At least 35 people were arrested, dozens of businesses were vandalized and a San Francisco Municipal Railway bus was set on fire last night and early this morning in the SF Giants victory related celebration, police said today.
SFPD ordered crowds of people to disperse at at least one location in San Francisco’s Mission District early Monday morning, after several large piles of debris were set on fire.
Mission Local reports that “more than six bonfires were started” Sunday night and early Monday “with trash, garbage cans, recycling bins, newspaper stands, couches and mattresses.”
SFist published photos of a car overturned by fans on Market Street. According to CBS5, not only were “the windows of a CBS 5 news van.. smashed and the vehicle sprayed with graffiti” but “a Muni bus was set on fire, a vehicle was flipped over, and the windows of several businesses and vehicles were broken” during the post game disturbances.
According to Muni spokesman Paul Rose, the bus was set on fire at Market and Kearny streets. Rose said that bus had just been revamped and cost $700,000.
Rowdy fans also climbed on top of other buses around the city, and Rose said the agency received reports of broken windows, graffiti and other damage. He said the total damage is still being assessed.
Muni Diaries has photos of the vandalized buses. Keep it classy, SF!
At about 12:45 a.m. today, a number of large bonfires were burning on Mission Street from 17th Street south. Crowds there were fueling the fires with plastic garbage and recycle bins, which could be seen melting in the flames.
A voice came over a police loudspeaker declaring the gathering an “unlawful assembly” and ordering people to leave the area immediately.
Nearby, fires were still smoldering on Valencia Street, although cars were still being allowed to drive through the area. Police officers wearing riot helmets and carrying batons lined the edges of the street, blocking people from entering the roadway, which was littered with broken glass.
“We responded to approximately 76 fires last night,” San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said. “At this point we’re attributing most of them, if not all of them, to celebratory-type activity.”
Of those fires, four were vehicle fires. One involved the Muni bus and another a U-Haul vehicle that burned at 25th and Dakota streets, Talmadge said.
She also said there appear to have been at least a handful of injuries.
“I believe there was one person that may have been injured at one of the bonfires,” she said. “The crowd kind of pushed the individual into the bonfire.”
Talmadge said two police officers may also have been hurt.
She noted that there was “bottle throwing and that kind of activity,” which she said “puts a damper on things for those who are celebrating.”
At Civic Center Plaza, where the game was being shown on a large screen, a 22-year-old man was hit in the head with a bottle and was taken to a hospital, police said.
Talmadge advised merchants to keep their trash and recycle bins out of sight for the next few days, especially along the Mission Street corridor, as more rowdiness is possible.
Vandals sprayed graffiti on storefronts along several blocks of Mission Street between 16th and 24th streets, where burned debris was still piled up on the sidewalk this morning.
Mayela Santamaria, an employee at CJN Dentistry at 2484 Mission St., was busy this morning washing the spray paint off of the door of the business.
“This is not the way to celebrate,” Santamaria said. “This is ridiculous.”
According to SFPD spokesperson Albie Esparza, most of the 35 arrested (Mission Local quoted another police spokesperson as saying that 36 had been arrested), were nabbed in SOMA or the Mission. According to CBS5 , 22 were booked on felony charges and 13 on misdemeanor charges.
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