SAN FRANCISCO—The filming of a hip-hop video was cut-short following a police raid that resulted in two arrests in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood.
The video shoot, featuring Bay Area hip-hop artist Yung Lott, was broken-up by San Francisco Police officers who came to the location with their guns drawn. Several of the officers involved in the raid were from the SFPD plainclothes units.
Though nearly 20 were put in handcuffs, only two suspects were arrested in the raid.
The group was filming for Yung Lott’s new song, “Demo,” at a playground on Kisko Road. Video of the interaction between the group, suspects, and police officers has circulated throughout social media, leading to public criticism of the officers in question.
Brian Storm, a videographer who was handcuffed and subsequently re-labeled wrote that they were simply a group of, “Young men in a poverty-stricken neighborhood, purposely staying busy to stay out of trouble, gathered together to do something positive, creative, and productive and ended up being violently stereotyped and prejudged.”
Taj Williams, 21, was booked on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a loaded, semi-automatic firearm. Twenty-four year-old Michael Higgenbotham was arrested on suspicion of selling narcotics.
