The Party Over, Beach Cities Cool Off, Clean Up, Dry Out

After years of failed attempts to keep a lid on riotous partyers without exerting an overly aggressive police presence, law enforcement seemed to strike a balance this Independence Day, keeping the peace here while making one-fifth the number of last year’s arrests.

Some of the rowdier drinkers, however, might have heeded the message of years past by going to Newport Beach, where arrests climbed as police grappled with larger crowds.

By 2:30 a.m. Saturday, Huntington Beach police had arrested 109 people in their customary Fourth of July crackdown, far fewer than the 549 people hauled to jail last year, Lt. Luis Ochoa said.

Police combed the city in force armed with a controversial new city ordinance allowing them to arrest people for drinking alcohol on unenclosed private property in the downtown area. The holiday weekend ordinance sent some residents scurrying to build fences around their frontyards.

But this year, officers opted for a more humble approach, shedding their riot gear and issuing warnings to residents who were drinking alcoholic beverages on their lawns. Officers first asked drinkers to move their parties inside. Most cooperated. Only those who continued to break the law were arrested, Ochoa said.

“We wanted to have people cooperate with us as much as possible,” Ochoa said. “The fact that there were a lot less people and a lot less troublemakers allowed us to be more flexible.”

Of the total arrests, 73 were alcohol-related, and only 15 involved the new ordinance, he said.

“There were cops everywhere, but they really were nice,” said Jeff Newman, 40, who lives a few blocks from Huntington Beach Pier. Last year, “they were too nuts. They came in and terrorized.”

In years past, rowdy street parties, revelers pelting police with bottles and rocks, and drunken mobs who set sofas ablaze became troubling holiday rituals in Huntington Beach.

Efforts to stem problems before they blossom into riots have included the use of batons and fire hoses and a plea for downtown businesses to close early. Last year, city officials opted for a heavy-handed zero-tolerance approach that landed more than 500 people in jail, many of them before they had a chance to light up their barbecues.

About half of those arrested last year were detained under a still-effective ordinance that bans drinking in public. Police liberally applied the ordinance to folks who were drinking on their own front porches or lawns.

But a Municipal Court judge late last year deemed the city’s use of the ordinance unconstitutional, and this year’s new ordinance was the city’s answer to those legal concerns.

Despite the peaceful holiday, the ordinance still irked some residents.

Unlike some of her neighbors, Shauna Freeman, 26, refused to spring for temporary fencing so her guests could legally drink on the porch of her small, well-kept home on Main Street. Instead, she tried to keep her guests inside and in the backyard. Although some did stray to the frontyard with drinks in hand, none were cited.

Huntington Beach Mayor Ralph H. Bauer applauded the balancing act, saying it heralded a new era of Independence Day peace in the seaside community.

“The police behaved with a fair amount of restraint and for the most part people who were apparently a little out of line had a warning, and people had a chance to respond positively to that and evidently they did,” Bauer said. “I talked to some residents in the area and they were superbly happy.”

Rather than couches aflame, Bauer said, this year’s holiday was marked by families munching fried chicken while they watched a city fireworks display, and strolling pedestrians licking ice cream cones.

“It’s a lot of trouble to arrest people and book them,” Bauer said. “We don’t want to do that inappropriately. We just had to get some control over the situation.”

*

The key to this year’s quiet, however, was a general reduction in the number of problem partyers, Ochoa said. While he did not have an estimate of how much smaller the crowds were, he said that “there were a whole lot fewer troublemakers.”

That might be good for the peace, but some said it was also bad for business.

The police presence might have dissuaded a lot of drinkers from even showing up, and instead sent them down the coast for holiday pickling, some said.

“Newport’s getting our business,” said Josh Scriven, 23, who tends bar at Taxi’s, a Main Street hangout. The streets were deserted when his shift ended early Saturday, Scriven said.

While the police were friendly this year, he said the atmosphere was a little too high on authority and low on fun for his taste.

Huntington Beach appeared tidy and well-scrubbed Saturday morning. But down the coast, near Newport’s Seashore Drive, hung-over party hosts were hosing macaroni salad and beer-soaked hot dog buns off their patios.

The streets were packed with revelers Friday night, said residents, who also applauded local police for acting reasonably.

Newport Beach Police Lt. Tim Newman said he did not know whether the Huntington Beach crackdown sent revelers down the coast, but said that Newport Beach saw many more people this year.

By the time festivities wrapped up in the early Saturday hours, 113 people had landed in the pokey, Newman said, up from 81 last year.

*

Some arrestees complained that the police actions were unwarranted.

“It was wrong,” said Duane Goldsworthy, 29, of Long Beach, who left his car at a party because he was too drunk to drive and was arrested as he stumbled down the street on his way to a friend’s house. “I decided to be a good citizen and not drive home, and I was arrested.”

Goldsworthy, who stood frowning outside the city jail Saturday morning waiting for a cab, said it was his first time in Newport Beach for the Fourth of July--and his last.

A group of tourists from Wolverhampton, England also left the city jail with a less than patriotic fervor for America.

A baby-faced Tim Johnson, 24, said he was sitting on a bar stool watching a pool game when an officer asked him to step outside and show some identification. When he did, Johnson said he was arrested.

When his friends inquired about his fate, they were arrested too, said 34-year-old Kevin Dean, also of England.

“We’re 5,000 miles from home and one of our friends was being arrested. We were a bit concerned,” said Dean, a camera around his neck. “It’s a very quaint custom,” he said sarcastically.

*

Arrests ran the gamut. Kelly Landrum, who came up from San Diego with friends, said she was urinating behind a parked car when her luck ran out. Officers sent her to jail to dry out and kicked her loose Saturday morning after a cold night spent sharing a blanket with a stranger.

Newman said other arrestees were found lying in the road, hugging parking meters, and throwing up on themselves.

Newman said police try to send a clear message before Independence Day that anyone who is drunk in public will likely be spotted by the heavy police force and dealt with accordingly.

“Most people understand what to expect if they’ve been here before,” he said. “If you’re going to get drunk and cause a disturbance, then you’re going to get arrested.”

The stern police approach did not prevent revelers from getting looped.

“I feel like someone just took two bottles of booze and squeezed them into my ears,” said Lee Johnson, 23, of San Diego, who got so drunk he spent the night on a stranger’s couch one block away from the house where he was headed.

“He was pretty cool about it,” he said of his accidental host.