SAN FRANCISCO / A not-too-scary Halloween / Police call Castro event one of most peaceful lately

From the SFGate Article:

"Halloween in the predominantly gay Castro district Monday night was
crowded, but more orderly and low-key compared to years past. Though thousands
of people were in attendance, the festivities mellowed considerably, and a
rough estimate put only about 15 percent of the attendees in costume. Police
said it was one of the most peaceful Halloween gatherings in recent memory."

I got off work from Raphael House at midnight, when most of the activity would have been over, so I thought it would be no problem to take the bus/subway home. Walking to the bus stop a bunch of punks were busy tipping anything that could be tipped: garbage cans, newspaper racks, etc., even as the police drove right past. The energy on the street was frantic, the Polk street bus top was bustling unlike any other Monday.

I finally caught the bus down to Market Street, where I hoped to circumvent the extremely crowded street by taking the subway from Civic Center. I just missed a train by 3 seconds, which was too bad, as it turned out to be the last one able to get through. I waited for 20 minutes, until someone finally announced that there would be no more trains that evening. In the meantime, I heard lots of commotion coming from the BART platform below (which I could see through a staircase cage). Too many drunken people in costumes were trying to get on too few last trains. People were actually fighting for a space on one of the last trains. The BART police showed up and started hitting people with night sticks.

I left the station and saw that I was not going to fare any better on the overcrowded bus platforms with few busses (and I had my luggage with me as I was coming back from the weekend). I finally hailed a cab who got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, before the driver was able to make a HUGE detour to get me back to the house ($$ouch$$). As soon as I unloaded from the cab, several people fought over who would take it. One lady screamed that she had to get out of the area as she had just been mugged. She and the driver started a verbal war with no language restraints whatsoever. The cab finally escaped. As I broght my luggage up the stairs, I noticed a couple of young ladies leaning over the planter in front of the house. I wasn't about to add a puke cleanup to my already exciting evening, so I told them to please move on to the next suitable receptacle for spew (city hall, perhaps?). I did not see, as in previous years, people crawling out of various bushes in the neighborhood in the morning, at least.

It is true that there were not the multiple stabbings of previous years. 6-7 people were shot during the previous weekend, including one of the workers at Raphael House (who I believe is in critical but stable condition as I write this). I think of my patron, St. John of San Francisco, who crashed a Halloween Ball to glare at his parishoners who chose that event instead of the inaugural vigil for St. John of Kronstadt, back in the early '60s. What would he do with this bacchanalia? It isn't just that there is a big party going on - that happens several times per year. It is the atmosphere of this party that is more disturbing. People are ready to riot at the slightest provocation.