Of more than 24 arrests and numerous citations at San Francisco’s 103rd annual Bay to Bridges Race – where nudity and general debauchery were central to the race’s “fun” theme – one 11-year-old girl who was forbidden by police to simply give away lemonade and fudge brownies somehow didn’t make it to the police’s statistics sheets.
Authorities reportedly lectured the little girl, whom they threatened with a $1,500 fine, that her stand was unfair to establishments, like Starbucks, that actually have a license to sell. A few years ago, cops did the same thing to other juvenile lemonade vendors at a San Francisco Symphony event at Dolores Park which quickly became an internet sensation and elicited this response by then SFPD spokesman Sergeant Troy Dangerfield: “Just because they’re kids doesn’t mean they should get a free pass, you know?”
After the incident with the little girl, police reportedly returned to the Bay to Breakers scene to address noise complaint issues about a live band in which a toddler was the target. The live music stems from a Bay to Breakers tradition of allowing kids to showcase their musical abilities by setting up a drum kit and performing live music, reports SF Weekly.
The unique San Francisco Bay to Breakers race and party tradition yielded a whopping 40,000 participants, some of whom left little to the imagination.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle‘s website SFGate.com, a man competing in the race wearing only a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask said he had beaten his best time, finishing in just 41 minutes. “When you take off the shell, this is what you see… pure manhood, nothing else,” he said as he gloated about his unique costume selection.
Nudity was OK, but drinking was not allowed – a reflection of tighter rules surrounding the race over the past few years – as police were seen grabbing beer and flasks of alcohol and pouring their contents out along Hayes Street Hill. Police made 24 arrests for public intoxication, cited three people for urinating in public, charged three people with drug-related charges, and arrested one overly zealous naked man who reportedly jumped into the bison enclosure at Golden Gate Park and started taunting the American Buffalo.
Some party-going San Franciscans playing basketball in the region’s Panhandle Park included a man dressed in a furry alligator suit and a woman who came as a pink frosted doughnut.
Despite the communal party theme, the 12-kilometer race went on and produced a top winner, Kenyan native Geoffrey Kenisi, who received $3,000 as his prize. Diane Johnson, also from Kenya, finished just five minutes later in second place.
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