Eight were arrested Sunday night following a giant street riot that erupted in Huntington Beach after the 2013 U.S. Open of Surfing came to conclusion. According to reports, police had to resort to tear gas and rubber bullets to eventually break up the unruly crowd.
To give you an idea of how many people came to this week long event, here is a picture taken from earlier in the week right on the beach.
Unfortunately, local authorities weren’t prepared for a crowd of this size to become unruly.
This video appears to be early Sunday evening, showing street activity starting to progress.
…a brawl that broke out on Main Street.
A girl fight from earlier in the day. Because we all know these can be the worst.
Idiots try to flip a truck…
These kids thought it would be fun to try to flip over port-a-potties….
Wannabe looters fail to steal a bike after crashing a store window. You see what appears to be the store owner fighting to keep the bike from being robbed.
…An L.A news report that has interviews from Sunday night. The reporter describes the police had to resort to rubber bullets to break up the crowds.
I hope many of these kids end up being arrested. Police say more arrests could be pending upon review of all the cell phone footage that was captured — something that has precedent, especially following the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots of 2011.
While some will simply blame this on the “bros,” I’ve spent time at Huntington and this is most certainly not the norm — nor would it be expected. Trust me, there are bros all over Los Angeles and Orange County. The idiots captured in this footage might have testosterone issues, but I think it’s safe to say most of them aren’t from Huntington and simply see an incredibly large crowd with little-to-no supervision as an excuse to stir up trouble.
My question is — where were the police? You literally have hundreds of thousands of people converging onto one beach. And this didn’t happen in some back-alley. This was Main Street — the iconic drag extending from the beach pier down through the heart of Huntington.
While this concerns me for the safety of fans at future U.S. Opens, I hope this doesn’t force organizers to ship the event to a separate location. Huntington Beach is “Surf City U.S.A” — the home of surfing. Force organized ticket sales…limit the number of people/tickets allowed on the beach…or simply increase the amount of officers on scene — whatever you have to do. Just make sure you don’t drop the ball on such a great event again. The positive and “chill” atmosphere of such a great competition is left with nothing but bitterness following such a horrid ending.
Josh Helmuth is the editor for CraveOnline Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @JHelmuth or subscribe at Facebook.com/CraveOnlineSports for the latest in sports on your newsfeed.
