{"id":464749,"date":"2026-09-15T19:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T19:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/464749\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T19:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T19:22:14","slug":"judge-in-san-francisco-dismisses-charges-against-18-pride-block-party-protesters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/464749\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge in San Francisco Dismisses Charges Against 18 Pride Block Party Protesters"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ruling ends a three-month ordeal for defendants who said the arrests were an attack on the city\u2019s queer community.<\/p>\n

Sep 15, 2026<\/p>\n

Updated 11:46 am PT<\/p>\n

Katie DeBenedetti<\/a>Sara Hossaini<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

The Hall of Justice in San Francisco on Oct. 17, 2019. A judge granted a motion to dismiss the case against people arrested at a dance party in June.
\n
\n\u00a0(Stephanie Lister\/KQED)<\/p>\n

A judge in San Francisco dropped charges Monday against 18 people arrested<\/a> after refusing to disperse at a Pride weekend dance party in June.<\/p>\n

The partygoers and their attorneys celebrated the victory but said that the city\u2019s apparent efforts to crack down on Pride activities this year is \u201chorrifying\u201d for queer people who have long considered San Francisco a safe haven.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s honestly just been really shocking to see this kind of attack against queer people. That\u2019s really been sitting with me throughout this case,\u201d said Renee Coe, who filmed police in riot gear breaking up the June block party when she was arrested. \u201cIt\u2019s not really about these individual charges against us, but just the fact that the city is choosing to attack queer people during Pride weekend, while [it] advertises itself as a sanctuary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The San Francisco District Attorney\u2019s Office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\"\"Patrons of the The Stud Bar mingle outside. Founded in 1966, it\u2019s one of San Francisco\u2019s oldest gay bars.\u00a0(Brittany Hosea-Small\/KQED)<\/p>\n

In July, DA Brooke Jenkins charged 18 people, including Coe, with unlawful assembly, failure to disperse and resisting or obstructing an officer after police broke up an unofficial block party in the South of Market neighborhood during Pride weekend.<\/p>\n

The annual unauthorized event held in the alley on Kissling Street between 11th and 12th streets, known as \u201cStud Alley,\u201d has gone on for six years without major incident.<\/p>\n

But on June 27, around 11 p.m., dozens of San Francisco Police officers arrived at the scene, where about 300 people were gathered, and told the DJ playing music there to clear the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the party on Kissling broke up, a group reassembled nearby on Washburn Street. There, officers declared an unlawful assembly, and arrested 18 people who they said refused to disperse.<\/p>\n

According to SFPD, two vehicles and barricades were vandalized, and there was graffiti. In total, 20 people were arrested, cited and released during the event.<\/p>\n

The police response prompted backlash from the queer community, particularly because the day prior, five people were arrested in the Tenderloin after the annual Trans March. Police said the arrests stemmed from vandalism complaints and a report that one person assaulted and sprayed paint on another.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow was anyone there to know that they were at an unlawful assembly when they\u2019re just at a dance party during Pride weekend?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

Body camera footage and internal police documents that defense attorneys presented earlier this month, and Mission Local reported<\/a>, revealed that police did not give a dispersal order until after arrests were made.<\/p>\n

The third charge, resisting arrest, was dismissed by Hill \u201cin the interest of justice,\u201d he said during the hearing. While he found that the police were acting reasonably and lawfully in their response to the incident, he said there was minimal resistance by the defendants.<\/p>\n

Coe said Monday that she felt good about the dismissal, and would continue to attend Pride events in the future. But she said that the three-month ordeal has been difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the hearing, attorneys revealed that some of their clients, all but one of whom had no criminal record, had lost employment over the charges, and one person, who is an immigrant, was dealing with potential visa complications.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still sitting with me, even though these charges are gone, what it means for us as queer people in the city,\u201d Coe said.<\/p>\n

KQED\u2019s Sydney Johnson<\/a> contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ruling ends a three-month ordeal for defendants who said the arrests were an attack on the city\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-464749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}