![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/A64A3904.jpg\")
Hundreds participated in a march for Trans Rights in San Francisco, California, on June 26, 2026. (Courtesy of Kane C Andrade)<\/p>\nOne after another, speakers told the commission they had come to celebrate \u2014 and instead watched officers wade into crowds with batons and rifles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no reasonable world where armed police officers should be allowed to instigate violence by charging into an unarmed crowd of thousands,\u201d one speaker said.<\/p>\n
A trans resident named Leah said people were shoved and handled aggressively, some left with bruises, and that one person reported a concussion. Another speaker, who said she had fled political persecution in Russia, told the commission the officers reminded her of what she had left behind: \u201cpeople who have been sanctioned by the state to protect us, [who] attack us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hundreds participated in a march for Trans Rights in San Francisco, California, on June 26, 2026. (Courtesy of Kane C Andrade)<\/p>\n
Several framed the response as a betrayal of the city\u2019s reputation as a refuge. \u201cIf trans people cannot feel safe in this city in San Francisco, what message does that send to the rest of the country?\u201d Leah said.<\/p>\n
Chief Derrick Lew, appearing before the commission during his regular report, pushed back on what he called misperceptions about the operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe San Francisco Police Department supports the LGBTQ community full stop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Trans March arrests, he added, \u201cwere not targeted at the transgender community\u201d but at \u201ca few people amongst thousands of peaceful participants who chose to break the law\u201d \u2014 conduct he said would have drawn arrests \u201cat any event.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lew said the proximity to Compton\u2019s Cafeteria was not chosen \u201cto demean, offend or disrespect,\u201d but was simply where suspects were encountered.<\/p>\n
By the chief\u2019s account, around 7 p.m., officers saw several people using paint-filled, Super Soaker-style water guns to spray buildings, vehicles and security cameras along the route. A police drone tracked two suspects to Turk and Taylor, Lew said, and captured footage of them stuffing the water guns into a paper bag and stripping off outer clothing and face coverings to \u201cblend back into\u201d the crowd.<\/p>\n
When officers moved in, he said, a crowd of roughly 300 surrounded them, linked arms, chanted \u201clet them go\u201d and threw glass bottles; one person climbed onto a patrol car and another pried open its door to try to free the detained suspects.<\/p>\n
What began as \u201ctargeted enforcement,\u201d Lew said, \u201cevolved into a crowd management situation\u201d after officers met interference.<\/p>\n
He reported six arrests at the march, on charges that included felony vandalism with a hate-crime enhancement, conspiracy, resisting arrest and battery on an officer, and more than 20 acts of vandalism, mostly to security and license-plate-reader Flock cameras. In an earlier statement to KQED, SFPD reported five Trans March arrests.<\/p>\n
At the Stud Alley Pride Weekend party the following night, Lew said, a crowd that grew past 100 blocked Kissling Street with boulders and later built barricades on Washburn Street out of wood, traffic cones and plumbing pipe, spray-painting anti-police graffiti.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DSC8280-scaled-e1783705450346.jpg\")
San Francisco Police Department officers form a line on Turk Street in San Francisco\u2019s Tenderloin neighborhood during the Trans March on June 26, 2026. (Courtesy of Deja Whitney)<\/p>\n
Officers declared an unlawful assembly and made 20 arrests, mostly for unlawful assembly and resisting or delaying an officer, he said; two officers suffered minor injuries, and a group slashed the tires of two Waymo vehicles. In the past, the party, a six-year SoMa tradition, had been monitored rather than shut down.<\/p>\n
The sharpest exchange of the night came over use of force. In response to questions from Commission Vice President Kevin Benedicto, Lew confirmed there were eight uses of force at the Trans March and one at the block party \u2014 but said he did not have details on what those incidents entailed \u2014 drawing repeated criticism from the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve clearly and carefully, meticulously tracked instances of vandalism at the Trans March,\u201d one speaker said, \u201cbut it\u2019s extremely troubling that you can\u2019t seem to cite even one use of force.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others said the count did not match what they witnessed. One commenter described seeing an officer knock a woman to the ground beside her; another said she encountered an older woman, jeans torn and bleeding, who had been pushed.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DSC8302-scaled-e1783705687955.jpg\")
Police and protesters look at one another during the Trans March on June 26, 2026, near the intersection of Turk and Taylor streets in San Francisco. (Courtesy of Deja Whitney)<\/p>\n
Several returned to the same question: why officers moved into a dense crowd to arrest suspects already identified by drone, rather than making arrests later.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho put property over human life and health?\u201d asked one Mission District resident.<\/p>\n
Others questioned the use of drones, and Flock automated license-plate cameras at LGBTQ events, citing reports that such data has been shared with agencies in other states.<\/p>\n
Karen Fleshman, a District 5 resident, told the commission that cameras funded by a single tech billionaire \u2014 in reference to Ripple founder Chris Larsen<\/a>, whose $9.4 million gift funded a new crime investigations center \u2014 had spread across the city, and that \u201cthe people of San Francisco don\u2019t want a surveillance state.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Police Accountability said it is auditing SFPD\u2019s use of surveillance and license-plate readers, an inquiry it opened in April.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DSC8343-scaled-e1783706096233.jpg\")
Demonstrators and police officers clash during the Trans March on June 26, 2026, near the intersection of Turk and Taylor streets in San Francisco. (Courtesy of Deja Whitney)<\/p>\n