The Hunters Point social uprising (also known as the Hunters Point Riot or Rebellion) broke out in the Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco on the night of September 27, 1966, after San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) officer Alvin Johnson shot and killed Matthew Johnson, a teenager who was fleeing the scene of a stolen car. The National Guard and California Highway Patrol (CHP) were deployed late that night by Governor Pat Brown, and martial law was imposed until October 1.
Events
Although an account of the events that unfolded in Hunters Point in late September 1966 is contained in the report 128 Hours, Arthur Hippler has criticized the report as biased favorably towards police actions, noting it omitted several important details, such as the incident when the police shot into the Bayview Community Center on September 28.
Contributing factors Some of the primary contributing factors that have been cited are the poverty, unemployment, and isolation of Hunters Point.
Hunters Point was a food desert and housing in the Hunters Point area, especially the temporary housing erected during World War II to house shipyard workers, was dilapidated. Ruth Williams and Justin Herman called the area "worn-out" and "blighted". They described the "run-down housing with leaking roofs, sagging foundations, rotting plumbing, rodents and vermin" and concluded "no reasonable person believes that such housing should be continued in San Francisco any longer than is absolutely necessary". The surrounding area, also known as "the ridge", was also called "devoid of amenities" for the lack of grocery stores, poor schools, and limited recreation facilities. State law required these temporary buildings be razed by 1970, and to ensure replacement housing could be built, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency sent a letter to the City Controller recommending the area be declared a redevelopment area. On July 30, 1962, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors appropriated to apply for a federal grant. The two projects that had just gotten started in 1966 to alleviate the blight were known as the Butchertown and Hunters Point Redevelopment Projects.
In March 1966, residents from Bayview/Hunters Point picketed a meeting of the San Francisco Housing Authority to protest eviction policies. A Housing Authority official stated "the problem is one of jobs." Federal funds for job programs were cut in September 1966, triggering an impromptu meeting between the youth of Hunters Point, city officials, and community leaders. Mayor John Shelley sent a representative, who was threatened with physical harm if he returned with more empty promises; the Chamber of Commerce and major unions simply did not even show up to the meeting. Because funds for comparable programs in Los Angeles and Oakland had not been cut, the crowd quickly concluded the threat of rioting was effective in preserving those funds. At the time, it was estimated the national unemployment rate was 3.9 percent, but it was 5 percent in San Francisco, and African-American males in the San Francisco Bay Area were estimated to be unemployed at triple the rate of their Caucasian counterparts.
Shooting of Matthew Johnson
On the afternoon of Tuesday, September 27, 1966, SFPD patrolman Alvin Johnson shot and killed Matthew 'Peanut' Johnson (no relation). That day was unusually warm in San Francisco, reaching a daytime high of ; the average of was 11° warmer than the 30-year historical average of .
At 2:30 P.M. local time, Officer Johnson drove near a suspicious 1958 Buick, stopped facing northward at the intersection of Griffith and Oakdale; as he pulled up to the car, two of the three occupants, Matthew 'Peanut' Johnson (16 years old) and Clifton Bacon (15) left the car and fled east into the field near the temporary World War II shipyard worker housing. The third occupant, Darnell Mobley (14) hid near parked cars and was not seen by Officer Johnson. Officer Johnson immediately suspected the boys had stolen the car because they had fled upon his approach, although the car was not reported stolen until hours after the encounter, at 8:25 P.M. that night. According to the owner of the automobile, she had parked the car near Portola Junior High, from where it had been stolen at 11:36 A.M.; Bacon recalled hearing the fourth period lunch bell. The owner did not report the car as stolen until later that night because she had believed her husband had come for the car.
Officer Johnson briefly pursued Bacon and Matthew Johnson on foot, but they outran him and he observed them headed north toward Navy Road and Griffith Street. Officer Johnson returned to his car to chase them, warning them to stop or he would shoot. As he approached Building 15 at the corner of Navy and Griffith, Officer Johnson saw Matthew run out from behind the building and again Officer Johnson yelled at him to stop. Officer Johnson proceeded to drive his patrol car to the east end of Building 15, then exited the car to see Matthew running south, down the hill. According to a televised interview later that night, Officer Johnson again commanded Matthew to stop before he fired three warning shots into the air. Johnson then fired a fourth shot at Matthew. Matthew was approximately away from the officer at the time of the fourth shot, running up a slight rise in the terrain, and Officer Johnson watched him pitch forward after the shot. Officer Johnson then ran to the scene, expecting to find the teenager paralyzed by fear. Instead, he found Matthew face-down with blood coming from his mouth. As he recounted in his interview, an apparently shaken Johnson asked a passing nurse to help Matthew before leaving the scene; he then ended the interview and was subsequently suspended without pay.
A witness would later contradict Officer Johnson's statement, saying that all shots fired were aimed at Matthew and the interview was carefully scripted to engender maximum sympathy for the police. Recalling the scene fifty years later, Oscar James said "[Officer Johnson] was lying his ass off. And then he walks away like he's getting ready to cry. He wasn't shaken up. It was a normal thing back then." Matthew was shot in the back. A coroner's jury would rule less than a month later on October 20, 1966 that Officer Johnson had committed justifiable homicide. Johnson was immediately restored to the force and his back pay during his suspension was reinstated. Matthew Johnson's family was represented during the inquest by lawyer Johnnie Cochran.
The first bystanders arrived at the scene from their nearby workplace at 185/187 Navy Road; Gus Davis had heard Officer Johnson calling for help, and Louise Williams, who was the responding nurse, had observed Matthew pitch forward from her office and ran to the scene to assist. Mrs. Williams rendered first aid until she could no longer detect a pulse. The San Francisco Police Department was informed of the shooting at 3:10 P.M., and an ambulance from the Alemany Emergency Hospital responded by 3:14 P.M. A paramedic from the ambulance pronounced Matthew dead shortly after arrival, and the Coroner's office was called at 3:28 P.M. Matthew's body was removed at 3:50 P.M., and the automobile that sparked the shooting was towed to the impound yard at 3:55 P.M.
Growing unrest By 4:00 P.M., there were approximately 150 bystanders observing the proceedings, although they dispersed on their own at approximately 4:15. Later that afternoon, a group of approximately 40–60 young adults were observed at the Economic Opportunity Center (headquarters of the local Office of Economic Opportunity, at Third and Palou) loudly discussing plans to storm the Potrero Police Station (then located at Third and 20th), and Captain Harry Nelson, the commanding officer at Potrero, was called to meet with them and address their concerns. After listening to their questions, Nelson stated the shooting was under investigation and no results were yet available, leaving the group at approximately 6:45 P.M.
The youths who had met with Nelson spilled out into the streets, smashing displays at the nearby Rexall Drug store and moving north along Third. A riot was declared in progress at 7:35 P.M. Mayor John F. Shelley traveled to Potrero Station to meet with Police Chief Thomas J. Cahill and Supervisor Terry Francois, and they then drove to the Bayview Community Center (an annex built on the South San Francisco Opera House at Third and Newcomb) to address the crowd and plead for peace. A thrown rock narrowly missed Mayor Shelley, and a motorcycle officer was struck in the face with a brick as they arrived at the Community Center. After entering the Community Center, Mayor Shelley informed the crowd that Officer Johnson had been suspended from duty, and the trio returned to Potrero Station at 9:30 P.M. Supervisor Francois, the lone African-American member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, had received an especially hostile reaction. Outside the Community Center, he was shouted down when he tried to speak, and also had rocks thrown at him by the angry crowd.
Meanwhile, riot units had been assembled at Potrero Station and were taken to staging areas along Quint to sweep east and disperse crowds towards Third, and other patrols were set up to move car traffic out of the area by blocking Third and redirecting automobiles from Williams to Evans. After the sweep was complete, the riot units reassembled at Third and Oakdale to push the crowds further east. As noted later by Arthur Hippler, the "sweep" followed the contemporary standard practice of the SFPD, which was to herd African-American youths away from the remainder of San Francisco and isolate them in Hunters Point. Wary of further unrest, Chief Cahill ordered additional police officers to report for duty, and the California Army National Guard and CHP were alerted that their assistance may be needed.
Curfew imposed By 11 P.M. the night of September 27, the first reports of smashed windows, looting, and rioting were starting to arrive from SFPD's Northern District, covering the Fillmore District. When the first Highway Patrol officers began to arrive, they were dispatched to assist SFPD in both the Fillmore and Hunters Point areas. Chief Cahill shortly thereafter asked Mayor Shelley to request the assistance of the National Guard, and Mayor Shelley called Governor Brown at 11:39 P.M., asking for 2,000 National Guardsmen. Governor Brown mobilized the requested number at 11:44 P.M. and officially declared a state of emergency. Under the emergency proclamation, a curfew was imposed starting at midnight, to last until 6 A.M. on September 28. It was the largest police mobilization in San Francisco since the end of World War II.
The curfew was drawn around neighborhoods in the Fillmore and Hunters Point districts. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) later called the boundaries "gerrymandered around all areas with a large Negro population", pointing out that one neighborhood surrounding St. Francis Square was excluded from the curfew area generally imposed on the Fillmore because it was "a mostly white middleclass housing project."
Adjutant General Roderic L. Hill of the California National Guard arrived at SFPD headquarters at 1:15 A.M., and Candlestick Park and Kezar Stadium were selected as the staging areas for the National Guard soldiers being mobilized. By 7 A.M. on Wednesday, September 28, control had returned to Potrero Station and the situation was calm until calls began at 9:30 A.M. reporting that crowds were gathering near the Bayview Community Center.
Shooting at the Community Center