San Francisco Protesters Denounce Mass Arrests at Skater Gathering

Dozens of individuals gathered Sunday night in San Francisco’s Mission District to protest the police division’s dealing with of an annual “hill bomb” skateboarder occasion close to Dolores Park that ended with officers in riot gear arresting greater than 100 individuals.

Eighty-one youngsters and 32 adults had been taken into custody Saturday after what San Francisco Police Chief William Scott referred to as “harmful and illegal conduct,” together with vandalism damaging a number of San Francisco Municipal Transportation Company autos. 

All through the day Sunday, neighborhood representatives, elected officers and residents weighed in on Saturday’s occasions on social media. Some thanked police for his or her response to the gathering, the ensuing harm and the method of reuniting detaining teenagers with their guardians, whereas others excoriated the officers’ response.

Protesters carried indicators with slogans together with “no justice no peace, queer liberation not police occupation” and “housing now, SFPD by no means.” One other slogan focused San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, whose district consists of Dolores Park and who expressed approval of how officers responded Saturday. “Mandelman hates poor individuals,” these indicators learn.

Gary McCoy of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Membership was amongst these gathering Sunday.

“We had been outraged with what we noticed, what was taking place final night time,” McCoy mentioned. “The best way that our youth of San Francisco had been approached and instructed to disperse by seeing police and navy gear, riot gear, holding up weapons, pointing to weapons.

“That is not the way you deal with the scenario. It is actually not the way you method children which can be having time,” he continued. “It is an occasion that occurs yearly. It occurs yearly. Correct planning might’ve prevented that. Correct de-escalation might have prevented children sitting on the bottom out within the chilly for six hours earlier than they had been lastly launched to their dad and mom. It is simply unconscionable, the way in which that the oldsters had been handled.”

Learn extra: SF Police Arrest 81 Teenagers, 32 Adults at Dolores Park ‘Hill Bomb’

The protest came about at Clarion Alley, just a few hundred ft away from the police’s Mission Station on Valencia Avenue close to seventeenth Avenue.

One other protester, Timothy Gould, stood in Clarion Alley with a longboard and a considerate look on his face. He mentioned he did not know anybody who had been detained Saturday, however got here out nonetheless after listening to in regards to the protest on Instagram.

“The rationale why I am right here and why all of us are right here is due to what occurred in Mission Dolores Park yesterday. The police had been attacking skate boarders who had been having their annual skateboard rally,” he mentioned. “This gathering is for all of us.”

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