teens may or may not be charged. What matters was how they were treated once detained, which violates in detail the SFPD general orders. Who is responsible for that? Who kept 100 teens freezing on pavement with no water and no bathroom break? Why? The excuse is no bus to take them to station which was a block away. If the Police Commission does nothing, get rid of it and stop wasting money.
Links for this “Dolores Park Ambassadors” and their July 3rd email do not work. This appears to be ONE person who was involved in the old Dolores Park Works (that I do not think is even a group anymore, as their website is gone) that demanded the cops shut this down.
The neighbors were not terrified, we usually film the kids, not run inside in fear.
In the end, the city will end up paying $$ when parents win lawsuits.
This is why everybody hates the SFPD! How much money did this sting operation cost? WTH isn’t the SFPD bothering with any traffic enforcement, instead showing up dressed up as storm troopers ready to traumatize teens? This is a clear example of why we need to clean house at the SFPD starting from the top and ending with the firing of every single SFPD officer spewing racist hate on social media; including nuking their overfunded retirement. San Francisco pays more money for ineffective law enforcement than every other city on the planet. The SFPD isn’t even doing the basics because they’re angry at the BLM movement calling out their unacceptable racist behavior.
There is absolutely no excuse on the part of the City of San Francisco, specifically the SFPD, for the lack of information and publicity about their planned activity that night. The fact that it has been an annual event that draws many people, both old participants and attendees and new, makes it difficult to believe that professional city officials remained ignorant of the need to post warnings weeks if not a month ahead of time at least, along with signage everywhere in the area ahead of time and particularly on that evening. Mission Local would be an ideal conduit for getting this type of information out. Consider it to be similar to an emergency situation in which you also give loud audible warning to people before taking any action. And explanation as to what the situation and your purpose of the potential actions may or will be, Well, that’s already being stated by just about everyone, and for good reason.
I was around a similar situation back in the nineties. We lived out of town and were in SF to see a New Year’s Eve performance of Phantom of the Opera. Of course it ended before midnight so we decided to head over to close-by Union Square because we thought it would be a cool gathering for the beginning of the New Year. As we approached down Geary we became aware of the type of militant police presence as indicated in the incident on Dolores St. as we observed a long line of officers marching towards the Square. We immediately decided this was not a good place for us to be and left the area. It was indeed scary and daunting, but we were lucky not to have been right in the middle of it.
I had another episode more directly with a pair of SF police officers that I considered a learning lesson on expecting the unexpected. I won’t go into details, but it left me wondering as to what the actual unofficial and official policies of the SFPD might have been. This was back in the seventies and I was new to a lot of these things as a young adult. After all I have seen and heard, especially thanks to Mission Local, I am far more mature and experienced, but now I know it’s right to question what those policies are and to make major changes in the system.
Downtown really showed its true colors here. They know the rules and they really didn’t care-they disregarded them as well as existing policies. Also, they have all this money they pay their flack officers to send out public notices, tweets blah blah and they don’t bother to use them. This chief and his loser command staff need to go. Whose idea in addition to the chief was it to carpet the event in blue anyway? Nothing like a brainstorm gone bad.
We should also expect a lot more out of Captain Harvey, an experienced and relatively savvy person. Orders came out of downtown and there is a public communications officer (or more) who has more duties than just being a spin doctor after the fact. This was a first test for Harvey and he sadly flunked. He could have and should have worked more closely with command staff to advocate for appropriate notice about all these cops showing up and he failed. Even if Captain Harvey had just found out last minute about this blue invasion, there was surely something he could have done. Now he’s going to be dealing with people who have understandably soured on his tenure early on. Really sad for a guy who has some smarts-unlike the downtown brass.
“I never liked cops, but it’s one thing to hear about it and see it; it’s a completely other thing to experience it,” said Eriberto Jimenez, 16, who was arrested that night. “Now, I’m quite anxious around any kind of police officer, especially after being zip-tied and held for five hours…”
This has to be the worst impact of a horribly planned implementation of force. Kids who use skating to stay out of trouble now deeply distrust law enforcement. What a shame. Plus, some of these kids JUST went through a shooting on 24th Street at a local skate shop, and to hear that they had no prior notice shutting down this event is such an embarrassment. Also a total lack of empathy for this group of humans.
After personally seeing how many officers were at Dolores Park that day, I can’t even imagine how EXPENSIVE this whole debacle was for tax payers. Even if the police had shared with the public the day of the event what was happening, the whole “riot” could have been avoided. When we had a picnic there the same day and asked the officers what the barricades were all about, they said “Nothing.” It seems like they were dressed for a riot, and wanted this outcome at the end of the day. So sad.
I hope there is an investigation on the costs of this enforcement, and they publicize the closure next year. I went to the largest skate park the Monday after this event (Protero del Sol) and there were only a few kids out enjoying a beautifully sunny day, rare to see such few skaters out. I can only imagine how upset they were and are. Thank you Mission Local for covering this absurd story.
My partner happened to be at Dolores Park around 4-5pm with our toddler on that day. He came home and nervously said there were so many cops in the park, he thought Biden must be in town. Only later did we find out that they were there to arrest teenage skaters and just how dangerous of a situation that was. To this article’s point about advance notice, would we have brought our kid to Dolores (on the J Church!) if we had known we were hours away from a major confrontation with police in riot gear? Or even if we were going to be that close to that many officers carrying guns? Absolutely not. This kind of presence poses risks for all sorts of bystanders.
This was just a shameful, inept, thoughtless, and brutal operation. Someone needs to find a way to hold the police captain, Supervisor Mandelman (who is my supervisor and I assume was involved in the decision, given his tepid response and bootlicking ways), and anyone else in a position of power here accountable.
The only person(s) who fired guns that day was one or more of the “kids.” The bullets went through a neighbor’s window.
When is San Francisco going to get a new Mayor? London Breed has destroyed San Francisco Mission District. I was born in the San Francisco Mission District and live in the Mission for 50 years I saw the mission the way it is now with drug dealing people doing drugs in McDonald`s on 24th and Mission at night prostitution and drug addicts taking over! It`s no one fault but the mayor and the smell
Call Hillary Ronen, the district supervisor. She’s busy trying to bring in an illegal drug consumption site but may find the time to chat. She has done more than the mayor to destroy the Mission — and she’s proud of it.
The SFPD did this because they could, and they wanted to, and nobody in city government has the stones to meaningfully stand up to the RICO operation that is the SFPOA.
Neighbors shouldn’t get veto power over everything that goes on in the public realm, especially legendary recurring events like the Dolores Hill Bomb.
Hopefully Lederman can figure out ways to sue the intellectual authors of this authoritarian atrocity in their personal capacities. Wiping out St. Ignatius brass financially is the only thing that will send the message.
If the supes vote to approve a settlement from the general fund without exacting changes at the SFPD/SFPOA, then they’re party to enabling this long standing pattern of misconduct.
This was a chance to “celebrate” having gotten a DA who won’t touch them, and remind citizens who don’t have “juice” who is in charge. Nothing firing the echelon who planned this couldn’t make better.
Most comments sound as if San Francisco is full of suburban republicans… OMG, skate boarders, on my street, gathering ((clutching my pearls)) what are we to do??? Call the police, organize against massive civil expression, people living a city life… We must remember— rule 1. Stay boring— rule 2. call the police, protect suburbia—- rule 3. keep “those sort of people” marginalized. You’re all too boring for city living, looking forward to when ya Karens either loosen up or move back to where you came from