San Francisco prosecutors filed a hate crime charge against a 36-year-old man who allegedly participated in an “antisemitic group beating” over the weekend in the Marina District, the District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.
The primary victim in the incident was a 27-year-old non-Jewish man, according to his friend Alana Gans, a 28-year-old Jewish woman who was also allegedly attacked but less severely injured. Her friend is not named in the D.A.’s statement.
The incident began with people shouting “f*** the Jews” and “free Palestine,” Gans told police.
Shortly afterward, Gans’ friend was allegedly punched, fell to the ground, hit his head, lost consciousness and was punched and kicked “while he was down,” according to prosecutors.
Both were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and released the same day. Another person, who is described by the D.A.’s office as a “worker at a nearby business,” was also allegedly attacked while trying to intervene, according to prosecutors.
Gans told J. it was the “scariest moment of my life.”
The incident occurred around 2:20 a.m. Saturday at Fillmore and Moulton streets, according to police. Gans told the San Francisco Chronicle and confirmed to J. that she and her friend were sitting on a curb waiting for an Uber after a night out when a man starting screaming “f*** the Jews” and “free Palestine.”
Gans told the man that she is Jewish and asked him to stop, according to her account, but he then walked over and said “f*** you.” She and her friend stood up and tried to walk away. Other people who were nearby started to record video on their phones and shouted “f*** Jews,” Gans told the Chronicle.
Someone then sucker-punched her friend, who fell to the ground, Gans said. She was also knocked down. An employee from nearby Balboa Cafe tried to intervene, but people pushed him down and started kicking him, Gans told the Chronicle.
The D.A.’s statement announcing the charges said “about six people” were with the group shouting antisemitic statements. Only one person has been charged with a hate crime. Another man was cited for alleged battery at the scene and released, police said.
Juan Diaz-Rivas faces two counts of assault “with force likely to cause great bodily injury,” one of them carrying a hate crime enhancement, which is applied to crimes motivated by bias and can add additional penalties if the person is convicted.
Prosecutors are seeking to keep Diaz-Rivas in custody pending trial “because of the public safety risk he poses,” the D.A.’s office said.
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-S.F.), a progressive politician who has faced intense criticism and harassment from anti-Israel activists because of his support for Israel’s existence, commended the charges and spoke out against antisemitism from the left and the right.
“This violent antisemitic hate crime assault in the Marina — attacking Jews and screaming ‘fuck the Jews’ — is terrifying,” Wiener, who is Jewish, said in a statement. “Antisemitism on both left and right is deadly real.… The daily antisemitic statements and actions we see — demonizing Jews, holding Jews to unique standards, and promoting anti-Jewish stereotypes and conspiracy theories — inevitably lead to violence, and we are seeing that play out in San Francisco and around the country.”
Diaz-Rivas’ arraignment is set for Wednesday.