The Market Street Police Riot:
Step by Step

The eye witnesses

The area where this occured is just steps away from the most heavily foot trafficked area in San Francisco. Many of the eye witnesses to the beatings were tourists and street people. The former are not available to provide testimony, the latter have expressed fear of retaliation from the police if they were to come forward.

Ironically, Bennett Hall, the photographer who was assaulted and arrested, is the founder of the City Center Partnership, a nonprofit busines group that has worked closely with police to improve the stretch of Powell from Union Square to Market Street, for years one of the city's most embarrassing eyesores.