Police Release Account of July 4 Melee Arrests

More than a week after a Fourth of July melee, police officials Tuesday released their first accounting of the 100 people arrested when officers swept through downtown in riot gear, touching off complaints of excessive force.

Booking reports show that many of the people arrested after 10 p.m. July 4 were taken into custody on suspicion of discharging fireworks, drinking in public, public intoxication and failure to disperse. Others were accused of arson, vandalism and assaulting police officers.

Most were young men in their late teens and 20s. A few were women, including a 56-year-old arrested for public intoxication. Many live in Huntington Beach, but others came from across the Southland for the city’s annual celebration.

In interviews Tuesday, 12 of those arrested described a chaotic scene where rowdy youths and bystanders alike bore the brunt of police batons and a water tank used for crowd control on Main Street. “The police were more out of control than the crowd,” said Michael Brian Fitzgerald, a 40-year-old software engineer who was cited for failing to disperse. “They seemed to be the people looking for trouble. There was no warning to disperse.”

Police Chief Ronald E. Lowenberg was in a budget meeting Tuesday and did not return calls seeking comment.

Lowenberg has previously defended his officers’ actions, saying they were merely trying to control revelers who were burning furniture in the streets and throwing firecrackers, bottles and rocks at officers and cars.

Prosecutors in the Orange County district attorney’s office in Westminster said Tuesday that the arrests have led to the filing of at least 30 misdemeanor cases and an undetermined number of felonies. Many arrests are still under review.

Deputy City Administrator Richard Barnard acknowledged that some bystanders mighty have been “innocently caught up” in the Police Department’s tactical move to clear revelers from downtown.

“We will review it to see what our approach was . . . and areas where we can improve,” Barnard said. “If there were strategies that we employed and didn’t work, we’ll change them and revise them and do something different.”

On the night of July 4, Fitzgerald said he was sitting in front of a Main Street cafe savoring tiramisu and sipping a cup of gourmet coffee when throngs of rowdy youths began tossing clusters of fireworks and smoke bombs in the streets.

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Without warning, he said, a water truck manned by police officers cruised by, spraying everyone.

Fitzgerald said he was running down an alley to escape the mayhem when he was cornered by five police officers with batons who he said threw him to the ground and struck him several times. He said Tuesday that he could not identify the officers.

“I was in a state of disbelief at the time,” Fitzgerald said. “I thought this couldn’t be happening in Huntington Beach and not to me. It makes me think less of the city I live in and the Police Department.”

Fitzgerald said he spent 12 hours in city jail. He said Tuesday that he does not plan to file a complaint against police because hiring a lawyer would “be expensive and I don’t see much to gain from it otherwise.”

Todd Anisman, 22, of Los Alamitos said he and a group of friends were lighting fireworks in the streets when a group of police officers approached them, followed him into someone’s house and then arrested him. He was cited for possession of illegal fireworks.

David Long, a 23-year-old Huntington Beach resident, said he was struck while holding several unopened beers in a neighborhood near downtown.

Long said he was caught in a crowd of people who were igniting fireworks in the streets and that an unidentified officer, who was trying to break up the crowd, struck him on his legs twice with a billy club.

“A lot of people were letting off illegal fireworks” he said. “I can understand the police being there for that. I guess some bad seeds got into the group. Someone had lighted some fireworks and garbage dumpsters.”

Police arrested Long on suspicion of marijuana possession and failing to disperse. “They just went a little overboard,” he said. “They took advantage of the situation. They were basically hitting everybody who got in their way. They were hitting innocent people.”

Police spokesman Michael Corcoran said Monday that department officials had delayed releasing booking information sooner because they did not have the manpower to compile an estimated 100 arrest reports.

Barnard said city officials have no plans to cancel the annual Fourth of July event even though the celebration has been a constant source of trouble for police.

“We could cancel the parade and shut down the town, but that’s going way extreme,” he said.

Fitzgerald and others blamed the police for the melee.

Scott Farris of Covina, who was arrested on suspicion of public drunkenness outside a friend’s home in another part of Huntington Beach that night, said when he got to the Huntington Beach jail he saw “people who were beat to hell. One guy came in with billy club marks on his legs and torso and another must have been pressed against the pavement because the whole half of his face was all scratched up.”

Tuesday, at least two council members said they supported the police efforts to quell the disturbances.

Councilwoman Grace Winchell said the police’s crowd-control tactics were necessary to protect residents and their property.

“I think that the message was loud and clear that we’re not going to have it,” Winchell said. “You don’t have to be destructive to have a good time.”

Councilman David Sullivan also said it was unlikely that the city would cancel its annual independence event.

“I don’t think there’s any way we’ll let a bunch of hoodlums stop the Fourth of July parade,” Sullivan said. “It was a great weekend until 10 o’clock Monday night.”

Times staff writers Leslie Berkman and Anna Cekola contributed to this report.