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…
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