8:05 — Valencia and 19th.

8:07 — “Fuck the police!”

8:09 — We make a left on 21st Street.

8:11 — “Whose streets? OUR streets!”

8:12 — We make a right onto Mission.

“Arms up, shoot back!”

8:13 — “Pigs go home!”

8:14 — Mission and 22nd. More fireworks.

8:16 — Mission and 23rd.

8:20 — Left on 24th.

“All cops are bastards, A-C-A-B!”

8:22 — The protesters erupt into spontaneous noise: yelling, clapping, hooting and hollering.

8:23 — “Oink oink, bang bang, every day the same thing!”

8:24 — 24th and Folsom. A brisk walking pace and steady chanting has kept the crowd’s energy up. Some have been walking for more than 2 hours.

“Indict, convict. Send them killer cops to jail. The whole damn system is guilty as hell!”

8:28 — “Fuck the police!”

8:29 — 24th and Florida. Someone yells at the cops still marching on the sidewalks: “That’ll do pig, that’ll do.”

8:32 — A group of motorcycle cops is bringing up the rear of the march, urging along the slow walkers. Some of the officers are blasting their sirens, seemingly to annoy the marchers in front of them. I tell one of the police, “That’s not very polite.” As I run off, he or another cops blares the siren again. The protesters are unfazed and continue to berate the cops.

The man holding the green red and black flag is walking calmly next to a women pushing a stroller with a baby in it. She is at the end of the march and the police motorcycles are following close behind her, engines growling.

The motorcycle police bring up the rear.

8:35 — Reaching Potrero, the march pauses. The street is wide, and deserted. It’s a little creepy.

8:37 — A bus is briefly blocked by a man with a bicycle, but he is quickly moved out of the way.

The motorcycles from the back of the march are now massed at the corner. The officers attempt to turn right onto Potrero. Protesters quickly move to stand in front of the bikes.

One woman lies down on the ground. She looks around, and a moment later, sits up. She’s joined by more marchers who sit in front of the motorcycles.

A scuffle ensues. The motorcycle cops blare their sirens full blast as they tussle with marchers, trying to drive through the crowd.

8:38 — The motorcycle police get off their bikes. Police and protester lines meet in a scrum of screaming, twisted faces.

BANG! Someone throws a firecracker into the melee. It startles everyone.

Standing next to the motorcycle police, I’m hit by a thrown plastic cup filled with ice.

8:39 — The crowd kneels down in front of the police, hands in the air.

“Hands up, don’t shoot!”

8:40 — The march is suddenly on the move, flowing left onto wide, dark, deserted Potrero.

I’m just to the right of the motorcycle cops and the march is moving left, so I start to walk that direction, in the midst of the motorcycles. A tall cop with a mustache comes at me, and repeatedly shoves me back with his baton. I never did get his name.

8:43 — The march is moving north on Potrero. Police are marching alongside us on the right. A couple hard objects smack the wall near them.

8:47 — As we approach 21st Street, 3 or 4 police cars pull up and riot police get out. They form a line like usual, but then they run forward briefly and re-form it closer to us. It certainly sends a message.

8:48 — Blocked, the march makes a U-turn.

We’re in front of San Francisco General Hospital, someone points out. ‘How convenient.’

At Potrero and 22nd, protesters surround a police SUV, yelling. Sirens blare as more police come to the rescue and the marchers run off.

8:51 — There is a melee at Potrero and 22nd. Police are lined up and protesters are getting in their faces. There is grabbing, pushing, shoving.

At one point, three or four teenage girls surround an isolated police officer, screaming at him. He quickly retreats back to his lines.

8:53 — We are now the rear of the march. The lead group missed the scuffle. We head east on 22nd, trying to catch up with the main group. At Hampshire, the first cross-street, many police appear.

For the first time of the night, they scream gutturally as they charge forward, forming lines. It is genuinely a terrfying moment.

A light rain starts to fall. It will continue on and off for the rest of the night.

8:54 — Another line of police moves in behind us. We are “kenneled,” as they say — trapped in a very tense and volatile situation between two lines of armed men (and women).

“Which way do we go?”

“Let us through!”

A National Lawyers Guild observer in a neon green hat gives me the number for jail support, just in case. For the record, it’s 415–285–1011.

8:57 — It’s another standoff with police hemming in protesters on both sides.

9:00 — Still trapped. Everyone is eager to get loose and re-join with the main group.

Eventually, the police shout at us and tell us we have to get off 22nd immediately, or we’ll be arrested. I think we were all happy to do that. They allow us to make a right on Hampshire Street.

We head south trying to rendezvous with the main group at 24th.

9:15 — We’re straggling towards 24th, blindly chasing the main protest group.

A lot of police cars zoom by, in the same direction we’re going, with their sirens blaring. A photojournalist and I start jogging.

The glass doors of the Bank of America at Mission and 23rd are smashed, but the protesters and police are nowhere in sight.

9:24 — On Valencia, between 20th and 21st, flashing lights lead the way to the front group of marchers. They near the base of Liberty Street, a short, steep hill. There are police in a line in front of them, and, we presume, behind them, at the top of the hill.

We gather on the sidewalk across Valencia. (Police have control of the street). Some chanting goes back and forth between the two separated groups. Then, police push us north and south on the Valencia sidewalk, out of view and earshot of the group trapped on Liberty.

Some of us go around the block, to Guerrero and Liberty. Police have blocked the street there too. We continue around the block to the closest vantage point at Valencia and 20th. Liberty is a block away, police vans with their doors open block much of the view. It’s hard to make out much.

~ 9:45 — Police begin to arrest people trapped on Liberty Street. This reporter saw police walking and carrying people to vans. Many departing vans were seen, presumably filled with arrested protesters.

10:28 — Arrests continue.

11:15 — Arrests still continuing.

11:36 — The street is reopened and the police get in their cars and drive off. The few remaining stragglers are now just standing in the rain. They make their way to BART to catch the last train home.

A rough map of the protesters’ path.

Reporting and photos by Sam-Omar Hall, a freelance journalist based in San Francisco.

Were you there? Do you have photos or stories you’d like to share? Get in touch at samomarhall@gmail.com