Bomb on Dolores Park Hill moves one block away, bypassing police lines

The much anticipated – or, depending on your point of view, feared – bombing on Dolores Park Hill was pushed off Dolores Street and onto Church Street on Saturday night, without any confrontations with police, as was the case with last year’s attack.

A brawl began and ended quickly after spectators intervened. Several skaters fell but appeared to sustain only minor injuries. One was sitting on the sidewalk and was being tended to by several volunteer paramedics who were examining a bloody cut on his head.

More than a hundred San Francisco police officers had already blocked off the park for hours before the first skaters arrived. They had zigzagged barricades along the sidewalks and blocked the intersections along Dolores Street. The barriers were manned by police officers and several police cars surrounded the park.

So the skaters turned to a less policed ​​area – the park itself – before continuing onto the steeper Church Street on the other side of Dolores.

“Everyone stay to the side! No crossing!” shouted Chris Long, an experienced skater, urging the crowds around Church to make way for the downhill riders.

The skaters raced down the street at breakneck speed while the crowd roared and clapped. Whenever a skater reached the bottom safely, the crowd erupted in applause; when he fell, the crowd groaned loudly.

Music blared from speakers, teenagers and people in their twenties poured alcohol into plastic cups and began drinking Modelos and other light beers, and photographers and repeat offenders crowded the area hoping to snap a magical photo.

The annual event usually draws hundreds of skaters and spectators to the park in July. It is dangerous and has resulted in serious head injuries, a coma and a death in the past. And last year, police surrounded and arrested 113 young people after members of the crowd attacked buildings and Muni vehicles and threw cans and bottles at officers.

The mass arrest resulted in a civil rights class action lawsuit that is still ongoing. Youths arrested by police claim officers violated their constitutional rights and abused them by detaining them for hours into the night.