Police Chief Bill Scott called the deployment of 60 officers on Saturday to prevent the annual Dolores Park hill bomb a “huge success.”
No matter that skaters simply flipped their boards, rode through the park and then sped down Church Street, a block over, for more than two hours.
“We put word out that we would not tolerate the violence and the property damage that you have seen in the past, so apparently the public worked with us,” Scott said at the Wednesday night Police Commission meeting. “And the skaters, some of them even thanked us, because we didn’t arrest them for skating down the hill.”
On the day before Saturday’s hill bomb, Scott insisted at a press conference, “We do not intend to allow a hill bomb tomorrow.” The announcement for the press conference referenced the “negative impact of hill bomb events and the disruption they cause to the community.”
Today, however, Scott preferred to look at Saturday as a victory, and skateboarding as harmless. He has said in the past that the department has no issue with skateboarding per se, only with the associated trouble during past events.
“We’re not against skateboarding,” Scott said. “And one or two or three or four skateboarders skating down the hill — we decided not to make an arrest … or citation.”
In fact, hundreds gathered and cheered as a couple dozen skaters bombed down the hill.
Scott said that, this year, there was just one act of vandalism at the hill bomb, and no assaults or police uses of force or arrests — meaning the event went far differently than last year’s, when altercations between officers and attendees led to the eventual arrest of 113 people, including many juveniles. The department is now facing a class-action civil-rights lawsuit for last year’s arrests, during which dozens of young people were kept in the street for hours without food, water, or bathroom access.
Some 60 officers were deployed this year as part of a mandated overtime event, Scott said, a smaller number than last year. It was unclear why the approach was different. Scott, however, insisted the department’s tactics had not changed after last year.
This year’s event also drew a smaller crowd, Scott said, and no violence broke out, whereas last year, some attendees could be seen on police body-worn cameras throwing fireworks at officers.
“Officers react to violence,” Scott said. “I believe there was one firework set off during the whole event. Last year — fireworks basically from the start.”
Asked by a commissioner tonight why the police decided not to prevent the hill bomb after it migrated just one block away, Scott said the department had no issues with skating, especially as the event was “self-regulated.”
“They said, ‘hey, we’re going to leave after we, you know, do our little thing down the hill.’ And that’s basically what happened,” Scott said. “They left. We didn’t have to use squads of people to clear them out. And by 9 o’clock, the whole thing was over.”
So the Scott’s creative copaganda holds that last year SFPD was reacting to violence that some skaters perpetrated in reaction to SFPD’s violent mass arrests, and that SFPD pre-event promises that the hill bomb would not happen were kept even though the skaters bombed the next street over without incident.
How much overtime did SFPD rack up in this (and last year’s) farce and did they outsource this bit of strategic communication to Matt Dorsey, supervisor of Southern District Station?
Keeping us safe by racking up overtime and doing nothing, while residents are on tenterhooks scared of crime.
Wow. Chief Scott had a hard time talking around the marbles in his mouth, eh? And is he capable of counting; or are shifting goalposts (still) the norm for public servant reportage?
“And one or two or three or four skateboarders skating down the hill — we decided not to make an arrest … or citation.”
Lmao….
Scott learned the worst public administration habits from shameless Breed.
Fire both.
“some of them even thanked us” – let’s forgive Chief Scott that he’s not on the up-and-up with irony.
A safer event was the result of hard work from many community members including medics and observers who came to help in spite of the utter lack of cooperation from Supervisor Mandelman’s office and SFPD, and to defend youth *from* the police who overreacted and rioted last year.
What they did succeed in this year by moving the hill bomb one street over was to get it out of sight of certain politically influential venture capitalists that live on Dolores Street. That’s what SFPD is about. That’s what the talking point about “fully staffing” them is about. They have no accountability to regular people, they do not work to protect you and me.
What was the cost of deploying 60 police officers to an event deemed to be and “overtime” event by SFPD. What is the cost per hour, per cop of overtime event exactly?
BINGO!
The Church Street hill is significantly closer to Garry Tan’s home than the Dolores hill is.
Well, they didn’t shoot or torture any kids, so I guess that can be called a success.