Just 10 days away from the annual Dolores Hill Bomb, SFPD is gearing up for more skateboarding mayhem

The annual, unauthorized and banned Dolores Hill Bomb event is advertised to take place on Saturday, July 6, and neither the police nor event organizers appear set to change their approach after last year’s fiasco that saw 81 minors arrested.

The loud and unsanctioned annual Dolores Hill Bomb event has served for years as a way for skate punks to run their ya-yas down the very steep Dolores Hill.

But last year’s event took a dark turn when the SFPD arrested 81 minors and 31 adults, handcuffing the children and holding them overnight (and not even allowing them access to the bathroom). District Attorney Brooke Jenkins dropped charges against all the minors, and all but two of the adults. But that did little to assuage the hard feelings of the parents, who filed a civil lawsuit against the city that remains unresolved.

Oh, and this year’s Dolores Hill Bomb is scheduled for Saturday, July 6 – just ten days away.

So Mission Local reached out to the SFPD and the skateboarding community to see if either side was planning something different this year, in terms of sanctioning the event, street closures, or less stringent enforcement tactics. And no, it doesn’t seem like either party will do anything differently this year.

“If someone chooses to break the law, SFPD will not hesitate to make an arrest,” SFPD spokesman Evan Sernoffsky said in a statement to Mission Local. “Last year, individuals threw explosives at officers, assaulted officers, and committed widespread vandalism. In response, SFPD issued a dispersal order and ultimately arrested numerous individuals who chose to continue committing acts of violence and property destruction.”

“If necessary, we will do the same this year,” he added ominously.

The district’s supervisor, Rafael Mandelman, also commented in rather draconian terms, telling Mission Local that skaters were “not allowed to come. Not this year. Not for this event.”

“If you participate,” Mandelman added, “you do so at the risk of police trying to arrest you.”

The event has no known official organizers. But members of the skateboarding community feel the city dropped the ball by not sanctioning and helping organize the event.

“It actually seems like a trap,” skateboard attorney Aaron Breetwor told Mission Local. “If they know well enough that the event is going to happen, they should know it well enough to do outreach.”

To be clear, the Dolores Hill Bomb is not for the faint of heart. Cyclist Andrew Sanders was killed in a collision with a skateboarder during the 2020 event. Local skateboard entrepreneur Tomoko Oikawa fractured her skull and suffered a brain injury in an accident during the Dolores Hill Bomb in 2019. And a one-off Thrasher magazine editor Jake Phelps was hospitalized after suffering serious head injuries during the 2017 event.

The city installed raised dots on Dolores Street in 2020 in hopes of deterring the event and changing skaters’ behavior, but it clearly hasn’t worked.

Brace yourself for another showdown between a gang of teenagers on skateboards and the SFPD.

Related: SFPD hit by inevitable lawsuit over mass arrest of 81 minors in Dolores Hill Bomb (SFist)

Image: @ki_tranada viaTwitter