• Three bystanders were hit by stray bullets on International Boulevard in Oakland early Sunday during a dispute between other people, and they’re all in stable condition. [Bay Area News Group]
• Several hundred protestors rallied outside the federal building at 7th and Mission streets in SF Saturday expressing outrage over the major US-Israeli military attack that killed at least 201 people and injured more than 700. [Mission Local]
• District 10 supervisor Shamann Walton and other city leaders held a ribbon-cutting for the new 3rd Street Youth Clinic’s Transitional Age Youth (TAY) Housing for all SF residents ages 12–27, which includes a clinic and wellness center, along with resources for finding stable housing and employment. [Shamann Walton/Instagram]

• An Ebony Alert has been issued for 15-year-old Cameron Parker who was last seen near 1st Avenue and 1st Avenue Place in Oakland around 10 pm Saturday wearing a red and black sweatshirt, red and black pants and red New Balance shoes, authorities said. [Bay Area News Group]
• A 51-year-old man was arrested on hate crime charges Saturday morning for allegedly vandalizing a church in SF's Pacific Heights with graffiti depicting swastikas and other antisemitic and homophobic words, causing $20,000 in damage. [KRON4]

Leanne Maxwell/SFist

After initially suspending the case due to lack of evidence, Petaluma police arrested a suspect who was allegedly caught on video surveillance tracing racial slurs and swastikas onto the dusty windows of local youth mentor and former Harlem Globetrotter William Bullard’s SUV.

As KRON4 reports, the Petaluma Police Department reviewed a week’s work of surveillance footage from early December, which was obtained from the garage where Bullard’s SUV was parked, and identified Corey Newman, 20, of Petaluma, allegedly defacing Bullard's windows.

As SFist previously reported, the police department initially dropped the case before reviewing the footage, claiming there wasn’t sufficient evidence. The case has since been reopened, per the Chronicle, likely due to Bullard’s posts about the incident, which he shared to his large following, along with the subsequent media coverage.

"I'm doing this for awareness. I'm doing this to educate people, and I'm trying to let them know don't be afraid to speak up for yourself if something happens like this," he said, per KGO earlier this month. "Like, what's the worst thing that can happen? It can be ignored by the police, OK, but at least you spoke up."

“The Petaluma Police Department takes all hate-related incidents seriously and remains fully committed to conducting thorough and impartial investigations,” said the police department in a press release. “Crimes motivated by bias have a profound impact not only on those directly affected, but also on the sense of safety and well-being of the entire community.”

Police arrested Newman during a traffic stop on Christmas Eve. He was booked into the Sonoma County Jail for the commission of a hate crime and vandalism, per KRON4.

Image: NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 19: William 'Bull' Bullard of The Harlem Globetrotters Ring The NASDAQ Closing Bell at NASDAQ MarketSite on December 19, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Steve Zak Photography/FilmMagic)

Previously:Hate on the Rise: Ex-Globetrotter’s SUV Defaced in Petaluma, San Jose Teens Form Human Swastika

As the federal government continues to attack DEI efforts — emboldening racists to come out of the woodwork, two high-profile hate incidents came to light this week. In Petaluma, a youth mentor and ex-Globetrotter was targeted, and in San Jose, high school students formed a human swastika.

As the Press Democrat reports, William “Bull” Bullard, a popular local youth basketball coach and former member of the Harlem Globetrotters, posted on social media that his SUV was defaced with swastikas and racial slurs Tuesday — drawn in dust on the car’s windows — while parked in a garage near his apartment in Petaluma’s Theatre District. Bullard, who moved to Petaluma from Detroit about five years ago, said he’s experienced other racist incidents in Sonoma County, where Black residents make up about 2% of the population.

“Enough is enough,” Bullard told the Press Democrat. “Sometimes these things get swept under the rug, but for me it is very apparent that this needs to be brought to light.”

Bullard said he believes some local youths who hang out in the parking garage at night drew the symbols, which reinforced his belief that young people in the area need constructive places to channel their energy. He hopes his new gym, Bam Bam Training, will help keep them on track. “I want to have all of these kids in the gym or out on the field with me so I can break down life to them,” he said. “They are not going to be able to get away with things like that. When these kids get into trouble it is because they don’t have safe spaces to go to.”

Per the Chronicle, Bullard reported the incident to Petaluma police, who reportedly dropped the case due to lack of evidence.

A commenter on Bullard’s second post said their family had similar experiences in Petaluma. “My family experienced six different racial incidents living in Petaluma. Same area. Shocking bc we thought downtown would’ve been nearly drama free,” the comment read. “Yet here we are in 2025 still dealing with this. Your message is positive. No matter what, we still have to operate from a place of love.”

Another commenter told Bullard, per the Press Democrat, “Just imagine how little their world must be… filled with hate and fear.”

Meanwhile in San Jose, as Bay Area News Group reports, a photo was posted to social media this week of eight students forming a human swastika on the football field at Branham High School, accompanied by a quote by Adolf Hitler in the caption, which was first reported by J. Weekly.

The school has identified the students in the photo, and an investigation is ongoing, per Bay Area News Group. “CUHSD and Branham stand firmly against all forms of hate, discrimination, and intolerance,” said the school’s principal, Beth Silbergeld. “While this incident does not reflect the values of the vast majority of our students and families, the harm it caused is real and must be addressed.”

“The fact that the children feel emboldened to do this and then post it on social media in such a public way is very scary for our community,” said Tali Klima, spokesperson for the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, per Bay Area News Group.

Per KGO, the Jewish Community Relations Council is providing support to the school community, and about 200 students participated in a walkout Wednesday in protest of the incident. “This was an open support for Hitler and had a Hitler quote attached to the image, and so what we're seeing is unadulterated, unafraid antisemitism,” said Tyler Gregory, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council.

“This is not something that should be seen as a one-off incident and so that's why it's really important we stay in touch with the school offering resources and support," Gregory said.

Image: NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 19: William 'Bull' Bullard of The Harlem Globetrotters Ring The NASDAQ Closing Bell at NASDAQ MarketSite on December 19, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Steve Zak Photography/FilmMagic)

Related: NAACP Holds Meeting With Black Families About Alleged Racist Incidents at SF Public Schools

Day Around the Bay: Swastika Incident Shocks SF’s Washington High School

The 19-year-old who allegedly spray-painted on the Twin Peaks Pink Triangle last Pride Month has been charged with a felony, though not a hate crime, as his attorney says the kid didn’t even know what the Pink Triangle meant.

You may recall that someone vandalized the Pink Triangle placed atop Twin Peaks during last summer’s Pride Month of June, prompting SF Mayor Daniel Lurie to declare "This hateful act of vandalism does not reflect San Francisco’s values and will not be tolerated." But the suspect was actually caught in the act, and it turns out he was 19-year-old Lester Bamacajeronimo, a high school student who apparently did not realize what the Pink Triangle symbolized.

In fact, the Bay Area Reporter notes that an attorney for the young Bamacajeronimo said he was embarking on an apparent prank in which he was using black spray paint in an attempt to turn the Pink Triangle “into the symbol for the comic book hero Superman.”

That same Bay Area Reporter article does however note that Bamacajeronimo was charged with felony vandalism over the spray-paint job, as well as additional charges of possessing graffiti tools and resisting arrest. But no hate crime charges for vandalizing the LGBTQ symbol.

DA Brooke Jenkins made that decision back in June just a couple days after the vandalism, telling the Bay Area Reporter at the time, “he was unaware of what the pink triangle represented and he was trying to be artistic in modifying it.”

The aftermath of the vandalism can be seen in the image above.

The damage to the Pink Triangle materials amounted to multiple thousands of dollars. The display’s co-founder and manager Patrick Carney will likely have to pay those expenses out-of-pocket for the 2026 Pink Triangle display.

“Mr. Bamacajeronimo, and without anyone encouraging him or helping him, decided to vandalize someone else’s property,” the case’s Judge Cecilia Castellanos said at a hearing this week when determining the charges. “It doesn’t matter what it was.”

Bamacajeronimo’s next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, October 16 at 9 am.

Related: 19-Year-Old Suspect Arrested After Alleged Vandalism of Pink Triangle In SF [SFist]

Image: An Aerial view of San Francisco's pink Pride triangle atop Twin Peaks. An iconic symbol during Pride month. (Getty Images)

One well known unhinged gentleman in the SoMa neighborhood with a long rap sheet has really had it out for the robocars in the last six weeks, and he's now been charged in four separate incidents of vandalism.

SFist noted a video that had reached the local TV media earlier this week of a Monday afternoon incident involving a Waymo with a passenger in it, and a man who climbed atop the car, stomped on and cracked its windshield, and beat the car with his belt.

San Francisco police believe they've identified the culprit, and the SF District Attorney's Office announced charges Thursday against the individual, identified as 45-year-old Walker Reed Quinn. Quinn has now been charged with four incidents of felony vandalism involving Waymos, the first of which occurred on July 4.

In that incident, according to investigators, Quinn "dove on to the hood of a Waymo vehicle" on the 1200 block of Howard Street and placed a traffic cone over the car's LiDAR sensor on the roof. Several weeks later, on July 29, around 9 am, Quinn allegedly attacked a Waymo at Sixth and Mission streets, damaging its tires and driver-side mirror.

A third incident occurred about a half hour after that one, in which Quinn allegedly damaged a windshield wiper and the top sensor of a different Waymo vehicle.

In the fourth incident on August 11, captured on surveillance video and sent to KTVU, Quinn was seen climing on the hood of a Waymo at Fifth and Harrison streets and having a tantrum, beating the car with his belt as if it had wronged him, and eventually stomping violently on its windshield. A passenger in the car eventually got out and walked away.

Quinn is well known to the SFPD and to the social media account friscolive415. One incident documented by that account in March showed Quinn being handcuffed by police while screaming obscenities at one cop. "We heard there was someone throwing chairs at UN Plaza," the account's owner says on the video. "Honestly the first thing I thought was 'Is it Walker?'" And, it was.

A week earlier in March 2025, Quinn was seen in another video climbing out of a window of the National Hotel on Market Street onto the awning of a store below, all while police waited to arrest him — and that video also showed a still image of someone who appeared to be Quinn carrying a dog in a choke hold through UN Plaza.

A video posted to Twitter in September 2021 appears to show Quinn as well, with the poster of the video saying that they had been assaulted by Quinn that day, and another reply tweet saying they were assaulted by him also and he failed to show up for a court date.

Arrest records for Quinn show that he has a ton of previous vandalism arrests in San Francisco dating back to 2015. The extensive rap sheet includes charges of battery, malicious mischief to vehicles, possession of drug paraphernalia, and assault with a deadly weapon. Most recently, he was arrested for vandalism ($5000 or more) in both February and June 2025, and assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a concealed dagger in March 2024.

The DA's office press release does not mention any of these previous arrests.

Police are continuing to investigate the Waymo vandalism incidents, and anyone with information is asked to call the San Francisco Police Department tip line at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD. You may remain anonymous.

Previously: Video: SF Man Climbs on Top of Waymo, Beats It With His Belt, Eventually Smashes Windshield

In what seems like an unpleasant coincidence unless the suspect was the same in both incidents, two busy San Francisco restaurants saw their front windows shattered by unhinged individuals in the middle of dinner service last week.

The first incident occurred Thursday night at Rich Table, when an unhinged person on the street reportedly threw something — perhaps a rock or a bottle — through one of the restaurant's front windows on Gough Street, shattering it and causing glass to rain down onto tables where people were still enjoying dinner. An SFist tipster described the incident, saying that no one was hurt but there was a sizable mess to clean up — and safety glass kept some of the window intact.

We have not confirmed with San Francisco police whether they were seeking a suspect in the incident or had made any arrest.

On Friday night, about one mile away in the Fillmore District, Minnie Bell's Soul Movement had its front door glass shattered by what the restaurant's owner describes as "an unstable individual." The suspect reportedly picked up the restaurant's A-frame sign that was sitting on the sidewalk outside and threw it through the glass, shattering it, and no one was injured despite it being a busy Friday night in the restaurant.

"This incident highlights a recurring issue for businesses on this corridor," writes owner Fernay McPherson on Instagram. "Myself and other businesses have repeatedly urged @sfgov to implement more safety measures in the area. These incidents severely impact foot traffic, making it difficult for us to thrive."

McPherson adds, "The Fillmore, a historic San Francisco neighborhood, has been neglected for too long."

Minnie Bell's, which specializes in fried chicken, opened in April 2024.

Apart from these both being busy restaurants within a mile of each other, attacked during business hours, and the proximity of these incidents in time, we have no evidence so far to suggest that these incidents were connected.

We'll update you if we learn more.

For the fourth or fifth time in recent weeks, the new public park on the former Great Highway was hit by vandals over the weekend.

Vandals struck again at Sunset Dunes over this past weekend, stealing two public hammocks that were part of the park's amenities.

The hammocks are part of the "Taraval Lounge" area toward the south end of the park, which also includes lounge chairs and a painted mural on the former roadway.

SF Rec and Parks General Manager Phil Ginsburg gave a statement to KRON4 saying, "It’s frustrating to see a place that brings so much joy and connection targeted again. But we will not let a few destructive acts dampen the spirit of Sunset Dunes. The stolen hammocks will be replaced and the park will continue to be a beautiful, creative, and welcoming space for everyone who loves it."

The stolen hammocks will reportedly cost $600 to replace.

This act of vandalism comes less than two weeks after a vandal or group of vandals damaged a public piano beyond repair, which had been installed among other public art pieces. All but 10 of the pianos keys were damaged, and the group Friends of Sunset Dunes noted, "JFK Promenade has had pianos for years, none of which have been vandalized."

Also damaged in that June 14 incident was an art piece called "Ocean Calling," which is a phone booth that lets visitors "call" loved ones who are deceased — based on a similar phone booth, called the Wind Phone, that was installed in northeast Japan after the 2011 tsunami disaster.

"Attacking art that brings people together is ugly behavior," said Friends of Sunset Dunes president Lucas Lux in a statement at the time. "San Franciscans can disagree, but should do so respectfully. Voters chose to open the park, and we should respect the will of the voters instead of lashing out and destroying things that bring the community joy and peace."

Those acts of vandalism followed others in March — one mid-March incident included spraypainted graffiti on a mural, and a separate tagging of that mural two weeks later featured the words “gentriffy” [sic] and “Your bringing trouble” [sic].

Supporters of the park believe these acts have been targeted and are not random, given the still high tensions over the closing of the Great Highway — something the city largely voted in favor of with Prop K last year, but which the nearby neighborhoods remain largely opposed to. Supervisor Joel Engardio, who supported the creation of Sunset Dunes, now faces a recall campaign in his Outer Sunset district which could very well succeed, largely because of this one issue.

Still, Engardio will be hosting a July 4th parade in the park next week.

Previously: Once Again, Vandals Do Damage to Art Installations at Sunset Dunes, the Park at the Former Great Highway

Top image: Photo via cyclinginstitute/Instagram

The giant Pride Month Pink Triangle on Twin Pinks was reportedly defaced Tuesday afternoon, and police were called and quickly arrested a suspect who was in the act.

The iconic Pink Triangle that sits on the hill above the Castro neighborhood now for most of Pride Month — it used to be just a Pride Weekend thing — was reportedly vandalized Tuesday afternoon.

SFPD officers responded to the unit block of Christmas Tree Point at 12:30 pm Tuesday, as the department announced on X, and found a suspect "actively defacing" the pink triangle, which is made up of hundreds of pink plastic tarp panels. The suspect reportedly tried to flee on foot but was caught by officers and arrested.

SFPD officers said they also seized vandlism tools that the suspect had in his possession. Update: Hoodline has photos of the vandalism from Pink Triangle founder Patrick Carney, which appears to be in the form of black spraypaint. Carney is now considering whether to replace the damaged panels or just paint over them and replace them later.

The suspect has been identified as 19-year-old Lester Bamacajeronimo of San Francisco, and he's been booked on suspicion of vandalism and could face other charges.

"This vandalism is unacceptable in our city and the San Francisco Police Department condemns this act," the SFPD said in a statement. "The Pink Triangle is a powerful symbol of our city's commitment to supporting LGBT rights."

Mayor Daniel Lurie also issued a statement saying, "This hateful act of vandalism does not reflect San Francisco’s values and will not be tolerated."

As Hoodline reported prior to this year's installation on June 7, this is the 30th anniversary of the Pink Triangle's first installation on Twin Peaks. While it became an illuminated display during the pandemic, it is back to being a non-electrified, daytime display, made up of 175 pink tarps and held down with 5,000 steel spikes. It measures over 200 feet from top to bottom and can be seen from 20 miles away.

Photo by Steven Bracco/Hoodline

In at least the third incident of vandalism in the last few months at the former Great Highway, now the park Sunset Dunes, a public piano at the park was damaged “beyond repair” over the weekend, after another installation had just been vandalized.

There was yet more car-free Great Highway controversy Monday morning when the Chronicle published their analysis "Has the Great Highway closure led to a traffic nightmare?" unleashing another round of partisan arguments among those who want cars back on the highway, and those who prefer the car-free area that is now called Sunset Dunes.

But there was already more controversy brewing in that Ocean Beach area, as the Chronicle had noted on Sunday that two acts of vandalism had hit some of the art installations at the park, with one vandalism incident apparently happening last Thursday, and another Friday night or Saturday morning.

Before any jumps to conclusions that the vandalism may have been related to Saturday’s anti-Trump protests, the incidents of vandalism both occurred prior to Saturday’s protests (one of which was at Ocean Beach).

On Saturday morning, it was discovered that a piano that had been placed in the park for the last few months was intentionally damaged. The organization Friends of Sunset Dunes said in a press release that the piano was damaged “likely beyond repair,” and that “Vandals broke all but 10 keys and 2 of 3 hinges for the cover.”

Friends of Sunset Dunes added in that same release that “JFK Promenade has had pianos for years, none of which have been vandalized.”

And on Thursday, June 12, there was severe vandalism to a faux phone booth installation along the park’s walkway, according to KTVU. KTVU says that the installation “was found with its phone ripped from the installation and surrounding wood structures taken apart and defaced.”

“Attacking art that brings people together is ugly behavior,” Friends of Sunset Dunes president Lucas Lux said in the press release. “San Franciscans can disagree, but should do so respectfully. Voters chose to open the park, and we should respect the will of the voters instead of lashing out and destroying things that bring the community joy and peace.”

That said, we don’t know if any of this vandalism was related to the Great Highway, or any frustration with cars being banned from that thoroughfare. A mid-March incident of graffiti on a mural was just a bunch of spray-painted lines. A separate tagging of that mural two weeks later featured the words “gentriffy” and “Your bringing trouble” [sic and sic], which could be seen as anti-park sentiment.

It could also just be that these two latest incidents of vandalism happened because the park is in a fairly remote location, and it’s an easy place to perform bad acts unnoticed. So this may have nothing to do with cars being removed from the Great Highway, or it could be another act of pushback from frustrated west side residents who resent that a stretch of their highway was taken away.  

Related: Great Highway Walls Vandalized Yet Again, With Angry Graffiti From Apparent Park-Haters [SFist]

Image: @RecParkSF via Twitter

An individual who creeped into a Tesla Cybertruck owner's driveway in Novato over the weekend and vandalized the vehicle is being sought by Novato police.

Doesn't everyone know there are Ring cameras everywhere these days? This suspected vandal doesn't appear to know or care, and they can be seen staking out a driveway off a cul de sac in quiet Novato during the wee hours of Saturday morning — but they did wear a mask and dark hoodie, so they may have known cameras would be watching.

The person is first seen at 4:22 am wearing a white face mask, casing the area. And, as the time stamp on the video shows, this person returns at 5:41 am wearing a black mask, carrying a couple of pieces of concrete, and some duct tape, which was apparently used to cover over the Cybertruck's cameras.

Police say that after puncturing the car's tires, and leaving a note about this on one of the pieces of duct tape, the suspect then is seen throwing the pieces of concrete at the car's windshield and front end.

Anger at Elon Musk and the Trump administration is running high around the Bay and elsewhere in the country, and owners of Teslas are bearing the brunt of some of this anger.

"We are aware of another recent incident in Novato targeting Tesla vehicles and want to reassure our community that we are fully committed to investigating these acts," the Novato Police Department says in a Xitter post.

Police are seeking assistance from residents in the area of Jackson Drive, Truman Drive, Brown Drive, Garner Drive, and Washington Drive, asking them to check their surveillance cameras for any suspicious persons or vehicles between 4 and 6 am on Saturday.

San Jose police recently made an arrest in a similar Tesla vandalism incident two weeks ago in a Costco parking lot.

Anyone with information about the Novato case is asked to call 415-897-4361 or email police@novato.org.

Saturday night was the second time since the Great Highway closed that its concrete walls were defaced with graffiti, this time with misspelled messages of “gentriffy” and “Your bringing trouble.”  

Cars were permanently banned from the Great Highway on Friday, March 14, and it is well-documented that many Sunset District residents are pretty furious about this. Then the very first night the Great Highway was a car-free zone, vandals defaced a mural there with graffiti, in what sure appeared an attempt to express discontent with this new car-free arrangement.  

Now that those roads where cars used to drive have been permanently made into a park, SF Rec and Parks announced in a Monday afternoon statement that the walls of the new park have been vandalized and defaced again. According to that statement, the graffiti consisted of “slogans opposing the park,” which included “misspelled grievances such as ‘gentriffy’ and ‘Your bringing trouble….’”

Rec and Parks said in their statement that the spray-painted messages were “apparently left overnight” Saturday, and “were discovered Sunday morning.”

This graffiti was not on the same mural that was defaced the prior weekend. That 60‑foot mural entitled “A History of Play” (seen above) by artist Emily Fromm is located at the Great Highway and Judah Street. Whereas according to Rec and Parks, this graffiti was at “on the former Great Highway and surrounding areas near Noriega Street.”  

“People are loving the oceanfront park, and while there will always be a few outliers who choose to be destructive, we’re not going to let that get in the way of the community enjoying this space,” Friends of Ocean Beach Park president Lucas Lux said in the Rec and Parks announcement. “This weekend, thousands of people took advantage of the nice weather to use the park, even while it’s under construction. Destructive behavior by a few won’t get in the way of our work to make the coast enjoyable and accessible by all.”

The Rec and Parks statement added that “Rangers have increased their patrols” in the  areas affected by vandalism incidents.

Regardless of all this, the new park is still set to have its big public opening on Saturday, April 12, and we will soon know the name of the park. Aftre a naming contest, SF Rec and Parks has whittled the potential name down to 15 apparent finalists seen below.

Related: Mural at Great Highway Park Defaced Just After Highway Was Closed Permanently [SFist]

Image: @Boyddays via Twitter

The Sunset District did not exactly roll out the welcome mat for their new car-free Great Highway, as on the very first night of its new car-free status, a mural in the  park was vandalized in what may have been an act of protest.

After a years-long, contentious debate and SF voters approving the closure last November, the Great Highway was finally closed and made into a car-free park this past Friday. KQED reports the closure of the nearly 1.5-mile stretch of the highway between Sloat Boulevard and Lincoln Way officially happened at 5 am Friday. But not even 24 hours after the closure, the Chronicle reports that someone vandalized a new 60-foot mural that was painted in an area that is now slated to become a public park.  

The damage to the mural is seen above. The mural is located on Judah Street at Ocean Beach, and we cannot determine with certainty if this was an act of hostility by Sunset District opponents of closing the highway. But according to a press release from car-free advocates Friends of Ocean Beach Park, the mural’s artist Emily Fromm “has been verbally harassed multiple times, and another artist working on a similar project at Taraval has also reported experiencing repeated harassment from opponents of the park.”

The vandal (or vandals) even marked up the part of the mural that depicts the old amusement park Playland at the Beach. Who would deface Playland at the Beach???

"While I do not know why the mural was vandalized -- because the markings were random and unspecific -- it likely had something to do with the closure of the Great Highway, a divisive issue," Fromm said in an interview with KGO. "The artwork is intended as a gift for the neighborhood, regardless of that change. Vandalizing the artwork will have no impact on that voter-approved issue."

The Friends of Ocean Beach Park group sure suspects this was the work of car-free opponents, and maybe the Recall Joel Engardio crowd who are so infuriated with the Sunset District supervisor for supporting the measure. The photo above is undated, and it’s not clear exactly where this “Joel Lie$ #Recall” graffiti was sprayed, but Friends of Ocean Beach Park released this photo along with their press release denouncing the vandalism. They also included the image below, which is also undated, but part of what the group says is a pattern of vandalism going back years ever since the park was closed to cars at the start of the pandemic.

But KGO had a Sunday report that the mural is being fully restored, after a team of volunteers joined the artist Fromm on Sunday morning. The restoration is not yet fully complete, but there’s another volunteer session on Wednesday to complete the touch-up work.  

And as we mentioned last week, there is now a lawsuit to force cars back onto the highway, brought by various car-free opponents. That lawsuit was announced at a press conference last Tuesday, and Courthouse News was on the scene. Their photos show that cause is now basically now tied at the hip to the Recall Engardio campaign, and the press conference was contentious. A passerby flashed a thumbs-down gesture at the ralliers, and one pro-car protester responded by shouting, “A bike slut! We got a bike slut over there!”

According to Courthouse News, the so-called bike slut was “the driver of a black Subaru.”  

Related: Friday Is the Last Day for Cars on the Great Highway, But a New Lawsuit Hopes to Bring Cars Back [SFist]

Image: Friends of Ocean Beach Park

The Twitter personality "jj smith" is suddenly hiding his tweets after making a series of pretty violent threats, and there is at least one tire-slashing incident in which he was allegedly somehow involved.

You may be familiar with the tweets of one of the Tenderloin’s most celebrated online trolls "jj smith," but you probably won’t see any more of his tweets anytime soon. While he generally chases attention pretty aggressively, "jj smith" has suddenly made his tweets protected and no longer visible to the public at large. And you have to figure this has something to do with a just-published exposé in the SF Standard on his recent pattern of online threats and two alleged tire-slashing incidents, where he admits to being on the scene at one of the tire-slashings.

This "jj smith" is not a person named JJ Smith — it’s the online handle of Tenderloin deli owner Omar Ward. He’s amassed 35,000 Twitter/X followers with his confrontational Tenderloin poverty-porn videos tailored to the crowd that loves to trash San Francisco. He’s received glowing profile segments from KGO, KRON4, and KPIX, and his videos are of course catnip for Fox News.

One KGO segment even said Ward was “using compassion rather than criticism” to supposedly fight the city’s drug crisis. They must not have been familiar with the tone of his now-hidden tweets, and certainly not an alleged tire-slashing incident last Friday in Oakland where Ward admitted to being present and leaving a threatening note.

As the Standard reports, a rival Twitter personality named Kevin Jones who goes by the handle Doomloop Dispatch was outside Oakland’s Thee Stork Club, scrolling on his phone, when a friend sent him a notice that Ward had just posted a video of him. The 19-second video was of Ward standing outside the Thee Stork Club and had been taken only moments before.

When Jones left the nightclub, he found all four tires on his car slashed, a burnt sock stuffed in his gas tank, and a threatening note on his windshield. Ward admits having been there and leaving the note.

The note read, “Have you ever seen a cheetah hunt it’s prey a cheetah is camouflage by there [sic] spots so there prey don’t see them then they move in at the right time.”

Ward denies involvement with the tire-slashing and the sock-stuffing, but admitted to the Standard that he left the note.  

“My issue was with him [Jones]. A car can’t fight back,” Ward told the Standard. “It wouldn’t benefit me to hurt his car.”

And as for the threatening tone, Ward said “I was just telling him about cheetahs,” and “I could talk to him about all kinds of animals.”

Uhh... sure.

Nor is this the only tire-slashing in which Ward is alleged to have been involved. A separate online personality Ward often beefs with, Dimitry Yakoushkin, posted a tweet in  response that he too had his tires slashed, as well as a window broken at his house. In a video accompanying the above post, Ward can be heard saying “How your BMW doing? And your broken window?” before busting into a celebratory laugh.  

And for good measure, Ward posted a now-deleted response to another Twitter rival this past Saturday morning (just hours after the Oakland tire-slashing incident). “I swear on my dead father I’m going to find you and do you worse,” Ward wrote, “After I’m finished your going to want to call the police you’ll want to keep playing with me but you’ll forget I’m a motherfucking criminal. I don’t give a fuck about going to jail.”

Indeed, much like another celebrated Tenderloin Twitter personality "Raw Ricci” Wynne, the men behind these accounts often have far longer or at least comparable criminal rap sheets than the drug users they’re confronting and recording. In Ward’s case, he was found guilty of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute in 2006. His seven-and-a-half-year sentence was curiously only half of what federal sentencing guidelines recommended, leading to some speculation that Ward is now a police informant.

Ward himself has fed into this suspicion, as the Standard notes that on a Twitter Spaces conversation this past Sunday, Ward “said he had aided in SFPD drug investigations.” Whether this is true, it’s led to speculation that Ward’s increasingly brazen and threatening behavior is enabled because the cops won’t come down on an informant.  

Obviously, SFPD would not confirm to the Standard whether or not Ward is a police informant, and Ward denies this.  

But as the Standard details, Ward has picked an increasing number of fights with his political enemies on Twitter in the last month. It will be interesting to see if this continues, or to not see if this continues, because Ward is now pretty much hiding his tweets.  

Related: SF-Bashing Twitter Troll ‘Raw Ricci’ Arrested for Allegedly Pimping Women Out of His Luxury SoMa Apartment [SFist]

Screenshot via Fox News

• A 29-year-old San Francisco woman was arrested after allegedly pulling the tail of a horse during a child's riding lesson at Thornton Beach Recreation Area in Daly City, causing the child to be thrown off. The woman was charged with suspicion of felony child endangerment and booked into San Mateo County Main Jail in Redwood City. [NBC Bay Area]
• The saga involving the Antioch Police Department continues with an upcoming federal criminal trial of two former Antioch police officers who were charged with conspiring to repeatedly use excessive force against suspects and destructing, altering, or falsifying an arrest record. The pair reportedly often made racist comments about the suspects they were targeting. [KQED]
• Police uncovered "thousands of child sexual abuse material in various forms" from the home of Michael Ross, who's currently out on bail, a 67-year-old man who's worked as a substitute teacher and tutor throughout San Mateo County. [KRON4]
• Berkeley police are searching for missing 12-year-old, Princeugene Rockwell, who was last seen at 3 p.m. Saturday, possibly heading to San Pablo Park. [SFGate]
• Classes at a Rohnert Park elementary school in Sonoma County were canceled today after vandals broke into the school and caused extensive damage; they're set to resume on Tuesday. [CBS News]

National:

• While donning a "Make America Goth Again" hat, Cassandra Peterson, also known as Elvira Mistress of the Dark, donated her Tesla to NPR over the weekend. Peterson had previously painted “Elon Sux” on the Tesla. [Yahoo News]

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A post shared by Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark (@therealelvira)

• Trump has issued an executive order calling for swathes of US national forests and other public lands to be used for timber, evading rules to protect endangered species. Some of the most ecologically important trees in the country could potentially be razed. [Guardian]

Videos of the Day:

• [Update] Fake GoFundMe CEO Dan Spoon gives an interview so convincing he had us thinking it was real. (Thanks for the heads-up, down the memory whole!)

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A post shared by Sarah Silverman (@sarahkatesilverman)

• Lovely footage of Dolores Park at night.

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A post shared by ਕਵਨ 🗣️k+oven ✨kawandeep (@whichlight)

Image: 12th Street Oakland Station; Leanne Maxwell/SFist

BART police say they have arrested a man they believe is responsible for smashing glass panels on the canopy entries of three downtown San Francisco BART stations earlier this month.

The vandalism happened during the first weekend of October, with glass panels smashed at Embarcadero, Montgomery, and Powell Street stations. Starting on October 5, 29 glass panels were shattered in total.

The panels are part of the new station entry canopies that have been going in over the stairwell/escalator entries along Market Street, and the damage reportedly totaled over $500,000. The new canopies are required by law in order to protect newly installed escalators from the elements.

The BART Police Department announced that an arrest was made Tuesday after a BART PD ambassador recognized the suspect, 28-year-old Saqueo Delcid-Montenegro of San Francisco, riding a BART train.

Officers were called to the train, and they arrested Delcid-Montenegro. He has been booked into San Francisco County Jail on five counts of felony vandalism.

Delcid-Montenegro appears to have a domestic violence restraining order filed against him, filed in July 2023, by a family member in Contra Costa County.

Previously: New Glass Canopies at Several Market Street BART Station Entrances Smashed By Vandals