Police Defend Actions Amid Cries of Brutality

As riot-helmeted patrolmen walked five abreast along tense streets in downtown Huntington Beach Sunday night, people were streaming into police headquarters to file complaints of alleged police brutality during one of the worst riots in Orange County history.

Sunday’s mid-afternoon melee left a city reeling and officials puzzling over how a gathering at a surfing contest on a holiday weekend erupted into a blazing battleground, with 20 Huntington Beach officers caught in the midst of a brawling beach crowd of 90,000 people.

Police contend that they acted properly when they used force to help young women, who, according to police accounts, were the targets of a group of young men trying to rip off their bikinis.

However, Huntington Beach Police Sgt. Ron Jenkins said Sunday night that there were not enough police officers at the scene when the disturbance began.

Asked whether 20 police officers were enough to provide proper crowd control at the annual surfing contest, Jenkins said: “It’s not. But it’s all we’ve got to work with.”

Jenkins defended the actions of the officers at the beach.

“You and I shouldn’t second-guess what they did out there,” Jenkins said. “You can’t stand there while these women are getting their bathing-suit tops ripped off and do nothing as they cry for help.”

The incident began just before 2 p.m. Sunday, when officers radioed for permission to quell reported fighting among a group of beach-goers and spectators at a professional surfing contest. Initially, Lt. Jack Reinholtz vetoed his sergeant’s request.

Reinholtz said he told the sergeant: “Don’t go and interrupt them. You’ll create a bad situation.”

But the lieutenant said he gave in when the sergeant told him that the young women needed protection.

Within minutes, however, the crowd had turned on the officers, forcing them to retreat into the nearby lifeguard headquarters. There were reports of vehicles being set on fire, bottles being hurled at fleeing officers and fights erupting everywhere among the crowds.

At that point, an emergency radio call for assistance went out to all Orange County law enforcement agencies. More than 140 officers, including canine patrols, were dispatched from more than a dozen police departments.

Officers converged on the beachside community from nearby towns and from as far away as Anaheim and Fullerton, convening at a command post hurriedly set up just outside the riot area. Officers were deployed by Huntington Beach authorities.

Cypress Police Sgt. Gene Komrosky said he and his eight officers had no sooner arrived to begin crowd-control efforts at the heart of the disturbance--on Pacific Coast Highway at Main Street--than two of his men were hit in the chest with beer bottles.

‘Bad Taste in Your Mouth’

“That kind of puts a bad taste in your mouth,” he said. “I saw a lot of officers taking rocks and bottles. And we hadn’t even tried to break up the crowd yet.”

But many witnesses claimed Sunday night that excessive force was used in handling the situation.

Free-lance photographer Chuck Jackson claimed that undercover police officers confiscated his film of police beating a man. He said that he himself was hit in the head by an officer.

Raymond LaCroix, 52, of the San Gabriel Valley said he and a friend were watching the disturbance from a nearby curb when a policeman approached him “without warning” and hit him with a baton.

“I said, ‘What did you do that for? What did I do?’

“He said he wanted to get my attention,” an angry LaCroix said at Huntington Beach police headquarters Sunday night. He said he was going to file a complaint.

“I’m down here now because I think there are other ways of getting my attention,” he said. “It (the blow) was nothing serious, but it was completely uncalled for.”

‘Only Having Fun’

Reinholtz, asked about the steady stream of police brutality complaints coming across the front desk late Sunday, said, “It would be unusual if we didn’t have people claiming excessive force” after such violence.

“I got a call from one man (who) said the police ‘started this whole thing,’ ” Reinholtz said. “He said, ‘The kids were only rocking the Jeep having fun and the police lobbed tear gas at them.’

“Well, we didn’t even have tear gas down there at that time. And I’m sorry, but turning over a Jeep and lighting it on fire is not having fun.”

Times staff writers Andy Rose and Nancy Wride contributed to this story.