The latest location for a totally chaotic, totally illegal, totally out-of-control social media organized ‘pop-up party’ turned out to be Long Branch, New Jersey last night.
And the exuberant ‘youths’ behaved exactly how they’ve behaved from Chicago to New York to a campground outside of Edmond, Oklahoma.
Like savages run amok.
🚨🇺🇸 Total chaos at Pier Village in Long Branch, New Jersey, May 19, 2026.
750–1,000+ mostly teens swarmed the popular beachfront spot for a social media pop-up party.
Kids climbing on cars, blocking traffic, fights breaking out.
Police needed riot shields and mutual aid… pic.twitter.com/7rcnCM42B6
— Steven J. Latham (@StevenJLatham1) May 20, 2026
…Police needed riot shields and mutual aid from multiple departments to clear the scene.
Officials slapped an emergency 8 PM curfew on the area.
This is what unsupervised youth crowds + zero personal accountability looks like.
Strong families and real consequences matter.
Welcome to the Jersey Shore, gentle seaside visitors.
Chaos in Long Branch NJ last night at Pier Village fighting, teens jumping on cars, police from multiple towns responding
Police had to slap an 8pm curfew… and Memorial Day weekend hasn’t even started yethttps://t.co/AIqFCJQ5HI pic.twitter.com/hzDXOlEuRg
— Wake Up NJ 🇺🇸 New Jersey (@wakeupnj) May 20, 2026
Police only managed to make six arrests, and the local paper benignly called the event a ‘rowdy party.’
Police made six arrests as law enforcement agencies from across Monmouth County broke up a large “pop-up” party in Long Branch on Tuesday night.
Hundreds of teens and young adults converged on Pier Village, with fights breaking out, people jumping on cars and causing “disorder” on the boardwalk and in surrounding streets, Long Branch police said in a statement.
Police arrested five Newark residents — a 19-year-old woman, a 20-year-old woman and three teenagers under 18 on disorderly conduct charges.
A teenage boy from New Brunswick was arrested and charged with eluding police.
There was no significant property damage.
I guess it could be termed ‘rowdy’ because they didn’t burn the place down. I’m curious what those cars looked like and if they were included in the assessment of property damages. Maybe not, as progressives are fond of equating having insurance coverage with nothing happening.
A buttload of backup had to be called in to help the overwhelmed Long Branch cops handle all these out-of-towners. The LIRR might be on strike, but these charming folks all came in on the New Jersey Transit system.
The town hurriedly slapped an 8 p.m. curfew on, but too little too late.
Mayor John Pallone authorized a curfew at 8 p.m. and police cleared the area by 9:15 p.m., authorities said.
Sixty-nine Long Branch officers got help from 70 officers from more than a dozen other law enforcement agencies
NJ Transit trains on the North Jersey Coast Line were delayed by 30 to 45 minutes because most attendees arrived by rail, according to police.
“The City of Long Branch takes these events seriously and will not tolerate conduct that endangers residents, visitors, business owners, or our public safety personnel,” Public Safety Director Charles F. Shirley Jr. said in a statement.
“Pop-up gatherings of this nature have repeatedly disrupted Jersey Shore communities, and Long Branch is prepared to act decisively whenever public safety is threatened,” he added.
Long Branch is a Jersey Shore community of about 30,000 residents, and some of them blasted the mayor. They said word of the ‘Senior Skip Day’ had been all over social media, and the town was still unprepared for the incoming hordes of…um…youths determined to let ‘er rip.
…After the crowds left, DeSantis said it looked “like a bomb went off” inside the Starbucks and that the usually pristine beach was “disgusting.”
The beach was cleaned by public works workers in the morning, DeSantis said.
He pinned the blame on the mayor and city officials for not being more prepared.
“It was all over social media — senior skip day in Long Branch,” DeSantis said. “They knew about this, you knew it was coming. I just wish the mayor would have been on top of it.”
The owners of Pier Village — Kushner Companies — didn’t respond to a request for comment from NJ.com.
Pier Village is a sprawling oceanfront mix of 500 rental units, more than 133,000 square feet of restaurants and shops, and two hotels
This was quieter than last year’s, which included (my story here) stabbings.
Despite efforts to control crowds, multiple stabbings, fights break out at Seaside Heights boardwalk https://t.co/JhEpMnvCf8 pic.twitter.com/RgWsoXfNFh
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) May 26, 2025
But it’s not hot and Memorial Day yet, and I guess the kiddies have all sorts of fun at the beach planned.
…He said authorities are aware of six pop-up parties planned for Memorial Day weekend in Point Pleasant Beach and Seaside Heights. Last year, 73 people were arrested over the holiday weekend in Seaside Heights alone.
“We hold ourselves and our guests to higher standards down here. The police departments in our towns are strong, aware and tired of your BS.
“Last year we saw stabbings and chaos on our beaches and boardwalks. Enough is enough.”
Seaside Heights Mayor Tony Vaz said officers on horseback, police dogs and expanded surveillance might be used this weekend.
‘MIGHT‘ be used this weekend?
MIGHT?!
Gosh. I wonder why the hordes think they can roll off and roll in.
At least people are voicing objections immediately. They are angry and tired of nothing being done.
This Is Not a New Problem and That’s Exactly What’s Alarming
…What happened at Pier Village tonight was not the beach. That was something else entirely.
The New Jersey Transit Problem No One Is Talking About
Here is the part of the story that deserves more attention. The New Jersey Coast Line train from Long Branch to Penn Station was running 30 minutes late tonight due to police activity in the area. That is not a Shore problem. That is a commuter problem. That is a person who worked all day in the city, got on a train to go home, and sat for an extra half hour because a pop-up party turned into a street situation in Long Branch.
When the chaos at the Shore starts delaying New Jersey Transit trains, the problem has officially left the boardwalk.
…The question I keep coming back to is not about the kids. Kids do what kids do when nobody is watching and there are no consequences for what happens next. The question is about the parents who don’t know where their teenagers are on a Tuesday night. It’s about the organizers who promote these events for clicks and walk away when it turns violent. And it’s about whether the consequences — when they come — are serious enough to mean anything.
An 8 p.m. curfew is a patch. It is not a solution. The season has not even started and we are already seeing what last summer looked like from Long Branch to Wildwood. That should concern every family planning a Memorial Day weekend at the Shore — and every Shore town that depends on those families showing up, spending money and feeling safe enough to come back.
Long Branch, as the author said, probably wishes it had ‘called the cavalry sooner.‘ Seaside Heights already has them on speed dial.
The point is that they shouldn’t be needed at all, and that’s the heart of what needs to be addressed – apparently from sea to shining sea.
For too long, the ‘youths’ have been stupidly indulged by liberal and progressive local governments and the legal system. As have the parents who did not raise citizens, but turned loose a couple of generations of over-indulged, undisciplined, uncivilized, unsocialized creatures, to whom personal property, personal space, and human life mean nothing.
There needs to be a national attitude sea change, which I realize is probably a pipedream, but I can dream.
Every next person who refuses to stand for it, who refuses to allow it, who speaks against it is one more voice of reason in the fight towards a return to acting like decent human beings.
The more the merrier we will all be, and honestly – the better lives these kids will have in a better world.
They just don’t know it.
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