In response to public outcry over bystander video of police wrestling with a struggling female hot dog vendor, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said on Wednesday that he expects to release the involved officers’ body-worn camera footage.
Scott said he saw no wrongdoing by the police after reviewing all the body-worn camera footage from the officers who were involved in a back-and-forth between the woman, who was selling hot dogs near Pier 33 on Sunday, and city workers, who were attempting to confiscate her cart.
“There is nothing that I saw in this video that officers or anybody else involved did anything other than what they were asked to do, in the way that they were asked to do it,” Scott said before the Police Commission on Wednesday. “I saw nothing that indicated misconduct.”
Ana Luisa Casimer Julca, the 25-year-old pregnant woman who was accused of assaulting Port of San Francisco workers during the confiscation of her cart, maintains that she didn’t assault anyone.
“I will say this, It was not an assaultive struggle,” Scott said of the initial dispute. “It was just a struggle over control of the cart because she did not want to give up her cart.”
But Scott said that videos of the arrest that circulated the internet — which show two officers pinning Casimer Julca to the ground while her daughter screams and cries — “does not tell the story.” He described to police commissioners step by step what he saw happen on officers’ body-worn cameras.
The footage of the arrest obtained and published by Mission Local begins with two officers already on the pavement atop Casimer Julca near Pier 33 after Port workers attempted to confiscate her cart.
What occurred before that moment may become clear with the new footage, which Scott said he expects to release by next week.
An SFPD spokesperson told Mission Local at the time that Casimer Julca obstructed and assaulted a Port employee, and was therefore arrested for assault on a government employee and resisting or delaying an investigation.
Casimer Julca, however, told Mission Local she did not assault the worker. She seemed eager to see additional footage of the incident.
A struggle over a hot dog cart
Scott said that around 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 8, members of the multi-department task force, led by the Port of San Francisco and accompanied by workers from the Department of Public Works and the Department of Public Health, warned food vendors to leave the area.
The SFPD, in a statement on Tuesday, said the group gave warnings around 10:30 a.m. Casimer Julca, however, said that she arrived shortly after 11 that day, and never received any warning.
Scott said the task force members returned to the Pier 33 area around 11:30 a.m. to find “at least three” hot dog vendors there. One cart, Casimer Julca’s, was tagged for impoundment by the Department of Public Health. That’s when the conversation became contentious, Scott said. A struggle over the cart ensued, and officers intervened to defuse the situation and separate Casimer Julca from her cart.
This separation did not last; as workers attempted to impound the cart, Scott said Casimer Julca evaded the police officers and returned to her cart, when another struggle ensued. During that struggle, the cart was knocked over, and Scott said Casimer Julca pushed one Port employee “to try to get him off of the cart,” while the other got cut on his hand.
“That’s when the officers decided to place her in handcuffs,” Scott said, “to get control of the situation.” When Casimer Julca resisted, he added, “the officers ended up … taking her down to the ground.”
Casimer Julca said she refused to let go of the cart, even when it fell to the ground, but learned the reason for her arrest later, when a Spanish speaking officer arrived: “I supposedly assaulted the Port [employee] at some point,” she said in Spanish.
“But no, I didn’t do anything to him,” she said. “We were just grabbing the cart, [telling him] that ‘Please, please don’t take it from me,’ and nothing else.”
Scott said he knows people are trying to make a living by vending in the street, but that the city receives demands to control rampant unpermitted vending. Police don’t enforce vending rules, but are present as security during vending enforcement operations by other city departments. Those workers have reported facing violence and harassment while attempting to enforce vending rules around the city.
Casimer Julca, for her part, said she has been trying to find more video footage of the incident, because she doesn’t think she did anything wrong.
“It’s not fair that they say I attacked him so they can handcuff me,” she said.
As a recent immigrant from Peru, she said she didn’t understand what the city workers were telling her in English, but acknowledged trying to prevent them from taking her cart, which cost her about $600 and which she has only had for two months. She said she is also two months pregnant.
Now, she said she feels bruised all over, particularly in her arms and shoulders, and is taking medication for the pain.
Scott confirmed on Wednesday that a Spanish-speaking city employee arrived to converse with Casimer Julca, but only after the struggle had ended with her being cuffed.
On Tuesday, the SFPD put out a statement on Twitter alleging that the video footage of the arrest was released to the media as part of an “orchestrated effort by people illegally vending hot dogs to undermine the city’s efforts to enforce the law.”
Footage obtained by Mission Local was from a bystander who has no connection to the vendors.
“The combination of the crying child with her mother on the ground being handcuffed created a dramatic moment that was carefully edited,” the police statement said.
Police Commission President Cindy Elias seemed to agree it didn’t look good.
“At the end of the day, what you see is … a child, a woman of color,” Elias said of the video. “Although you are here to tell us what you’ve seen, I think the public needs to see it for themselves.”
I can understand her reluctance to give up the cart that is her livelihood. Still the City doesn’t regulate food vendors just to be bossy but for vital public health reasons. Way back when I was a newcomer in San Francisco in 1979 my roommate got hepatitis from eating something at the Haight Street Fair as did a bunch of others. People from countries with a more laissez-faire attitude towards public safety may not understand and I suspect whoever sold her the cart didn’t tell her she would need to be licensed.
“doesn’t regulate food vendors just to be bossy but for vital public health reasons.”
Sure, fine, but the way they’ve been going about it is indefensible with the use of force where it’s not at all warranted – in front of a young child? They teach deescalation, they preach deescalation, they just don’t seem to ever apply it when the cameras are running.
Is anyone going to find and fine the supplier of these carts and food? I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s some sort of scheme to charge migrants lots of money to vend and yet they clear very little money each day. These carts been there for years and all sell the exact same thing. Find the supplier if you’re actually concerned about health and safety. Also why two hours warning? Why not just tell them to clear and don’t leave until they do? That would avoid the issue of late arrivals like this unfortunate woman.
Thank you for covering this sad but important story.
Seriously, if this is what the police are doing — literally beating someone over HOT DOGS, why do we need them??? Our tax dollars are better used somewhere else. #DefundThePolice
Does anyone know if this vendor has a Gofund me? Terrible that the SFPD is lying on this mother who was trying to make a living.
This is revolting. She is pregnant and her young daughter with her and SFPD couldn’t handle a hot dog cart?
Did you see a previous incident where SFPUC tackles a guy and kicks over his hot dog cart? Even if the hot dogs chock full of monkeypox why does it get to the point of violence when they’ve got so many officers standing around? It’s so easy to avoid, if that’s what they were interested in doing. I guess they got the memo that Breed wanted to look tough on crime, suddenly, again, come the election.