Four children ranging in age from 13 to 17 filed a class-action suit today against the city, its police chief, Mission Station’s police captain and a tactical squad lieutenant in a long-promised legal action following the SFPD’s crackdown at this summer’s Dolores Park Hill Bomb.
Scores of police broke up the annual unsanctioned skating event on July 8, culminating in the mass arrest of some 117 people — 83 of them children.
Plaintiffs Jolina Tawasha, 13; Lucy Rios, 15; Carmen Lopez, 15; and Eriberto Jimenez, 17, are demanding “redress for the violation of their rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, and to freedom of assembly, association, familial association, expression, personal liberty, and freedom of movement, all guaranteed by the United States and California Constitutions.”
The young plaintiffs — all San Francisco residents suing via their parents — filed a civil rights claim against the city in October, a precursor to a lawsuit. They are also aiming to “clear their records, and to prevent a recurrence of the constitutional violations at issue herein.” Today’s suit names the city, Police Chief Bill Scott, Mission Captain Thomas Harvey and Tactical Squad Lt. Matt Sullivan. The plaintiffs are represented by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and lawyers Bobbie Stein and Gabriela Lopez.
The hill bomb — during which skaters roll down Dolores at top speed — has, in prior years, devolved into violence, or even death. The 2022 edition featured brawling and a stabbing. In 2020, 23-year-old cyclist Andrew Sanders died after he collided with a skateboarder. In 2017, Sgt. Flint Paul cost the city $275,000 in a settlement after he deliberately knocked skater Anthony Economus off his board.
This year, after a police sergeant received an inch-long laceration to his forehead during a confrontation with a 16-year-old skater and his 15-year-old girlfriend, officers moved to aggressively curtail the unpermitted event. In doing so, the plaintiffs claim, cops in riot gear and carrying truncheons and shields corralled children who were not participating in the unsanctioned skating event nor any associated antisocial behavior. Mission Local was on the scene, and documented the chaotic, hours-long event in its entirety.
Tawasha, 13, claims she was not allowed to walk to the agreed-upon place where she would get a ride home from a friend’s dad. She was told by police to “just listen to what we’re going to say; we don’t want to hurt you,” which she perceived as a threat.
“The police trapped her and her friends on 17th Street between Guerrero and Dolores and did not allow them to leave,” notes the suit, “even though the parent was waiting for the children one block away.”
Eriberto Jimenez, a 17-year-old skateboarder, says he was attempting to comply with the police directive to leave the area. “As they were heading home on 17th Street, Eriberto and his friends were met by a line of SFPD officers pointing weapons at them and blocking them from proceeding east toward Valencia Street,” reads the suit. “Despite the teens telling the officers they were just trying to go home, officers did not allow them to leave.”
Lopez, 15, also claims she was attempting to comply with police orders to leave the park when she became encircled by officers. Rios, 15, says she was riding a scooter from one end of town to another when she was surrounded by officers giving contradictory orders.
After being corralled, some 113 people were arrested on 17th Street between Guerrero and Dolores streets. “There was no probable cause for the arrests of the plaintiffs and the approximately 109 others who were trapped and arrested with them,” reads the suit. “The majority of the arrestees were youth of color, including 57 Latinx children, youth and adults, and 20 Black children, youth and adults.”
The San Francisco Police Department has not yet returned a message asking for comment. “Once we are served with the lawsuit,” said City Attorney spokesperson Jen Kwart, “we will review the complaint and respond in court.”
Made to urinate in a bucket
The suit alleges that the “herding and trapping” of arrestees “without warning or opportunity to disperse” is in violation of the SFPD’s own general order regarding crowd control. Following the arrests, the largely young crowd, dressed lightly for a July evening, was made to stay on-site for hours, until well after sunset. They were also not allowed to use the bathroom:
“Hours went by and Plaintiffs and other arrestees needed to urinate. Children implored the officers to allow them access to bathrooms but their requests were denied. They asked if they could relieve themselves behind a car, but the officers did not answer. At one point, police officers rushed at a youth who, after alerting nearby officers, went behind a car to urinate. Eventually, a sympathetic neighbor tossed a bucket down from her window. Some of the kids were able to urinate in the bucket or on the street. Others were forced to urinate in their pants, causing them shame, humiliation and embarrassment, and compounding their cold and discomfort.“
The arrestees were bused to Mission Station, where the first group arrived at 11:30 p.m.; the last child would not be released until 4:15 a.m. While some arrestees were allowed to use the restroom at the station, they were purportedly made to do so while being watched by a police officer.
“Jolina, Eriberto, Carmen and Lucy suffered pain, discomfort and injury as a result of having their hands tied behind their backs for an extended period of time and from overly tight plastic handcuffs,” reads the suit. “The SFPD officers refused to loosen or remove the handcuffs until the children had been processed and were about to be released, late that night or in the early morning. The plastic handcuffs left visible marks on some of the children … ”
Finally, the suit contends that the police violated their own policy by failing to check parents’ IDs or otherwise ensure that adults picking up children were authorized to do so. In at least one case, a minor ended up walking home, alone, from Mission Station during the early morning hours. The suit contends that the conditions of the arrestees’ detention were “unreasonable and abusive,” and that they violated police policies for juvenile detention, which state that young people should not be transported to district stations, and should be allowed to use the restroom and wash themselves. The police, the suit contends, also erred in failing, in a timely manner, to notify children’s parents and guardians, and the Public Defender’s Office.
Claims of trauma
While the raft of criminal charges filed against the plaintiffs and others have essentially been dropped, the plaintiffs claim to have been traumatized, left unable to sleep, fearful of attending large events, and wary of police.
The suit lays blame at the feet of Chief Scott, who “delegated authority to defendants Harvey and Sullivan.” It also blasts the chief for “publicly disseminating a false narrative purporting to justify the arrests by claiming the plaintiffs and class members were arrested because they vandalized an SFMTA Light Rail Vehicle and/or engaged in other property destruction [and] ‘put members of the public and our officers at risk of serious injury or worse’ … despite the complete lack of probable cause to believe that any of the plaintiffs and class members had done any of these acts.” Scott is also accused of “minimizing the abusive conditions” of the juveniles’ detention.
The plaintiffs claim that both the city and its police department have engaged in a “pattern or practice” of “deliberate indifference” to “repeated violations of the constitutional rights of citizens.”
If the City needs witness’s to the actions of these delinquents, I and my neighbors are happy to testify. These delinquents were asked to leave and refused and then caused a huge amount of property damage. The parents should be ashamed of themselves.
If something is going on in the city where the police gives a lawful order to disperse or face arrest. I don’t know about you but I would abide by that order. If firecrackers, bottles and other items were thrown at the police, they take it as a threat. There’s nothing wrong with putting on protective equipment to protect themselves. So, is it ok for the kids to start stepping up to the police? The police held their ground. If there were kids who weren’t apart of the event and just watching, didn’t they hear the police give them that lawful order to disperse?
Great – then you would have done exactly the same thing as several of these kids. They abided by the order, started leaving, and were faced with more cops ordering them back.
To know that, you don’t even have to read the complaint, nor ML’s on-the-ground reporting from the night of the event. It’s all there in the article you’re commenting on. It’s polite to read the article first.
If anyone ever says “the cops don’t do anything”, this is why. When the cops try to do something involving bipoc individuals, they are racist. When the individual resists detention/arrest and are injured, the police are thugs. Of course this was a large operation where cops were following instructions, but on their own, cops are unlikely to take action that could result in someone saying they are racist thugs. In this case, the crowd had many warnings to disperse or face arrest. Most did. Some didn’t. Those who were detained/arrested were shocked (shocked!) that the cops actually detained/arrested them. I’m also guessing that Jolina, Eriberto, Carmen and Lucy tried their best to wiggle out of the zip tie handcuffs, leaving marks on their wrists from this effort. Bottom line, this town hasn’t decided on what kind of policing it wants. The city will give them some money to go away.
counterpoint,
The cops not only ‘did’ something, they carefully planned a confrontation and installed ‘Killer Traffic Dots’ in both lanes of traffic through SFMTA to make the course more dangerous and to slow the skateboarders at the resultant choke point at the intersection of the wall and the Childrens Playground where cops waited like highwaymen there to Cock Block the young men of color trying to impress the young girls and maybe the Boarders didn’t have a Permit but neither did the cops have an Invitation.
I’m making light of the serious traffic hazzard that exists with the Killer Dots.
Pics on my much maligned (by my 12 readers) blog sfbulldogblog.com
…And this is one reason the police don’t bother trying to enforce the law anymore in SF. No matter what they do, someone will feel their rights were infridged on and they’ll file a lawsuit. (Even on someone else’s behalf!)
Because of course, when the world revolves around you, you should be allowed to do whatever the hell they want, and to hell with anyone who dare takes issue with it.
And the social disfunction that that attitude causes is OF COURSE someone ele’s fault, too.
The parents should be sued by the City to recoup the cost of these dangerous and childish behaviors which disrupted the City and caused thousands of dollars in property damage.
Interesting complaint. Seems to me it will turn on probable cause. If there was probable cause to detain the plaintiffs, there really is no claim. Probable cause is a pretty low bar and easy to establish – did police have a reasonable belief the plaintiffs refused to obey their order to disperse – so proving the lack of probable cause (which is the plaintiffs’ burden) won’t be easy. But if there really was no probable cause to detain them, they should prevail, although it’s not clear the damages are going to be very significant. Class certification will be difficult – I’m not sure how you could make a probable cause determination without an individualized inquiry (thus, a class action is not appropriate) but perhaps some facts will emerge that indicates there was no cause to detain anyone at all.
SFAtty,
Only redress would be if the kids names never got into the system which is the first thing the cops did because that was the entire goal of the operation.
Before they’d arrested a single juvie a captain (according to a Standard reporter) said they were, “gonna make a lot of arrests”.
Someone asked once the kids were corralled if there was a chance to stop things before they were ‘in the system’ and cop replied, “too late”.
Missing here is fact that I watched some guy get up at an obscure DPW committee at Public Comment and he had all of his paperwork about the ‘dots’ (raised half softball kinda hard rubber) and gave chapter and verse as to why they were illegal and that someone had gotten killed on a scooter that hit them and ended up under a car.
Spokesperson for DPW was in the audience and when I contacted her and asked if it was true would only allow that her department had nothing to do with the “dots” and that SFMTA installed them for the cops.
If so, that’s murder.
Wonder if the dots are still there ?
Dots are there. I think they’re unsafe. Though skaters have no right to graffiti the muni or destroy things out of frustrations.
@SFAtty – Lack of probable cause and Fourth Amendment violations are just one of a litany of complaints – the case doesn’t hinge on it. It doesn’t matter as no jury will ever hear it and a settlement will be reached out of court.
This opportunistic lawsuit gives the “children” excellent practice in seeing themselves as victims. The only thing more traumatic than their “trauma” would be missing out on the chance to make some money. Shame on them, and more shame on their parents.
Ms. Irish,
They are victims.
Cops planned well in advance and didn’t even include the Chief in the loop.
It’s a Rogue Force and we need an Elected Chief to whip them into shape.
To someone coming across those raised dots at night it would be like hitting a trip wire and the cops got SFMTA to violate the law and put them there.
The cops were wrong here Scarlett, and so are you.
So much entitlement from the criminals and their first brush with real laws. This lawsuit is a waste of time and the parents involved with it are shameful.
Thank you Joe for this article.
This stinks of entitlement. First of all the skaters knew they were coming to SF to do an unsanctioned event, and so did their parents dropping them off, so when they got their event busted, they have to comply, because they’re apart in the wrong. Then the property damage caused should fall on them as well. But they’re rich parents of course can’t wait to flex their wallets to bailed out their spoiled kids. At the minimum have these kids clean up all the graffitis. And those assualted the cops should be fined like anyone else. Enough of the entitlement flex, we get enough of those from tech bros already!
Dear Irish Scarlet, which I’m sure is a fake name: I’ve known Jolina Tawasha since before she could walk. Even as a baby, she had a special sparkle in her eye, indicating intelligence and compassion beyond her years. She is Good person, and very brave for coming forward publicly regarding her injuries at the hands of SFPD, particularly Mission Station, which has been known for instances of excessive force for many years. I am so very proud of her and support her 100% in this fight. Her parents didn’t raise her to be pushed around or treated unjustly. I wish more of our youth had her courage to speak out against state violence, in all its forms.
Her fight is to take money from the city coffers that could be used for any number of purposes, including schools or health services. She is fighting because she refused to follow an order to disperse.
There is nothing whatsoever noble about this lawsuit and you are doing her and the other kids a lifelong disservice by suggesting that there is. I hope there are alternate examples of responsible adults in her life.
Also, don’t criticize Scarlett for not using her real name, and please take my advice and don’t use yours either. Progressives in this city are very mean-spirited and they will doxx you if they don’t like what you write. Please stay safe.
Ma’m,
We have 2,300 (including airport) cops on this force and included in that number are those such as the ones who are commenting here.
‘Victims’ who start at $120,000 a year and if you’r too dumb to pass the test but went to the right high school, they’ll tutor you.
They take Lateral Transfers who have shot citizens before or been run out of town for being too violent. In one case, they made a big Sergeant a Training Officer and he taught officers to change coats and name plates before you went busting heads in North Beach.
Wudda worked fine but he then roughed up a chick for being black and beautiful and she turned out to be a friend of Willie’s.
Nothing here is new including the red-neck middle management that gives honest cops a bad name.
The idea that some of these people have the nerve to say that there is a valid excuse to not do your job when your job is to carry a gun and wear a badge to protect people is beyond the pale but considering the bandwidth the group is living with to be expected.
Finish this sentence:
“The reason we don’t do our job is …. ”
My answer ?
“Cause we got fired for being whiney cowardly overpaid babies.”
Joe,
DPW’s Spokesperson, Rachel Gordon says the raised dots in the road that may be illegal were put there by SFMTA and not DPW.
Someone on a scooter got killed going over them and ending up under a car.
According to testimony I watched before a DPW commission.
Da Dots are ta Die for and should go.
I was arrested at a protest once. I was actually leaving to go home (I was 17 at the time) when the cops said I threatened them. They took me to that station on Valencia st. They didn’t take me through the front door. They took me in from the parking garage in the back. While walking me there they repeatedly called me a fag and pushed me forward even though I was complying. When we got to the garage door one of the officers punched me in the face. My hands were handcuffed and I could not defend myself.
They then asked me how old I was and I told them I was 17. That’s when they admitted they were going to beat me senseless but couldn’t bc I was under age.
Once inside they said things most of you wouldn’t believe. Including wanting to arrest as many as possible just to do it and to also hurt as many as possible.
Anyway, just thought I’d share this for those of you complaining about the mistreatment of police officers.
Cops have historically mistreated lower class people.
Also skateboarders have had that hill bomb for years! It wasn’t until all you yuppies moved in and gentrified the hood that it became a problem. YOU people are the issue! If you’re going to come in and be part of a neighborhood realize that YOURE the outsider and need to respect our culture. Skateboarding is most definitely part of SF culture and always will be!
so many trolls in the comments attributing an arrest as a conviction
there is no evidence i am aware of that indicates that multiple warnings to disperse were issued. on the contrary there are ample first-hand accounts that indicate otherwise.
the only property damage i am aware of from the ‘event’ is the tagging of a muni car on church/18 yet the evidence reported indicates the corral happened along 17th.
so many comments are adding their own unsubstantiated story of what happened justify their support for the sfpd.
sfpd spent an incredible amount of resources for this planned operation while it loudly telegraphed messages to all the would-be shoplifters that there weren’t enough police to protect our retail businesses.
apparently they believe we are all stooges.
i again want to remind every one that the treatment of these children is the same abusive treatment police (and military) do all the time to exert power and control. ask a victim of domestic violence how they feel about being subjected to this form of abuse.
extend that understanding and perhaps you are capable of empathizing with a child being denied a basic human need.
all done just to prove you can abuse someone because you have the gun.
*years
Cannot agree more with h. Brown. I have no idea why people automatically assume the cops are a force for good when the evidence is the opposite. Regardless of what a few of these kids did, a mass arrest and detention while subjecting the detainees to the cold and humiliating conditions is unlawful no matter how you look at it.
SFPD wants the big pay but not the risks that come with the job. That’s why they don’t pursue real criminals because they don’t want to get hurt on the job but arresting a bunch of unarmed kids is a cake walk for them. If SFPD was in the business of protecting the public, you’d see more of them walking the beat instead of chewing the fat in groups of 4 or 5 in front of Macy’s and Bloomies in Union Square.
Life is good if you’re a cop in SF. And it will get better if you can hire your cronies and give them a $75K sign on bonus thanks to London Breed and her puppet, Matt Dorsey.
All the evidence suggests that more cops reduce crime and increase public safety. Poor neighborhoods are all underpoliced (and in polling tend to support more policing the most) and so is America by developed world standards. Those are some of the many reasons people believe cops are a force for good.
Oh and also acting like 12 hours on pavement is going to traumatize for life a bunch of kids behaving like hooligans is some real pearl clutching if I’ve ever seen it. At least the cops didn’t drop them off in deep east oakland.