Authorities in a New Jersey town took aggressive action this week after fights broke out when a mob of teens and young adults caused chaos on its popular beachfront.
The city of Long Branch imposed an emergency 8:00 p.m. curfew after it said there was an “unauthorized pop-up gathering” of hundreds of people at Pier Village on Tuesday evening. This pop-up “quickly deteriorated into fights, individuals jumping on parked vehicles, and disorder along the boardwalk and surrounding streets,” the city said.
The city deployed 139 law enforcement officers to respond to the incident, including 69 Long Branch officers and personnel from the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office and New Jersey Transit Police. The officers cleared the pop-up by 9:15 p.m.
Videos posted to social media show large crowds of people sprinting through the area as police officers clear the streets.
“It really was a ton of people screaming, running,” Anthony Pizzi, who witnessed the chaos, told CBS. “Somebody pulled up the car right there and they just started jumping on the car.”
Six people were arrested as a result of the chaos, and police are investigating multiple aggravated assault cases and reports of a stolen car. Those arrested included a 19-year-old woman and a 20-year-old woman for disorderly conduct, three juvenile females for disorderly conduct, and a juvenile male for an eluding incident.
The females arrested were all from Newark, about 45 miles away from Long Branch. The male was from New Brunswick, about 38 miles away.
The city said that many of the people who arrived for the pop-up traveled by train to arrive in Long Branch.
“The City of Long Branch takes these events seriously and will not tolerate conduct that endangers residents, visitors, business owners, or our public safety personnel,”said Long Branch Director of Public Safety Charles Shirley. “Pop-up gatherings of this nature have repeatedly disrupted Jersey Shore communities, and Long Branch is prepared to act decisively whenever public safety is threatened.”
Ahead of the Memorial Day weekend, the city said that anyone visiting the area “intending to engage in violence or disorder should expect to be arrested and prosecuted.”
Major cities throughout the country have faced so-called “teen-takeovers,” where massive groups of teenagers shut down public spaces, and engage in assaults, robberies, vandalism, and shootings. Earlier this week, multiple stabbings took place at beaches throughout Rhode Island during similar events.
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