100 adults and teens were arrested

Chaos at San Francisco's Dolores Park as police shut down illegal 'hill bomb'

Katie Dowd

Over 100 adults and teens were arrested or cited after an unsanctioned Dolores Park "hill bomb" devolved into chaos Saturday, San Francisco police said.

The Dolores Park hill bomb, where skateboarders plunge at full speed down Dolores Street, has been held on and off for years, planned by word-of-mouth and social media. The gatherings are impromptu for a reason — they don't have permits, and the city considers them illegal and dangerous.

In a statement to SFGATE, the San Francisco Police Department said “officers observed fireworks being set off and reports of vandalism began to come in” around 6 p.m. Shortly after 7 p.m., police say a 16-year-old “spat in his face” of an officer at Cumberland and Dolores. “During this arrest the crowd began to throw ignited fireworks, smoke bombs, glass bottles and metal cans at officers which struck them,” the department said.

Police say they declared an unlawful assembly shortly after, closed Dolores Park and began issuing verbal warnings for people to disperse. 

“At approximately 8:35 p.m. officers followed this group to 17th Street and detained the crowd between Dolores and Guerrero Streets where it was decided that a mass arrest of the crowd was to be conducted to stop the ongoing unlawful assembly and destruction of property,” police said.

According to parents and guardians who spoke to Mission Local, however, many frightened kids were caught up in the melee. Mission Local reporter Joe Rivano Barros, who was on the scene, witnessed teens being rounded up and put into Muni buses for transport to the Mission Police Station. Several parents told Barros they were upset their children were taken to the station and not just cited and released at the scene.

“How many public resources are we using? We don’t have enough police and we’re out here arresting a bunch of kids?” one mother said.

“She’s 15, and she’s with her other 15-year-old scaredy-cat friends who also don’t ride skateboards and didn’t do s—t,” she added.

According to SFPD, at least 32 adults and 81 juveniles were arrested or cited; most were charged with inciting a riot, remaining at an unlawful assembly and conspiracy. 

This is not the first time a Dolores Park hill bomb has ended in arrests. In 2017, fights and bottle-throwing broke out between hill bombers and San Francisco police. There have been a number of accidents, including at least one fatality, as well. In 2020, a cyclist and skateboarder collided during the event, resulting in the death of the man on the bicycle. The year prior, famed local skateboarder Tomoko Oikawa fractured her skull and was in a coma for weeks before recovering.

"You have people out here who are not from SF that are putting locals in a bad light. There’s now side shows, fights, skaters jumping on cars and ambulances while homies are trying to go to the hospital after getting smoked. It’s just total mayhem," Oikawa said in a recent interview with Bigfoot magazine. "I remember when it used to be once a year and much safer, there were even side cones. Now people that don’t respect the skating community are putting matters into their hands, pushing it to happen more than once a year, and so many people are paying the price for it."