Thousands of people are said to have gathered in the streets near Huntington Beach in California on Saturday 22 May, after a famous influencer spread a birthday invitation on TikTok.
The incident is said to have led to the public vandalizing shops and throwing fireworks, stones and bottles at the police, according to The Independent.
– The first crowd on the beach grew rapidly in size and moved to downtown where it was estimated to be over 2,500 people, according to a statement from the Huntington Beach Police Department.
A teenager named Adrian is said to have uploaded a video on the popular video sharing app TikTok, where he invited people to a bonfire party near lifeguard station 13 in Huntington Beach State Park.
In the invitation, he must have written “BYOE – Bring your own everything”, which in Norwegian means: “Bring everything with you”.
Led to major destruction
The video, which has now been deleted from the account, managed to be seen by millions, and the subject tag “AdriansKickBack” received more than 234 million views on TikTok in a short time.
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Although the invitation was later canceled, it led to thousands of people attending the party, some even from other states, writes The Independent further.
Several videos on social media show the large crowds that showed up. Several howls and dances around the streets and you can clearly see people running away from fireworks that are being fired. A person is seen jumping from a bridge into the crowd.
All in all, the accumulations led to several companies, police cars and a bodyguard tower being damaged, but no injuries have been reported so far.
Watch the video at the top of the case.
New York police stopped the party with about 400 participants
Over log and stone
The police must have been aware of the video post in advance and therefore expected that there could be large gatherings of people. Apparently 400 people must have already turned up the day before the party itself.
Huntington Beach’s police department therefore went out and warned that they will enforce local rules, including the rule of “no alcohol or drug use on the beach” and no fireworks.
However, the party went overboard after the public became “unruly” and the police had to declare the party an illegal gathering.
“Police arrested 121 adults and 28 youths on Saturday night,” Jennifer Carey, a spokeswoman for the police, said NBC Los Angeles.
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The charges included vandalism, firing of dangerous / illegal fireworks, breaches of infection control and curfew.
To get control of the situation, the police had to issue a curfew between 11:30 p.m. Saturday and 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning for large parts of Huntington Beach. That way, they eventually managed to control the quantities.
Want to have fun
Several American media reportedly spoke to some of the participants and received an explanation as to why they showed up.
– Remember when you were young? You just want to be there, have fun and attend the party, something we have missed this year because of COVID, Erica Ramirez told CBS Los Angeles.
Attached for 100,000 – stuck from the bill
It is still unclear exactly how many people participated, but the newspaper writes that people from all over the country showed interest in the big event.
They are also said to have spoken to a man from Stockton who traveled halfway through the state of California to join. He said he was just trying to have some fun despite the pandemic.
