SFPD’s response to hill bombs remains questionable
San Francisco (cron) – The San Francisco Police Commission held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the investigation into the incident. hill bomb mass arrest. Police shared body camera footage showing some of the violence they encountered. His parents are still furious with the way he was treated.
Parents and community members are demanding that the police be held accountable for how their children were treated while they were in custody over the Hill bombing. While there are reports that most charges have been dropped by the prosecutor’s office, parents of the arrested children say otherwise.
Body camera footage showed SFPD’s response to the July 8 Dolores Park Hill bombing. More than 80 police officers responded to the unofficial incident.
The incident ended with the arrest of 81 children and 32 adults in a tactic called a “siege,” which locked a group of people in an area and prevented them from leaving. Police Chief Bill Scott said he was waiting for a city bus to take all the detainees to the police station. Unable to contact his parents, he said it took more than four hours.
“We saw young people being put in kettles, not allowed to pee, and people having to pee in buckets,” said Kevin Ortiz, president of the San Francisco Latino Democratic Club. “We don’t treat our dogs this way. We’re not going to treat our own children this way.”
A 15-year-old boy was riding a scooter with friends when he encountered the hill bomb just before 9 p.m., his mother said.
“They asked the police where to go, and the police pointed a finger at them and said, ‘Go there.'” They were taken into custody. they were told to stay. They weren’t allowed to call us. They were tied up with zip ties and forced to stay with a large group of children until 1 a.m.,” the boy’s mother said.
The treatment and strategies used to arrest children are still under investigation. Wednesday night’s Police Commission meeting had a lengthy discussion about the police response. Chief Scott detailed the timeline of events.
“If you are here regardless of your purpose despite receiving so many warnings, you are breaking the law,” he said.
Police slowed down the video to explain why they reacted the way they did and showed glass bottles and fireworks being thrown at the officers.
“It was a very dangerous situation,” Scott said. “People laugh and say, ‘Oh, it’s just fireworks.’ It’s not that funny if you lose your hearing forever and you lose your career. You could blow your fingers off.”
Chief Scott also said weapons were recovered from the scene. The police commissioner questioned Chief Scott whether procedures for juvenile arrests were actually followed.
The Department of Police Responsibility is still investigating all complaints and working to obtain more body camera footage, but there is much more to investigate. They will investigate whether the arrest was lawful and whether the police handled the children according to policy.
https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/questions-remain-about-sfpd-hill-bomb-response/ SFPD’s response to hill bombs remains questionable