Crowd Control to Be Reviewed in Wake of Riot at Surf Contest

Police crowd-control tactics and the future of the Op Pro Surfing Championships--after their brawling conclusion Sunday--will be top agenda items at tonight’s Huntington Beach City Council meeting, city officials said Monday.

“I’m sure there will be a lot of investigation, inquiry and looking at reports,” Councilman Don MacAllister said.

Councilwoman Ruth Finley voiced “complete disappointment” with the way the riot developed. She declined comment on whether 20 officers were sufficient to control the crowd of 70,000 that turned out Sunday. She said “that’s something we’ll be looking at” when the council meets tonight.

In the melee, a dozen people were injured, 10 were arrested and five police vehicles were destroyed. Before the rampage ended, more than 140 officers from surrounding Orange County jurisdictions were called in to assist city officers.

No Police Brutality Complaints

At least three council members said they hoped the surfing championships would return to the city, if changes can be made to prevent a repetition of the riot. None reported receiving complaints of police brutality.

Still, “different kinds of crowd control may be needed,” said MacAllister, who blamed the violence on 35 to 40 “instigators.”

“The people who caused the problems were outsiders,” he said.

The councilman also defended police handling of the incident.

“I still feel they did the right thing. They had to get control. That was the only thing they could do,” he said. “You can always be an armchair general.”

Opinion was mixed as to whether the number of personnel was adequate.

On Sunday, Sgt. Ron Jenkins of the Huntington Beach police said: “It’s all we’ve got to work with. The City Council is going to have to rethink this. If they can’t give us enough officers to protect ourselves and the people, maybe they should reconsider the whole thing.”

A larger police presence “probably would have helped in this situation,” said Councilwoman Ruth Bailey, who attended the competition.

“There were no problems with that many officers in the past,” MacAllister said.

Charles Thompson, Huntington Beach city administrator, said that the number of officers assigned to the championships represented a “normal complement” and that “double or triple that number maybe wouldn’t have made a difference.” Under the circumstances of the riot, he said, it might have taken as many as 200 officers to deter the crowd.

Controlled Area Considered

While saying “it’s too early to make any final conclusions,” MacAllister said that if the championships do return in the future, the beach area between the Huntington Beach pier and the lifeguard station that came under attack Sunday could be cordoned off. “We could have that as a controlled area during the contest,” he said.

Thompson said that cordoning off the area is “a good idea,” as did Bailey, who suggested charging admission to the event.

Finley suggested that it might be easier to handle the surfing championships if they were separated from the Labor Day weekend, normally “the biggest weekend of the year” for Huntington Beach.

“That could be true,” MacAllister said of the proposal. “It’s hard to say.”

Thompson said that there might be “a lot of significance” to moving the championships, perhaps to after Labor Day.