Ruling advances lawsuit against S.F. over arrests during 2023 Dolores Park hill bomb

A federal court on Thursday granted class-action status to a lawsuit filed by teenagers who say they were unlawfully arrested during the chaotic 2023  hill bomb at Dolores Park, paving the way for more than 100 others to potentially join the case against the city and county.

The ruling allows approximately 113 people — including 81 minors — who were arrested on 17th Street on July 8, 2023, to join the lawsuit first filed by four teenagers in December 2023. The mass arrests concluded a night of general mayhem, marked by fireworks that sparked fires, vandalization of Muni vehicles and confiscation of several firearms around Dolores Park, according to police.

Within the chaos, innocent teenagers were swept up in detentions, the lawsuit argues. Rachel Lederman, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, called the mass arrest of children and youth an “outrageous round-up” where police arrested young adults without probable cause.

“Then, the police held the children and youth outdoors and in vehicles for many hours as darkness fell and the night turned cold and windy,” she said in a statement. “SFPD did not provide them access to a bathroom for up to seven hours forcing desperate children to use a bucket in the street handed out by a neighbor.”

Jen Kwart, spokesperson for the city attorney, defended police, saying Friday that officers exercised appropriate crowd control to protect public safety. The city is looking forward to presenting its case in the coming months, she said.

The ruling was first reported by Mission Local.

Over at least the past decade, the informal competition has often sparked conflict with police. The hill bomb has gained notoriety in recent years after the event led to a death, a traumatic head injury and multiple skirmishes with the police. After 2023’s confrontations and arrests, the hill bomb was relatively calm in 2024 as police barricaded Dolores Street but skateboarders bombed down a different one.

This year, the event did not take place, and was instead replaced by a more formal, structured hill bomb at Twin Peaks, a largely peaceful affair.

Police were made aware of the 2023 hill bomb three weeks before the event took place, according to the lawsuit. The city sent additional officers to the area and erected barricades on the steepest part of the hill on Dolores Street. The crowd grew to approximately 200 people that night. 

Police said that around 7 p.m., a 16-year-old man spat in a sergeant’s face. Police said the officer was assaulted while trying to detain the teenager and suffered lacerations to his face. Police said that during the arrest, the crowd began to throw ignited fireworks, smoke bombs, glass bottles, and metal cans at officers.

Two Muni light-rail vehicles were vandalized with graffiti, and the crowds refused to disperse and began removing barricades police had placed in the area, police said.

Around 8 p.m., after declaring the crowds an unlawful assembly, officers began making mass arrests. Plaintiffs argue they were trying to leave the area when police began corralling them for detention. 

One 15-year-old said in the lawsuit that she was trying to ride a scooter to a friend’s house and was still detained after telling officers she had nothing to do with the hill bomb.

The lawsuit alleges officers gave little information to parents who arrived to pick up their kids. Parents waited on the street for hours, and the last child was released from the Mission Police Station at 4:15 a.m., the lawsuit alleges. 

The teens were cited and released for inciting a riot, remaining present at an unlawful assembly and conspiracy, police said.

Police said one minor was sent to the hospital to be treated for intoxication but “there was no other report of injury from the arrests.”

“This dangerous and unlawful behavior put members of the public and our officers at risk of serious injury or worse,” then-police chief Bill Scott said in a statement at the time. “This behavior will not be tolerated in our city.”