Video obtained by Mission Local shows San Francisco police tackled and handcuffed a woman on the Embarcadero on Sunday morning as her young daughter cried hysterically during a confiscation of her hot-dog stand.
The woman could be heard saying, “Ya, me voy, me voy!” or “I’m leaving, I’m leaving!”
Onlookers filmed as the woman struggled on the pavement with two officers who were pulling her arms behind her back to handcuff her. A worker in a yellow Port of San Francisco vest blocked onlookers from approaching or filming up close.
“It’s ‘cause she fought with the officers,” another apparent Port employee in a yellow vest told an onlooker as he rolled the hot dog cart away. “These are being confiscated by the Department of Public Health.”
San Francisco police spokesperson Officer Robert Rueca said the woman “obstructed and delayed workers and assaulted” a Port employee during a confiscation for illegal vending, so officers detained her “for her actions.”
A witness told Mission Local that the woman was upset about her cart being confiscated, and officers were holding her back as a worker took the cart, but they were unsure how the situation escalated to her being handcuffed.
Earlier in the video, the woman’s daughter stood watching with a children’s tablet in her hand, but as the arrest became more violent, she began screaming and tried to rush toward her mother. Onlookers who had gathered at the scene dragged her away.
Eventually, police handcuffed the woman and she sat up.
The detention led to the woman’s arrest for assault on a government employee and resisting or delaying an investigation, Rueca said. The woman was cited and released at the scene, he said, and medics treated her for pain after the incident.
San Francisco has been attempting to crack down on hot-dog vendors, with little success.
Rueca said police were providing security for Port, Department of Public Health and Department of Public Works crews in an “illegal vending enforcement operation,” though only Port workers and SFPD officers appear in the video.
“Don’t let the intoxicating aroma of frying onions trick you into eating unsafe food,” read a tweet from the city’s health department in October. “Protect yourself from illnesses by not buying from unpermitted food vendors who don’t follow safety rules. #DontRiskIt.”
Health department spokesperson Deirdre Hussey declined to comment, and referred Mission Local to the police and the Port, as the agencies involved in the incident.
Port of San Francisco spokesperson Eric Young said he was “still putting together” what happened, and declined to comment.
The Department of Public Works has also been involved in permit enforcement on street vendors; A worker in a San Francisco Public Works vest was caught on camera last October running towards a vendor and flipping over his hot dog cart, spilling its goods onto the sidewalk. Public Works officials apologized after that incident.
In 2022, spokesperson Rachel Gordon said those selling without a permit in a public right-of-way are asked to show their permits, and given the opportunity to pack up and leave.
Gordon today declined to comment on the incident.
This is strictly regarding the author who wrote this piece: Please be fair when reporting this “story”. The woman being detained was CLEARLY resisting – we can all see she was refusing to comply. Second, to say a PORT employee was “blocking people from filming” – no he was NOT. He was preventing others from interfering with cops doing their job. Obviously plenty of people were filming. STOP WITH NONSENSE WHEN WE CAN SEE WITH OUR OWN EYES.
@sfdiggy – came here to say the same
@SFPD and Bay Area LE: How about showing such resolve when it comes to sideshows and dirt bike takeovers as well? Apparently last night there was yet another sideshow on the Bay Bridge that got a couple motorists beaten up and robbed, at gun point no less. LE response: Helicopter flyovers, no arrests.
Glad they are finally putting an end to these illegal vendors of food. Must be nice to get everything going tax and license free while restaurants struggle to keep up.
These hotdogs are one of the best things this town has going. The people who work them work hard. The number of people I have ever heard say “those hot dog people…”
ZERO!
Focus on the real problems London and SFPD. Tax cuts for tech companies but crack downs on these folks?
To hell with you. Your algorithms are worse for public safety. This how London loses.
If the Police are forced to put their hands on you then you are gonna get cuffed.
Getting charges filed by the DA and then convicted is another question. 27
The police have every right to enforce the law. When they do so, you either comply or risk them using force to MAKE you comply. There is no case for “innocence” here, and it looks like the vendor got what she deserved.
Now bust the 50 or so doing the same thing at PacBell park before and after ball games.
I work many of the games at Oracle Park. Almost every night they confiscate carts, usually before the 2nd or 3rd inning. This year they’ve been cracking down at the ballpark more than in previous years. Personally, I think it’s a stupid policy. They’re peaceful people, trying to make a living, many (if not all of them) having recently arrived in the US. It’s so sad to see their source of income ripped away from them.
Please. It’s not as if illegal vending is their only potential source of income.
Aggressively arresting people over hotdog sales? How about cracking down on all those criminal gangs of kids in the suburbs with their lemonade and chocolate chip cookie cartels? If someone is poisoning people, shut them down. Otherwise, this seems like a complete waste of taxpayer money and policing resources.
Wouldn’t the public be much better served by policing that focused on dealers preying on addicts in the Tenderloin or criminal gangs fearlessly breaking into cars and houses because of the lack of repercussions? Do better!
Wow, people poop and peep everywhere, steal and breaks into car, and they arrest a hotdogs vendor. So stupid, it is unreal.
Why not go after the sideshow crowd instead what a complete waste.
Not a waste, but yes, make sideshows a priority. Coordinate multiple law enforcement agencies.
Sideshows have been a way of life in the Bay Area for likely longer than you’ve been alive. But, sure, cops can stop them.
Shutting down the Bay Bridge every weekend for Instagram clout has not been a “way of life in the Bay Area” for longer than we’ve been alive and you know it.
Glad to see SFPD doing their job. And there’s video!
Please keep it up, SFPD.
Wasn’t there (“of course”) a cartel behind these carts that makes people like her pay their “debt” for bringing them into this country? Anything being done there?
Nice fan fiction you’re writing there, Daniel.
Real criminals run rampant. Dog/human feces everywhere. Hundreds of Market street zombie look alikes when children are going to school, and this is who we bust?
Down with breed and everyone associated with her.
Have there been a lot of poisonings from these vendor hotdogs? Are the police just protecting the more established food businesses in the area?
The “more established food businesses” pay taxes, follow labor regulations (including livable wage requirements), maintain health and safety standards (i.e. don’t food poison people), and are subject to environmental protections. They have a right to be protected.
You mean legal businesses vs illegal businesses…
That poor little girl. 🙁
With an officer shortage and actual crime being committed, TWO officers do this? Yes, she did not have the best response to the confiscation of her cart but there are actual drug dealers, thieves and other criminals who we need off the streets. What a waste of resources.
How come those cowards never show up when there’s a crime in progress in any part of S.F?SFPD sucks!
I’m sick to my stomach reading the comments from so many right wing authortarians here. I do not believe you all live here, but those who do, maybe you need a nicer place to live if this place is so horrible. I mean hot dog vendors! THE HORROR!
I guess this is easier than tackling the real problems our city faces…
Certainly easier than shutting down sideshows or kids on dirt bikes.
Do better SFPD. I’ve seen you do better. This is just stupidity.
Absolutely 💯
The cops can’t manage to arrest and jail all the shoplifters who make it necessary for stores like Walgreens to lock up their goods. So customers have to find an employee to unlock a shelf and wait around for that employee to show up and then do the same in the next aisle, etc. forever. Perhaps make a permit more affordable for people who need to make a living selling street food and stop demonizing homeless people who cannot afford apartments because they can’t earn an honest living. This city is so messed up.
The police stops a woman from earning a living for her family and they attack the woman
Pues deberías de buscar algo más profundo,como quien es el que mueve a las personas y a los carros .
Ellas son manipuladas por personas sin escrúpulos y que tienen a las personas ,mujeres u hombres encadenados a esos trabajos .
O eso no se puede saber?.
I couldn’t have said it better myself, if i could read Spanish.
This case of the hot dog vendor arrested in such brutality is a shame for our city. San Francisco’s Mayor London Breed and the police department is such an embarrassment for this community.
Instead of doing this to people why don’t they just work on fighting the crime of this city???
ELECTION YEAR!!!!
Keep it Up! While your at it, lets get mission at 15th, 16th and 24th cleaned up too. Breed needs to go. Chief Scott needs to go as well. So many instances of City Hall not protecting the residents of SF.
Mayor Breed and SFPD don’t seem to be able to do anything to make San Franciscans feel safer, so the prey upon the most vulnerable in our city to give the appearance that they are doing something. What an immoral and despicable spectacle. I’m sure Farrell will do the same if he is elected mayor.
Every time I walk by the Apple store on Union Square, I always see SFPD cops there not doing much of anything. Is Apple paying for them to be there? Or are they there at the city’s expense to ensure to poor immigrants, some asylum seekers, do not sell hot dogs there too? vote
Apple pays them to be there. The city actually makes a little $ also.
Instead of harassing working people, why not inspect and license them and help them to go legit? I would rather see hot dog vendors on the street than intoxicated vagrants.
“why not inspect and license them and help them to go legit?” – there used to be a program for that. https://missionlocal.org/2022/09/so-how-to-get-vending-permits/
Not many takers though, so a city wide expansion looks like a rather futile exercise. And no wonder really, it’s kinda hard to want to get a permit for a vending operation that’s not following the law in the first place…
They aren’t interested in getting permitted, following safety regulations, or paying taxes. That’s the whole point of illegal vending.
Listen, people, we will not allow you to make a living. Being entrepreneurial doesn’t count unless you create another useless website. So just accept your fate as serfs of the new oligarchy. We promise not to be too mean. Well, not every day.
— The Oligarchy
For those of you who want to live in Tijuana I don’t believe you need a visa to do so. I’d rather not live in a community where every street corner has someone selling hotdogs, pineapple slices or cocktails. YES I said Cocktails! I walked by the SFPD arresting a kid selling cocktails on the Embarcadero and people were shouting at the cops. Head south idiots
Well I’m calling B$#@S#$T on that. A mother trying to make some money to feed her family and she gets hers means of doing that confiscated by the police department. I’ve seen bake sales and all kinds of other foods sold by people. Good job SFPD I hope you realize that you’ve probably traumatized that little girl for life. There’s no way she’s ever going to call the police for anything. I also find it funny that the assault your accusing her of isn’t on camera at all. I see some big police officer hold a woman down and her saying in Spanish I’m leaving I’m leaving. Again way to go SFPD. I sure your mother’s are proud.
How can we have safe and clean streets in San Francisco? More police!! Target those illegal hot dog vendors and throw them in jail! I bet they’re from Honduras. For good measure, throw the consumers of illegal hot dogs in jail too if they refuse healthy vegetarian options (obviously mentally ill).
yet again sfpd criminalizing poor people instead of making our city safer! they get more money and do things like this?
So these unlicensed, non tax paying, unsafe vendors should be able to do their thing and violate the law indefinitely?
Hey Piggies, you couldn’t figure out anyway to care for the woman’s child as you arrested her mom? Though I believe the “onlookers who had gathered at the scene” did the right thing in holding the child back, believe the onus is on you to make sure the child is safe and (let’s just say since you showed no interest in her) to keep the child from being dragged away from strangers in case they did not have the child’s safety and well-being in mind.
The vendor BROUGHT her daughter to her illegal business. The cops do not have a duty of care in this situation, the mother does . . . or should.
That is a false statement. Police are obligated to call CPS if a child is endangered or will have no responsible party supervising them.
The child is innocent of whatever “crime” you imagine the mother committed
bit off topic for this article but perhaps you make a good case for free or affordable childcare for all so that people who cannot afford childcare are not having to bring their kids to work.
that would require another two or three cops. and then there would be too many cops at the scene? what’s the right number of cops? 2? 6? 8? cops are responding to a call for service from the port, then told of the battery by the woman against the port employee. cops didn’t decide to just drive by and pick on this woman. should cops disregard dispatchers? should they disregard person who said they were assaulted?
Why did DPH have no problem with Mr. Free Pancakes in Bernal Heights?
Was it because he was male? Or white? Or male AND why? Was it because he didn’t charge for the “unsafe” food? Was it because he was “building community” rather than trying to survive?
Yes, you can give away food for free at your house without a permit, regardless of your race or gender. Selling food commercially from a cart requires a permit, regardless of your race or gender, or it is illegal (some exceptions not applicable here).
I know it was a rhetorical question, but it’s a valid one with a real answer. In short, we have special rules at the state level to allow the distribution and sale of “cottage food operations” that meet certain rules.
Pancakes are something you can make and sell (or give away) without violating any health codes. Anything containing meat is not.
If there was a way to wash his hands, DPH wouldn’t care.
I hate the city attacking people just trying to get by too. Precooked hot dogs, onions and bacon seared on a griddle several hundred degrees hot is not a real health issue.
I can’t speak for everyone, but based on what I do hear, people are more upset with actual crime and lack of traffic enforcement vs a civil code violation.
The down voters are showing that what I surmised is correct.
Back in the days of Ballpark Frank Jordan, Food Not Bombs activists for busted for feeding people. The crime of giving away food, you know? But Ballpark Frank gave away hotdogs to throngs of potential voters. No crime there, of course. But it did give someone the chance to come up with a quite memorable monicker for the jackass.
Campers,
UBI solves all of this.
Thank you Andrew Yang.
Cuts crime by 50% (Stockton) too.
h.
This is why if you’re going to operate an illegal food stand its better to operate a hamburger stand because burger are way less phallic (and therefore less triggering) than illicit wieners.
Lmfao I love this comment
GOOD. IT IS ABOUT TIME.
Reading thru these comments, one cannot help but to realize that we live in a Red city and not the progressive liberal town that Trump and his followers portray San Francisco. Maybe Kamala can show this video next time she’s being questioned about her connection with the “ultra liberal” San Francisco. The goons that did this to this poor woman and her child should be held accountable but wait, I forgot this is San Francisco and nobody is held accountable for using excessive force, beating up black and brown people, and above all, embezzlement and graft.