Earlier this summer, an alleged TikTok takeover event caused massive chaos in a beach town located in Southern California during the Fourth of July weekend, leading to numerous fires, over 400 arrests, and police on horseback being dispatched to help with crowd control. Thousands of individuals descended on Newport Beach, California, a huge portion of them drawn to the area for a flash-mob style meetup, a statement from the city revealed.
Balboa Peninsula was already packed to the gills with folks there to celebrate Independence Day, but as night came, officials said that a large crowd obstructed traffic, set fires and even threw explosives at law enforcement officers. “Social media posts drew a large influx of juveniles and young adults to the Newport Pier area within a short period of time,” the statement from the city of Newport Beach said.
“As the crowd rapidly grew, individuals engaged in increasingly dangerous and unlawful behavior, blocking roadways, restricting emergency vehicle access and throwing explosive mortars, fireworks and other projectiles at police officers, into densely packed crowds and near families with children,” it continued. The police made a total of 402 arrests over the course of the weekend, which is a significant increase from the 60 made during the previous year’s celebration.
“As our nation celebrated its semi-quincentennial with families and neighbors gathering peacefully, joyfully, and safely … a large group of agitators invaded Newport Beach, spurred on by an alleged ‘TikTok Takeover’,” Joe DeJulio, the president of the Newport Beach Police Association, wrote in a statement posted on Facebook.
According to a report from The Guardian, the Newport Beach fire department responded to 102 emergency incidents during that weekend, which included 10 fires. The department also transported 44 patients to local hospitals, including six trauma patients. The city revealed that the law enforcement response was due to “months of planning and preparation,” which included the deployment of 17 regional law enforcement agencies and over 350 officers from the Newport Beach department.
A number of viral videos captured the anarchy and mayhem, showing police officers on horseback controlling the crowd on the beach. Most of the folks who were arrested were nonresidents of Newport Beach. Logs showed that the folks arrested came from Arizona, Nevada, and other spots around the Golden State. They ranged from 15 to 25 in age.
“Saturday’s examples of disrespect and destruction in our city were scary, saddening and totally unacceptable,” Newport Beach’s mayor, Lauren Kleiman went on to say. “This was an attack on our community and we will do whatever it takes to ensure it never happens again.” Teen takeover events have become such an issue that even U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, was forced to weigh in on the subject.
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“Teen takeovers have disrupted neighborhoods, forced businesses to close temporarily, and diverted valuable law enforcement resources from the residents of the District,” Pirro remarked in a statement. “Law abiding taxpayers should not subsidize chaos caused by parental neglect. Parents do your job, or we will do ours.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video