Youths Rip Up Palm Springs : ‘Cops Barely in Control’ of Crowd, Victim Says

An out-of-control Easter vacation crowd of young people rampaged through the downtown area Friday, attacking a catering truck, dumping water into open-top cars, pulling clothing off women and tossing beer cans and bottles at police, witnesses said.

“The cops are barely in control,” said the driver whose catering truck was ransacked.

There were no officers available to talk about the situation, said Juleen Gerhardt, a Police Department secretary. She said all but a skeleton crew of the department’s 80 officers were at the scene of the disturbance along Palm Canyon Drive.

A contingency of 11 California Highway Patrol officers were in town, but they had been requested for traffic control earlier this week and were not called in to help with the unruly crowd.

A request was made for reinforcements from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, said chief dispatcher Jan Dailey. She said Sheriff’s Chief Roger Denham was in Palm Springs to coordinate with police there, and there was no word on how many deputies were being requested.

Gerhardt said there was an unconfirmed report that an officer had been hurt. Witnesses said officers were concentrating on crowd control and not making large numbers of arrests.

Palm Springs has long been a popular spot for young people to gather during schools’ Easter break.

“This is the worst since 1969, that’s what people have been saying,” Gerhardt said. That year, a huge contingent of young people ran amok through the city.

She said there was a larger than usual contingent of young people in town this year.

Associated Press photographer Douglas Pizac, in town to photograph the California Angels baseball team, said he saw a crowd of young men surround two women in an open Ferrari convertible on Friday afternoon.

“They started tearing their clothes off,” said Pizac, who intervened. He said the women, who were wearing T-shirts over two-piece bathing suits, were crying and pleading with the men to stop.

“One had her top torn off and the other had part of her bottom torn off,” Pizac said. “I asked them if they were all right after they started driving away, and one of them said, ‘I’ll never be the same again.’ She was driving with one hand, keeping her clothes over her chest with the other.”

The crowd poured ice coolers full of water through the sun roofs of cars that had slowed to a crawl on Palm Canyon Drive, the town’s main street, while young people ran through traffic.

Cars filled with revelers drove along the street, and youths removed some of their clothing as they rode along, to the cheers of others milling on the sidewalk.

Police tried to maintain order by pointing cans of chemical Mace at the youths and threatening to use it if they failed to move on.

Catering truck driver Stan Mozer said a crowd of youths overtook his truck as he drove on Palm Canyon, and tore open the doors, stealing food.

“One guy broke the oven doors on the back, and when I confronted him he turned around and hit me with a 16-ounce Coke bottle,” Mozer said. “It hit me on the side of face.

He said the youth who attacked him remained in the area, but police were too busy dealing with the crowd to attempt an arrest, even after he pointed out the young man.