Every year, throngs of youths descend upon San Francisco’s Mission District for a skateboarding event, but this year festivities ended in chaos with police arresting over 100 young people — some as young as 13 — and leaving them in the streets with no food, water or chance to use the bathroom for hours, a new lawsuit claim.
Four youths, aged 13 to 17, have filed a federal civil rights class action lawsuit against the city of San Francisco and police personnel alleging wrongful detainment and violation of rights at the “Dolores Hill Bomb” event.
“Hill Bomb,” a gathering organized by high school students to celebrate the city’s skateboarding culture, unfolded on July 8 down Dolores Street near the city’s Dolores Park.
By evening, more than 100 San Francisco Police Department officers descended upon the event, sealed off the streets and “corralled and trapped” the crowd without “giving notice, warning, or opportunity to disperse,” The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), which filed the suit, said in a news release.
That’s a violation of police’s crowd control policy which demands that there be “time to disperse,” and an announcement of “a safe, clear route” for people to exit, the suit filed in the Northern District of California on Tuesday said.
In total, 113 young people were arrested — 81 of them minors.
The children were ordered to sit and wait outdoors in cold temperatures for up to 7 ½ hours, were handcuffed, and not given any food, water, blankets or warm clothing and were not allowed to be returned to the hordes of parents who showed up worried about their children, the PCJF said.
The “Hill Bomb” event
The San Francisco Police Department was aware of the event three weeks before it took place, but never contacted the skateboarding community about concerns or announced any restrictions, the suit claimed.
Barricades were set up but “there were no signs, announcements or other indication that skateboarding of the Hill Bomb event were prohibited,” the suit said.
The police department described the event as “unpermitted and non-sanctioned” and said in the past years it resulted in injuries, in one case a fatality, and vandalism.
Police set up a barricade for traffic safety, and by evening there were reports of fireworks going off starting fires in Dolores Park, vandalism, and a sergeant was assaulted by two teens, the department said at the time.
Police then verbally ordered the crowd to disperse for “unlawful assembly” at 7:15 p.m.
Forty-five minutes later, police said that around 200 people with skateboards were gathered at 18th and Dolores Streets and did not comply with officers’ orders to disperse.
At 8:35 p.m., police decided that a “mass arrest” of the crowd was to be conducted “to stop the ongoing unlawful assembly and destruction of property,” and the crowd between Dolores and Guerrero Streets were detained, the SFPD said in its news release.
Penned in by police, left in the cold for hours
The lines of police officers penning in the crowd allegedly included youth who weren’t involved in “Hill Bomb” or who were simply trying to obey initial police orders to disperse, the complaint said.
One of the plaintiffs, 13-year-old Jolina Tawasha, went to the gathering with some friends. When it was time for the father of one of her friends to pick them up, they were “corralled by SFPD officers dressed in apparent riot gear and holding shields,” the suit contended.
Jolina told an officer that they were meeting her friend’s dad to leave but they still weren’t allowed through the police line.
Another plaintiff, 15-year-old Lucy Rios, had rented scooters with friends to go to another friend’s home and they paused at 17th and Guerrero streets to talk to someone they knew when police officers approached and yelled at them to go the other way. They complied and ultimately got stuck within the police lines and were not allowed to leave, according to the suit.
The suit said that at some point they heard over a megaphone: “You are all under arrest, sit down!”
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In total, police said that 81 juveniles were arrested and cited and released for inciting a riot, remaining present at an unlawful assembly and conspiracy.
An additional 32 adults were arrested — which the suit said was majority 18 and 19 year olds.
“The department’s policies in dealing with juveniles were followed,” police said, noting there were no reports of injury from the arrests. One juvenile was transported to a hospital “for medical treatment for intoxication.”
However, the suit claimed they were held under “abusive” conditions.
The youths were forced sit down outside for hours in cold and windy weather with no shelter, coats or blanket, and they weren’t allowed to use the bathroom. A neighbor ended up throwing down a bucket from her window that some of the youth used to urinate, according to the suit.
The crowd was also not given food or water. The group was ultimately searched by police and handcuffed with their hands secured behind their back with plastic zip ties.
Even as worried parents arrived to retrieve their children, police refused to release them to their parents, the lawsuit contends.
The suit accuses police of herding, trapping and arresting the youth.
Finally, around 11 p.m. police transported the arrestees over 18 to county jail and a bus transported minors to the Mission Police Station, where parents waited for hours to retrieve their children, some until 3 or 4 a.m., according to the complaint.
The suit was filed against the city and county of San Francisco, police chief William Scott, police captain Thomas Harvey, who was the event commander for the Dolores Hill Bomb Event; lieutenant Matt Sullivan who as the tactical unit commander at the event, and any other personnel involved in the event.
The San Francisco Police Department declined comment. The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Chief Scott spoke on the handling of the event at police commission meeting on July 19. He said that police had ordered the crowd to disperse multiple times before declaring a riot, calling the event, “an extremely chaotic situation over a large area.”
Scott said the detainees were ordered to sit down because “the crowed showed violent and destructive behavior.” He said each juvenile was given a “juvenile know your rights” card, they were cited then released to parents or guardians, and none were interrogated. The chief admitted that it took several hours in some cases to release them, but pointed blame to the large number of people they had to process.
Scott said the department of police accountability was investigating all complaints from public regarding the handling of the event.
Left ‘traumatized’ with a ‘fear of police’
Ultimately, no juvenile petitions or adult charges were ever filed related to the mass arrest or the alleged offenses, the suit said.
However, it has left the youth who were detained “traumatized,” the complaint claimed.
The plaintiffs — Jolina Tawasha, Lucy Rios, along with Eriberto Jimenez, 17; Carmen Lopez, 15, — have had trouble sleeping, experience difficulty talking about the arrest, have a fear of police and are hesitant to attend large gatherings, the complaint said.
The suit seeks damages, declaratory relief to clear their records, and redress “for the violation of their rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, and to freedom of assembly.”
