Late Melee Mars Calm Holiday in Huntington : Law enforcement: Heavy patrols keep peace until 10, when rowdies swarm downtown. At least 75 are arrested.

A Fourth of July celebration, calmed earlier by a heavy police presence, erupted Tuesday night when a crowd of revelers set dumpsters on fire and swarmed into downtown throwing firecrackers at police.

The disturbance broke out about 10 p.m. when police responding to a report of a fire found a couch ablaze and a crowd of several hundred revelers throwing firecrackers in the area around 10th Street and Pacific Coast Highway.

Shortly after 11 p.m., a man was shot in the shoulder after a confrontation with a group of men near 10th and PCH, police and eyewitnesses said. A police lieutenant said three suspects were stopped and arrested several blocks away. He said the victim was taken to a local hospital and was in critical condition.

Earlier, as police in riot gear tried to disperse the crowd, someone set a Taco Bell umbrella and chair ablaze. Hundreds of people gathered between the beach and the downtown area, many crowding around a TV news van and yelling.

At one point, a group of more than 50 stormed downtown, throwing fireworks on the sidewalk and at police. Police in riot gear pushed the crowd back toward Pacific Coast Highway. At least 75 people were arrested.

“There was a crowd of people being stupid,” said Lt. Dan Johnson, of the disturbance around 11th Street and Orange. “This year isn’t near as bad as previous years though.”

Johnson would not characterize the melee as a riot.

“It’s just a bunch of hooligans. It’s not as bad as last year.”

At 11 p.m., there had been no reports of serious injuries, although one woman apparently was burned by Mace.

Several young people said that setting trash bins on fire and throwing firecrackers was their way of having fun.

“It’s just like being in the scene of chaos,” said Daniel Potter, 22, of Long Beach. “It’s dangerous, yeah, that’s the whole thing. It’s like a war zone.” Added Mike Moran, 21, also of Long Beach: “What you do is run from corner to corner. Run away from the cops.”

Police had managed to keep the parties under control for most of the evening, as most of the downtown restaurants and bars closed by 8 p.m. For most of the evening, a “weird” calm prevailed, as one officer described it.

“Last year, there was an ugly feel to this place,” said Johnson said earlier Tuesday night. “This year, I just don’t feel that way at all.”

At exactly 8 p.m., police shut down the pier and closed the beach. At the same time, most of the downtown business lights were turned off, leaving the area quieter than on a typical weekday night.

People itching for a party scurried through the cool night air to pay phones trying to find one, and some even tried to borrow pens from police to write down the addresses. Police officers spent much of their time telling people how to find the fireworks show or the nearest bathroom.

Aside from a few arrests of party-goers who had had too much to drink or who had injudiciously ignited firecrackers on the sidewalk, Johnson said then, “things are going very well.”

Police had hoped that the extra measures would keep the kind of sloshingly loud, hard-partying misbehavior of years past from spontaneously erupting, especially among the young.

But by 10 p.m., hundreds had gathered at large parties between 7th and 10th streets, and the trouble broke out.

Young people were particularly angered that police had closed the beach and merchants had gone home early.

Moe Koi, 19, of Huntington Beach groused, “Last year at this time, people had something to do always. Everyone had a good time. This year, just look around you. There are cops on every corner. You can’t do anything.” Koi and several of her friends said they planned to head inland in search of a party--”where there are no cops.”

This year, Koi complained, “What it is, is the older people running all of the younger people out.”

But early, merchants were pleased, especially those who suffered through last year’s eruption when more than 50 people in Huntington Beach were arrested for burning furniture in the street and pelting police and motorists with bottles, rocks and firecrackers.

“We don’t want [a riot] to happen every year for the next 10 years,” said Ali Cetin, owner of Sunset Grill and Cafe. He shut down at 7 p.m. and planned to go home by 8. “Obviously, we want to let them [rioters] know that we’re not going to take this stuff anymore.”

Some people sat around planters downtown scratching their heads at the difference a year made. Last year, they said, they had been partying and/or drinking beer at this time of the evening.

“What can we do here? Everything is closed,” said Russell Mitchell, 31, of North Hollywood who, with his friends, seemed stumped. They talked about going to Hermosa Beach.

Police Chief Ronald E. Lowenberg, who walked around downtown observing and talking to officers, said, “We put a lot of time and energy into this plan. Frankly, blocking the streets really made a difference compared to last year. . . . “Hopefully, it will send a message that this is the way it should be.”

Lowenberg said he hoped to meet with downtown merchants and police officers later this week to assess the plan’s success.

In Newport Beach, the atmosphere was festive, not tense, as revelers gave the city the feel of one large block party at the beach.

Hundreds of people crowded the Newport Pier and beach, spilling over sidewalks, bicycling and roller-blading past party after party.

As in Huntington Beach, police were highly visible.

Newport police watch commander Jeff Carson summed up the night: “Nothing out of the ordinary. A few arrests, but nothing really major.”

By 11 p.m., about 40 people had been arrested by Newport police, mostly for alcohol-related offenses, Carson said. “We’ve been breaking up a few parties.”

Too many to suit Karen Partridge. The 46-year-old Scottsdale, Ariz., woman comes to Newport every year to celebrate the Fourth of July. Three years ago, she said, “it was major rowdy.” Last year, Partridge complained, “it was real duddy” as police clamped down.

But this year, Partridge said, Newport is “getting better, it’s wilder, it’s picking up--this is a fun place to be.”

Jay Duckworth thought so too. The 27-year-old struggling actor walked the beach blowing “Amazing Grace” on his bagpipes, entertaining his party guests and several hundred others.

At Duckworth’s party, combining Independence Day with his family’s Scotch-Irish tradition, a pig was roasted. “It’s beautiful,” he said of the celebration. “A lot different than smoking cigars and eating watermelon with the Freemasons in Missouri,” where he comes from.

The Huntington Beach celebration went off against the backdrop of the simmering and occasionally nasty labor dispute between the city and police, who have worked without a contract for three years.

For weeks, police had threatened to prolong their “blue flu” sickout through the weekend, leaving the city to the mercy of an unpredictable throng. California Highway Patrol and Orange County Sheriff’s Department deputies were on standby.

The city went to court last Friday to obtain a restraining order requiring officers to produce a doctor’s note to prove they were sick. As a result, only about a dozen officers called in sick Saturday and only one on Sunday.

But Tuesday, 225 of 232 officers were on duty, “and the weather is a lot cooler this year,” Johnson said. “It never fails: When it gets hotter it gets worse.”

This year, police cordoned off four blocks--two more than last year. About 50 officers patrolled on foot or in cars in that four-block area. Eight more patrol cars with four officers in each car were assigned specifically to respond to calls about problems at parties.

Rowdy celebrations on national holidays that spin out of control are not new to the beach communities.

In 1986, Huntington Beach police arrested 40 people on Labor Day weekend when a small riot occurred at the end of a surfing championship.

In all, last year local police arrested 139 people in the beach communities, including 81 for being drunk in public in Newport Beach alone.

The spectacle developed late last year when some 500 people gathered near Main Street and Olive Avenue in Huntington Beach. Police soon arrived, dispersing the crowd into smaller groups, at one point spraying rowdy revelers with a water truck.

In 1993, the city’s entire 230-member police force was on duty for the July 4th weekend, costing the city $100,000. To keep the disturbance from spreading, police arrested 175 people and impounded more than 200 bicycles to keep revelers from quickly shifting from one party to the next, getting more inebriated as they went.

This year, Johnson said, more than 1,400 bikes were registered by owners.

“At least we’re getting people in the city to register their bikes,” he said. “Isn’t that great?”