The annual, unpermitted and outlaw Dolores Hill Bomb event is being advertised as happening on Saturday, July 6, and neither police nor event organizers appear to be changing their approach after last year’s fiasco that saw 81 minors arrested.
The rowdy and unsanctioned annual Dolores Hill Bomb event has served as a way for skate punks to get their ya-ya’s out barreling down the very steep Dolores Hill for years.
But last year’s event took a dark turn when SFPD arrested 81 minors and 31 adults, handcuffing kids and detaining them for the night (and not even offering the bathroom access). DA Brooke Jenkins dropped the charges against all minors, and all but two of the adults. But that didn’t soothe hard feelings from parents, who brought a civil lawsuit against the city, which is still not resolved.
Oh, and this year’s Dolores Hill Bomb is scheduled for Saturday, July 6 — a mere ten days from now.
So Mission Local checked in with the SFPD and the skateboarding community to see if either side was planning anything different this year, in terms of sanctioning the event, street closures, or less-harsh enforcement tactics. And no, it appears that neither side will be going about anything any differently this year.
“If anyone chooses to break the law, the SFPD will not hesitate to make arrests,” SFPD spokesperson Evan Sernoffsky said in a statement to Mission Local. “Last year, individuals threw explosives at officers, assaulted officers and committed widespread vandalism. In response, the SFPD issued a dispersal order and ultimately arrested numerous people who chose to continue to commit violence and property destruction.”
“We will do the same this year if necessary,” he ominously added.
The district’s supervisor Rafael Mandelman also gave comment in rather draconian terms, telling Mission Local that skaters “shouldn’t come. Not this year. Not to this event.”
“If you participate,” Mandelman added, “you do so at the risk that the police are going to try to stop you.”
The event has no known official organizers. But members of the skateboard community feel like the city has dropped the ball by not sanctioning and helping organize the event.
“It basically seems like a trap,” skateboard advocate Aaron Breetwor told Mission Local. “If they know well enough that the event is going to happen, they should know well enough to conduct outreach.”
To be clear, the Dolores Hill Bomb is not for the faint of heart. Bicyclist Andrew Sanders was killed in a collision with a skateboarder at the 2020 event. Local skateboard entrepreneur Tomoko Oikawa fractured her skull and suffered a brain injury in an accident at the 2019 Dolores Hill Bomb. And one-time Thrasher magazine editor Jake Phelps was hospitalized after a serious head injury at 2017’s event.
The city added raised dots to Dolores Street in 2020 in hopes of deterring the event and changing the skaters’ behavior, but that clearly has not worked.
Brace yourselves for another confrontation between a mob of teens on skateboards and the SFPD.
Related: SFPD Hit With the Inevitable Lawsuit Over ‘Dolores Hill Bomb’ Mass Arrest of 81 Minors [SFist]
Image: @ki_tranada via Twitter
