Increased Vandalism Against S.F. Buses Puzzles Police

Youths armed with rocks, bottles, bricks and guns have attacked dozens of city buses in recent weeks, forcing police to ride shotgun in the troubled areas.

“There obviously is a problem and it’s escalating,” said Sgt. Jerry Senkir of the San Francisco Police Department. “But even the community is at a loss as to what might be the cause of the incidents.”

Since Dec. 1, the city’s Municipal Railway, which operates buses, trolleys, streetcars and cable cars, has recorded 58 incidents in which bus windows were cracked or broken by thrown rocks, bottles and other objects. Most of the incidents occurred in the low-income Hunter’s Point and Visitacion Valley districts in the southeastern part of the city.

In the worst attack so far, five young men robbed and beat a bus driver, attacked two passengers and fired a shot through the bus windshield on Tuesday night. None of the victims was seriously hurt.

Window Shot Out

Another driver was beaten Feb. 9 by several teen-agers, one of whom brandished a gun and shot out a bus window before leaving. On Feb. 7, youths hurled rocks and bottles at a bus driving through Hunter’s Point, breaking 15 of its windows. Police have made one arrest since the attacks began, of a teen-ager who spit on a bus driver last Friday.

Some transit officials have speculated that a 3-week-old police crackdown on drug dealing in Hunter’s Point and Visitacion Valley may have angered area youths, leading them to retaliate against city buses. At a meeting with city officials Tuesday night, some residents suggested that drug dealers were orchestrating the bus attacks in an effort to divert police from the drug traffic. Police, however, discounted these theories.

“The drug dealers don’t want the heat,” said Lt. Mike Connors of the Potrero Police Station in southeastern San Francisco. “They don’t want the extra police presence. And if you want to attack a symbol of authority, you’re going to take it out on the cops, not a Muni bus.”

Vehicles Vandalized

Connors said several police vehicles in the area had been vandalized since the anti-drug operation began. In his view, the bus attacks are the work of “hangers-on, who are probably bored and who are doing it because their buddies are all doing it.”

In response to last week’s violence, 12 police officers in patrol cars have begun escorting buses through the areas where the worst attacks have occurred, and six others began riding the buses at night.

The New York-based Guardian Angels also sent four-member patrols on some bus routes Tuesday night, though neither police nor Muni officials had requested their help. Sgt. Senkir said the stepped-up police presence would continue as long as needed, and that additional meetings to seek solutions with community residents were planned.

Daryl Hall, 35, a Hunter’s Point resident and member of the Bayview-Hunter’s Point Crime Abatement Committee, said he welcomed official interest in stopping the bus attacks, but urged police to use caution in finding the perpetrators. “People want something done, but they don’t want their neighborhood turned into a police state,” he said.