San Francisco mall beefs up security after several teen fights caught on camera

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Police in San Francisco have responded to a series of brawls at Stonestown Galleria by adding more patrols on Monday. The last two incidents involved several dozen youths duking it out while streaming it live on social media.

Warning: Video could be disturbing to some viewers

What triggered the brawl is unknown, but the motivation seems clear.

"Instagram Live allow kids to not just post things, but seek out action and then when they post it and it goes viral, they get more likes and more followers, sometimes it's even monetized," explained Supervisor Myrna Melgar who represents the district where the mall is located, near San Francisco State University.

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Some of these fights have been captured on camera.

Video shows other teens gather to watch the violence. There's also video where you can see security trying to break up the fight.

We reached out to Brookfield Properties, but they never returned our call. Still, it was obvious on Monday that security has been bolstered with San Francisco police monitoring the premises.

San Francisco Unified would not confirm if any of their students were involved, citing privacy issues.

Supervisor Melgar tweeted that the youth altercations at the mall over the past couple of weeks have resulted in physical injuries.

She believes the violence may be a byproduct of isolation during COVID.

"There was a year that they should have teens learning how to talk to each other, have conflict resolution, how to negotiate consent because now they're teenagers and gone through puberty and all of those things there was not any live adult there to support then other than their parents and some kind don't have that at home," added Melgar.

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She says she's been communicating with San Francisco Unified because this has been happening during after school hours, particularly Wednesdays which are early release days.

She tweeted that services from Prop G need to be made available now for healthy and safe afterschool activities.

Supervisor Melgar also asks parents to monitor their kids' social media and what they're doing.

She has now called for a hearing asking that the mayor's office, the superintendent of schools, the district attorney and chief of police present a plan to address the recent acts of violence that have surfaced at the mall and recently at some of the public schools.

A mall spokesperson told ABC7's Gloria Rodriguez this is a violation of their code of conduct.

Stonestown Galleria's website says people who do not act responsibly could be asked to leave.

If they refuse, they could be arrested for trespassing.

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