SFPD claims viral video of hot dog vendor arrest was ‘orchestrated effort’ to undermine enforcement
By Dion Lim and ABC7 Bay Area Digital Staff
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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — San Francisco police are looking to set the record straight about a viral video showing a street vendor being handcuffed on the ground along the Embarcadero while the woman’s young daughter screams.
The video in the player above is from a previous report.
In a thread of posts on X, SFPD says that the video does not show the incident leading up to the arrest, where they say the woman attacked an SF Port employee and resisted arrest. They say the whole thing “appears to be an orchestrated effort by people illegally vending hot dogs to undermine the city’s efforts to enforce the law.”
The video, recorded outside Pier 33 on Sept. 8, is difficult to watch.
Hot dog vendor and single mother Ana Luisa Casimir Julca is seen on the ground, being detained by police as her 5-year-old daughter can be heard screaming nearby.
SFPD says that the video has been edited and that a witness told them someone told the girl “to begin crying near the officers to manipulate the situation.”
They also say that bodycam video shows the full incident, where only the portion after the woman was handcuffed was posted online.
In the social media posts, police outline the timeline of events, saying that the city’s Vending Enforcement Task Force gave Casimir Julca a warning along with others vending illegally, and when they returned an hour later, they attempted to take her cart, which was when things escalated.
The Port of San Francisco says they, along with the departments of public works and public health, conduct regular enforcement of unpermitted vending on port property. SFPD says they were providing security to those city workers and jumped in after they say Casimir Julca attacked a port employee.
ABC7 News found Casimir Julca on Tuesday, unable to vend due to her injuries and her cart being confiscated.
She said she follows all the rules she knows of such as using gloves and purchasing her goods from Restaurant Depot and Costco. She says she just wants to work in peace.
Rodrigo Lopez of the Mission Street Vendors Association believes the language gap was a big issue in this incident and hopes enforcement officials can be more aware of that in the future.
When ABC7 News asked San Francisco police about the incident, a spokesperson told said food safety and vending laws were broken in addition to the alleged assault. In addition, Evan Sernoffsky, director of communications said, “If the vendor doesn’t like being arrested, she should reconsider how she behaves when the city workers are just trying to do their jobs.”
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