The Bell Riots

In the early 2020s, American cities confined the unemployed, the poor and the mentally ill to fenced zones called Sanctuary Districts. Initially presented as temporary relief, they became overcrowded ghettos cut off from society. In San Francisco, tensions in District A boiled over in late summer 2024.

The uprising took its name from Gabriel Bell, a resident who was said to have protected hostages taken during the riots and to have died in the final assault. In 2371 a transporter accident sent Benjamin Sisko, Julian Bashir and Jadzia Dax back to that week. When the real Bell was killed early in a brawl, Sisko took his identity to keep history on course, and played the role through to the military assault that ended the revolt.

News coverage of the riots, and of the hostages who were spared, shook public opinion and helped bring about the end of the districts in the following years. For Sisko the experience was sobering: he later reflected that history might have unfolded very differently had the Bell Riots not taken place.