Two men circled each other with their fists raised, screaming unintelligibly. Jaw flexed, tongue hanging out, and hair falling over his face, one taunted the other before slamming a kick to his gut.
Bystanders egged them on, smirking as they recorded the brawl. The group of roughly 50 people — some smoking, others hawking stolen goods — clogged the sidewalk of United Nations Plaza. Wind ripped through the square, adding steel drums to the cacophony as metal barricades toppled and tin cans bounced along the streets. People lay strewn across the pavement, lost in drug-induced stupors. Others not involved with the group attempted to find their way to work or the nearby subway station.
The chaos was not an unusual disturbance. It was a Wednesday in the Tenderloin, 2023…