The 113 adults and children arrested by San Francisco police officers at the notorious 2023 Dolores Park skateboarding “hill bomb” can legally join forces and sue the city together, a federal judge said on Thursday.
It’s a significant victory for plaintiffs: Instead of filing suits individually, they can share a legal team, and others arrested that night can join the case as it progresses.
“The class certification decision is one step toward finally getting justice for these young people,” said Rachel Lederman, an attorney with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, which is representing five teenagers arrested that day.
“SFPD engaged in an outrageous round-up and mass arrest of children and youth,” she said. “They kettled them between police lines and arrested them unlawfully, without a reasonable basis to believe that they had committed crimes.”
The city’s former police chief said at the time it was the largest mass arrest of teenagers during his tenure.
The class-action status allows all 113 adults and children arrested to join an existing lawsuit and win compensation if the city settles or a jury awards damages, and effectively makes that potential pot of money larger. It is unclear how large a settlement or judgement would be.
But because San Francisco police officers were on the clock as city employees the night of the arrest, any eventual judgement would be paid out of the city’s general fund. Police overtime the night of the hill bomb cost the city $143,000. Any judgement would add to that.
The hill bomb is a largely informal event put on by skateboarders who speed down the hill next to the park. It is dangerous: In 2017, skater broke his ankle when a police sergeant knocked him off his board, and a skateboarding icon suffered a serious head injury; in 2019, a skateboarder went into a coma; in 2020, a 23-year-old was killed in a collision; and in 2022 a fight resulted in a stabbing.
San Francisco police officers cracked down in 2023, going block by block to push people away from the park, and declared the gathering an unlawful assembly. They eventually corralled a group of dozens on 17th Street and arrested them all.
Eighty-one of those arrested were children between 12 and 17 years old, according to plaintiffs, and many were held past 11 p.m. on the street in the cold.
Parents of those arrested said many of their children were just passing through and that the police rounded up the group without checking if each person was involved in the hill bomb. The police say the group as a whole violated the unlawful assembly declarations made earlier that evening, and the city has fought the lawsuit.
“SFPD exercised appropriate crowd control at the 2023 Hill Bomb in order to protect public safety,” wrote Jen Kwart, a city attorney spokesperson, in a statement Friday. “The City looks forward to continuing to present our case in the coming months.”
The group was detained between lines of police officers for hours. Boys said they urinated in a bucket tossed down by a neighbor; girls said others wet themselves when they were eventually transported on buses two blocks away to the Mission District police station for processing. Others had to wait as long as seven hours before using a bathroom, according to the suit.
Parents of the kids arrived throughout the night, screaming at officers to be allowed to see their children. They were rebuffed.
The last child was released at 4 a.m. from the Mission police station nearby.
Four of the teenagers arrested that year sued the city on Dec. 19, 2023, alleging violations of local, state and federal law. The class-action certification allows all the others to join that existing lawsuit.
One teenager is being represented separately.
The subsequent hill bomb in 2024 was a far cry from the earlier fiasco. San Francisco police, unlike in 2023, made it loud and clear that they would not tolerate a hill bomb, causing skaters to take notice. Police barricaded off the street, but the crowds simply moved one block over, skated for a few hours, and left.
The city called the 2024 hill bomb a “huge success.” There was no Dolores Park hill bomb this year.
Great, another cash transfer from the taxpayers of San Francisco to privileged kids from Marin County.
Hopefully the city fights this until the bitter end. These people and their ridiculous parents don’t deserve a dime.
Your angry opines don’t deserve a second read. All bile, all the time.
What’s really bilious is the idea that millions of SF taxpayer dollars should go to a bunch of upper class punks who ignored repeated police requests and as a result were inconvenienced for a few hours.
Hopefully the paid terrorist thugs that thought it was a good idea to terrorize and arrest children without any legal cause will realize how pitiful and pointless their lives have become and will decide it’s better to just give up then to continue terrorizing and oppressing people for sport. Knowing everyone hates you and is terrified of you, and people have panic attacks at your mere presence is a hard burden to live with.
Campers,
SFPD brought in the same Captain who planned and executed that operation for just one night to again attack Mission District citizens.
July 4th and I was wondering how the new station boss they brought in could have done any direct street action since he’s on the Brady List which means he isn’t fit to be a witness in court.
Seems he solved that problem by bringing back the Rogue Skateboard commander to head a raiding party that hit street parties (what could be more American?) screaming he was declaring them illegal assemblies and that they would use force to break them up.
The answer is an Elected Police Chief with power to hire and fire and suspend with pay.
SFPOA past presidents Delagnes and Halloran agreed (cause they think they can get their guy or gal).
Mayor Lurie should give the Power to Elect a Chief back to the people and tha’s 500,000 registered voters and won’t that be some Election Campaign ?
go Niners !!
h.
Just do it informally multiple times a year. SF Cops are waaaay too lazy to do anything about that lol. Skateboarding is not a crime no matter what a corrupt sack of political campaign cash called Broke Jenkins says.
This will not stop until there are personal consequences borne by command staff and officers for issuing and carrying out illegal orders.
Amen, Marcos,
The Mission has become more dangerous for pedestrians and I am in the middle of it all with my dog.
It’s Mayor Lurie’s fault for allowing his acting Police Chief to remove the native female station Captain who was meeting with the Public outside the station and replacing her with a knuckle-dragger who sub-contracts his attacks on the population and has never raised the blinds on their windows even for a sec.
One of the Station Chiefs wanted to build and extra concrete wall around the station but had to settle for 50 metal bar crowd control thingees.
Tulips would have been better.
Another cancelled a scheduled Community Meeting at Manny’s because he said he couldn’t guarantee security without saying for whom and from who ?
What they wanted from these arrests was to get the kids into the NCIC system before they could secure a lawyer and they did just that.
When the first defense attorney arrived they immediately asked:
“Are they already in the system?”
The desk sergeant replied:
“Yes, they are.”
Forever
go Niners … and, I love the Goat, Ohtoni but let’s five Canada a Series title ?!?
h.
I hope the city loses. All cops are bastards. And I’m not even a skater.