Aug. 6, 1967: SFPD Brutally Raids Mission Benefit Party

August 6 1967, SFPD brutally raided a benefit party in the Mission for the San Francisco Draft Resistance Union on 15th & Dolores. Ten people were arrested and collectively charged with 70 felonies, including Progressive Labor Party candidate for the city Board of Supervisors, John Ross.

Ross was severely beaten during the raid, ultimately losing his left eye from sustained injuries. Due to a felony conviction he was subsequently removed from the ballot for the Board of Supervisors race. His campaign had raised police brutality in the inner Mission as a key issue.

Hours before the raid the John Ross for Supervisor campaign and the Mission Tenants Union, of which Ross was the chairman, helped organize a picket line at the Mission Station in response to several episodes of police brutality that had taken place in the Mission over the summer.

The most recent of which took place just a few days before the benefit party when police descended upon a group of teens hanging out on a Shotwell Street stoop. Several of the teens were beaten and arrested. A handful of them personally visited John Ross to ask for his support.

Ross suspected that the raid on the benefit party, despite allegedly stemming from a noise complaint, was in retaliation for the work he had done organizing in the Mission and the explicit anti-police orientation of his campaign.