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Police warn of Potrero Hill girl gang attacking women in SF
Bay City News
Monday, September 2, 2003

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2003/09/02/gang02.DTL

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco police are alerting the public today that a Potrero Hill girl gang has gone on a "rampage," assaulting young women in Southeastern neighborhoods and the Western Addition.

"It's always five to 10 on one," commented Acting Inspector Len Broberg of the Violent Crime Task Force. He said the attacks date back at least six months or so, and some of them have been "egregious" involving baseball bats and other weapons such as metal canes.

"They call themselves the Hill Girls," Broberg said of the gang of 20 or so young females. He added that this is the first entirely girl gang he's known of in San Francisco, as opposed to females who ally themselves with a male group.

Although the first of 15 or so known attacks took place around the south side of Potrero Hill near a public housing complex there, others have since occurred along the Third Street corridor and the latest affected area appears to be the Western Addition.

Some of the victims, mostly young women but some with ages ranging into their 40s or 50s, were acquainted with their attackers in some way but not all. Broberg said it's been hard to track down the perpetrators, partly because they move in such a large group that victims have trouble recognizing individuals and partly because of fear that other gang members will retaliate.

A few arrests have already been made and other warrants are pending, Broberg said, but the attacks have continued anyway. The most recent occurred within the past week.

Two of the most serious involve a woman whose elbow was shattered in the presence of her 5-year-old son and another woman whose baby was torn from her arms before she was assaulted. The baby was not seriously hurt, officers said, but the attackers went out of their way to tell the woman they didn't care about the child.

One of the targeted individuals merely "brushed up" against someone in the gang on a Muni Railway bus. Some of the incidents included the robbery of items such as a purse or cell phone.

Inspector Tony Chaplin also participated in today's news conference at the Hall of Justice. He said he's concerned that what started as a group of girls who got into feuds and revenge attacks among peers appears to be branching out with "very violent" methods that could very shortly get even worse if the problem isn't curbed.

Broberg said he's hoping to hear from others who've been victimized over the months, even people who perhaps got away with out injury and dismissed the incident at the time without calling police.

People with information about such attacks or the people involved are asked to call police at (415) 553-1401.

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