The Anatomy of a Riot - How I Instigated the H.B. Riots
The year was 1986. The scene was the annual summertime OP Pro surfing contest in Huntington Beach, California. Above is the before image, and below is the after. When all was said and done, multiple vehicles would be burned to the ground, over a dozen arrests would be made, and a massive response was required by every police agency in a 50 mile radius to stem the rioting. I have not told my story publicly before. You see me and a group of my friends were ultimately responsible for instigating this riot, and had a very unique vantage point of its progression. I will actually describe in scientific terms riot formation and progression before this is over. Now don't get me wrong here. We had no intentions of starting a riot, and I do not feel any criminal responsibility for the events that took place. Lets just say that had I not been there on that day with a group of my friends the HB Riot would never have happened. It required a spark. A seed. We unwillingly provided that spark. After that it evolved on its own in front of our eyes.
I had been going to the OP Pro for years. It was a great place to hang out with friends, watch world class surfing, and of course world class girls. We would typically set up shop at the top of the grandstand. From there you can get a 360 view of everything going on from the surfing out front, the the skateboarding on the backside, to the Bikini contest and MTV broadcasts on the right. The black arrow indicates where we were located on the day of the riots. The first white tent to the right was where they were broadcasting for MTV. Dweezil Zappa was a VJ and we had a blast making fun of him. We would organize chants of "Dweezil's a Dick!" among the 10-20 of my friends there at a given time. It was great because we were right over them, and it would disrupt the filming of the show. The area behind the skateboard ramp indicated by the red arrow is where the Riot began. This was directly behind the grandstand where we were located.
In 1986, G-Strings were not in yet. What did exist was "Jane bottoms". Remember Jane from Tarzan. She wore a leather semi tattered skirt. So the farthest you could go then was a G-string, with flaps of leather looking material flapping down over most of the exposed area. By Sunday, most of us had already hooked up with various hotties attending the OP Pro throughout the week. My friend Jay was no exception and had landed a super hot, Jane bottom wearing, L.A. 9, who was hanging out with us and her friends on that faithful Sunday in 1986. But hanging out on 
a grandstand is no way to work on your tan, so she decided to grab some rays with her friends behind the grandstand. So there we were, watching the Semi-finals of the OP Pro, and glancing over the back from time to time to check out the sunbathing beauties. At this point a gust of wind manages to flip one of the flaps over exposing a full 1/2 cheek. It seemed like she did not notice! She just continued to lay there, 1/2 cheek exposed to the world. This was creating a bit of an uproar. People walking by would stop and stare. Photographers would stop and take pictures of the half-ass. It was great fun, until I guess she noticed the issue with the flap and remedied the situation. This was a huge disappointment to my group of friends, the bystanders, and the photographers. Half-ass was pure gold at the time. Now to further date this, there was a song that was played in decent rotation on KROQ called "One More Shot" by C-Bank. I came up with the idea of chanting "One More Shot" at the girls to see if they would expose a flap again. So we chanted "One More Shot" a few times over the back of the grandstand, and that is when the donut formed.
a grandstand is no way to work on your tan, so she decided to grab some rays with her friends behind the grandstand. So there we were, watching the Semi-finals of the OP Pro, and glancing over the back from time to time to check out the sunbathing beauties. At this point a gust of wind manages to flip one of the flaps over exposing a full 1/2 cheek. It seemed like she did not notice! She just continued to lay there, 1/2 cheek exposed to the world. This was creating a bit of an uproar. People walking by would stop and stare. Photographers would stop and take pictures of the half-ass. It was great fun, until I guess she noticed the issue with the flap and remedied the situation. This was a huge disappointment to my group of friends, the bystanders, and the photographers. Half-ass was pure gold at the time. Now to further date this, there was a song that was played in decent rotation on KROQ called "One More Shot" by C-Bank. I came up with the idea of chanting "One More Shot" at the girls to see if they would expose a flap again. So we chanted "One More Shot" a few times over the back of the grandstand, and that is when the donut formed.
The evolution of the HB Riot can be described as the evolution of a donut shape. It has a center location (center of attention), and an interior diameter. It also has a thickness to it. The riot area is the area between the interior and exterior diameters of the donut shape. The number of rioters is typically the maximum number of people who can fit in this space, crammed as tightly as possible.
A donut about 2-3 people thick formed around the sunbathing girls as a result of our chant "One More Shot". Reports several days later said that someone yelled "Take it Off" but that was not correct. The Donut started to thicken. The interior diameter shrunk tightly around the three sunbathing girls. The exterior diameter increased as well as people came over to see what was going on. This donut continued to grow for about 1-2 minutes, before it suddenly and completely collapsed into a full on grope fest of the girls. Almost immediately a undercover cop broke the donut back open and became the new center of attention for the donut. He did a decent job of spreading the interior of the donut out to a decent size. The crowd did not know what to do so they looked to us at the top of the grandstand. A group of three girls were walking trough the middle, and we all pointed at them. They noticed this, and luckily scampered out of the middle before they could be properly contained by the interior of the donut. Then for some reason a group of about 4 new girls decided that it would be a good idea to sunbath in the middle of the donut. Again the donut found a focus, and gained strength and size. It contracted around its new target.
I will stop for now, and continue in a follow up post. We will eventually get to the property damage and scene below as the donut evolves into a full-fledged Riot on the sands of Huntington Beach.
Edit. Here is the link to the follow up post. Anatomy of a Riot Part 2
Edit. Here is the link to the follow up post. Anatomy of a Riot Part 2
Labels: H.B. Riot, non-poker content
posted by Blinders @ 9:37 AM
37 comments
37 Comments:
Very interesting story. I look forward to the rest.
How, sick start to the stories. You def need bikini pics in the next post though, just saying.
F-ing liar. It stated with three old metal guy’s hassling some chicks. While the cops were securing the area a poor guy walking back to his towel with all his snacks was beaten by the cops, which sent the crowd into a frenzy. That is what started the riot.
the donut hole.., I was watching everything from the top of the bleachers. My memory of the start was a circle of people trying to see what was going on had formed around a piece of sand maybe 3 yards square now occupied by(if my memory serves me) 2 cops on atc's. The cops seemed to be trying to calm things down at this gathering of at this point maybe 30 people trying to catch a glimpse of what was happining. The circle was getting a little bigger by the minute I believe the cops got scared and the spectators saw it and enjoyed it so they kept taunting them. And next thing you know off the group went South all the while courios people joined in the March South. Maybe 40 minutes later the smoke appeared. Minutes after that the stampeed began. A huge sand dust cloud was kicked up by the "spectators" who were now on the other end of the "taunting"
Dude. Gimme a break. The reason you didn't finish your "story" is because you couldn't finish your "story". You couldn't finish your "story" because you're full of shit and don't know really happened. I was 12 years old and I was there that crazy day. I was sitting at the top of the grandstand. I still live in H.B., and we locals know EXACTLY what happened. You seem to have left out the part about the flying beer bottles being flung at LIFEGAURDS, not cops, by pissed off guys because they covered a drunk topless chick with a towel and wisked her and her friends away on A.T.V.'s and out of danger. This REALLY pissed off the group, and THAT'S when all hell broke loose. A 12 year old boy doesn't forget seeing his first pair of tits, so I vividly remember what went down that Sunday. Another thing, there totally was a crowd on the sand, behind the grandstand, chanting "Take It Off!". THAT'S what grabbed my attention and turned me around. Oh, one more thing. It wasn't the "semi-finals". It all went down while T.C. battled Occy in the finals. I hate people that stretch the truth. We call them liars. I hope you someday finish your little "story". That way I can point out your mistakes, expose you as the liar you are, and tell everyone who is interested my city's darkest hour that Labor Day weekend the truth.
I was telling my 12-year-old son about a riot I saw once. When I googled this, I hadn't realized it was 22 years ago to the day. My friend and I biked up the river jetty that afternoon. When we got to the beach we saw the plumes of black smoke billowing up into the sky up the beach. Steady crowds made their way toward us. We asked a few people what had happened. The first few people told us there was a riot up ahead. We then found out there was a surf contest. As we kept heading up the beach we stopped another person. His eyewitness account sounded closest to o'connor's account. Several other people verified that. I was not an eyewitness, but more than a few people gave similar accounts to o'connor's in this blog. What I pieced together at the time was that there was a drunk girl who either had her top pulled off or she took it off and it was in or near the stands. One person we stopped who was walking along the beach said her boyfriend struck back at the guy who pulled it off. I was told that lifeguards interferred in some way to get her out of there and someone in the crowd threw a beer bottle and it hit one of the guards. This action stirred up the crowd and the police tried to take action which riled the crowd even more for trying to interfere and thus the riots. Someone also said that the crowd itself was already putting the situation in check and got angry that the cops were making a bigger thing out of it than it had to be. Had they not interferred, the riots might not have happened. All the filler by the first writer about hooking up with chicks seems unnecessary and as to actually being the "seed" that started the riot seems like needless ego attention-getting. The girl in the picture wearing the bikini looks like it was shot at someone's backyard pool and seems like embellishment. O'connor's account seems to be the most verifiable from the many people my friend and I talked to on our way to the surf contest. When we got to the overturned squad cars, most of the immediate area had been cleared of people. We stood in awe of how the cars were overtunred, which were smoldering at that point because they must have been put out. On the beach there was a line of about 30 cops standing side by side. They had riot gear on--shields, helmets and billy clubs drawn. There was some type of upper brass cop in front of that lineup instructing the other cops how to proceed. At that point, my friend warned that we should probably get out of there and we did. I wouldn't say it was a wonderful memory. All I would ask is that people who piece this story together be as honest and accurate as possible so that others who weren't there get a realistic look at that historical event. 8/31/08
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T-bone and O Connor are very close to correct here and are obviously just stating what they saw from their perspective. That was Robin's top that was pulled off and at the time the bleachers weren't far from the restrooms which is where she was headed when she was attacked. I did forget about the lifeguards who also attempted to save her as the motorcycle cop came down the steps and I do remember hearing about the beer bottle being thrown at one of them but I did not see that part. All I saw was the guys attack Robin & her male friend or boyfriend defending her while she struggled to save what was left of her bikini. I have a photo of her that I will post on photo bucket, as I'm sure most people will remember her by that photo & I will put a link to that photo in this blog after I post it. I was right there when it happened the guy she was with took swings at the guys attacking her and ran as soon as he could. She did break a guys nose that she punched because his blood shot all over the place. It was the first guy who grabbed at her top. The towel part of what they speak of is either another girl who got attacked or when Robin ran out of the restroom with a towel around her that the girls gave her while inside to cover up. And yes she was whisked away by a guy on an ATV. It's funny to see the areas of consistency that begin to form the truth here in this article and to think that it stems from a completely fabricated story. Well either way it's great the truth is coming out. Thanks for those who spoke out in truth. The only thing I have to say is that she (Robin) wasn't drunk and She was only 17 yrs old unless there were more than one girl attacked at the same time. I doubt that because I watched the circle form as it grew larger fast and had a ripple effect. And thanks to O Connor I also now recall the "Take if Off" part (laughing) that was just after she had exited the stage and headed for the restroom.
This anatomy story is bullshit. The riots started because a bikini contestant named Robin was attacked by the pier at the bottom of the steps not too far from where she left the bleachers. Bleach blonde hair with a slight crop on top (wearing a suede like bikini) I remember her like it was yesterday. She drove the crowd insane with natural big breasts and she was wearing a animal print bikini. Leopard if my memory serves me right. Just after firing up the crowd she exited the bikini contestant area in route to the restrooms located by the pier. She had an escort be it a friend or boyfriend heavy metal style guy who had long black wavy hair & green eyes, he could easily have be mistaken for a girl. Just after reaching the bottom of the stairs south Side of the pier, near the ladies restroom that used to be there,(2008 bicycle parking) she was attacked by a guy who grabbed at her bikini top trying to rip it off of her. She punched him in the nose and blood shot all over the place. People started yelling and screaming everywhere. More guys grabbed at her bikini and her friend who had long hair took a few swings and escaped unharmed just as a motorcycle cop drove his bike down the stairs to assist & rescue Robin. (The crowd that attacked had a few metal heads mixed in it) A motorcycle officer drove down the steps to assist and just as he did she was able to escape while holding her bikini half on/half off. I have photos of her. She ran into the restrooms directly to her left and the crowd who had just ripped her bikini nearly off her body attacked the officer. Prior to coming down the steps he had apparently called for back up and when they arrived they were also attacked by the crowd hence the ripple effect it had on the entire beach & pier areas. That is how the riots got started. I was there on the pier and saw the entire thing. The circle everyone is referring to was right near the bleachers yes, it was just down the steps where the old restrooms used to be located which is now the bicycle parking area. Yes "the circle" grew and fast. The riots branched out and sparked in a few other areas as well & onto the streets (PCH). We noticed this as we quickly got out of there. I later heard that she had actually won the op pro contest but was disqualified for not being old enough to run for miss op. In the contest that year the girls had to be 18 and she was only 16 or 17 I believe.
This is a very interesting blog. Totally wrong but the responses are correct. Starting with John, yes they were called ATC's back then people just refer to them as ATV's now. What you saw was the guys on the atc's who were trying to help the girl who got attacked that Mel York refers to as Robin. Robin was with a guy who had long hair so many from afar could have confused him for a girl. OP Pro bikini contestant Robin was also the girl with the biggest breasts which made the crowd go crazy. O Connor: The first breasts you saw were Robin's after the hoodlums ripped her top off. That is where the "doughnut" formed and shortly afterward more formed in several areas that all consider themselves "starting points". What Mel said was correct. There was NO rioting going on until an officer came down the steps on his motorcycle to assist when Robin was surrounded by guys and her top ripped off. The guys didn't really cover Robin she came out of the bathroom that she had run into with a towel she borrowed from women stuck in the restroom. Just as she made her exit the guys on the ATC's swooped her up and took off. And yes that is when all hell broke loose. O Connor let me ask you this? If you saw those tits again would you recognize them?
Yes, there was chanting of " take it off" just before the attack and that was coming from the north side of the pier.
Tbone has this part of his post correct: "girl who either had her top pulled off or she took it off and it was in or near the stands. One person we stopped who was walking along the beach said her boyfriend struck back at the guy who pulled it off. I was told that lifeguards interferred in some way to get her out of there and someone in the crowd threw a beer bottle and it hit one of the guards. This action stirred up the crowd and the police tried to take action which riled the crowd even more for trying to interfere and thus the riots"
The reason the police interferred was because a young girl was being assaulted by having her bikini ripped from her body. They had to interfere if they hadn't she wouldn't have been able to run away and into the restrooms under the pier.
Agg: Also has it damn near right with the part that there were three old metal guys hassling some chicks only that one of them was a guy with long hair who looked almost exactly like a girl. That was the guy who was walking with Robin.
Yeah, O'Connor you are pretty right on. I was there and let me tell you everything was going pretty damn well, we met Vince Neal from Motley Crew and I had a crush, at the time on Dweezil Zappa so him being there was way cool. Mark Occolupo was surfing pretty good that day. I remember running from the beach. All of a sudden looking back there are hundred, thousands of people running away from the beach and here came a beer bottle just missed my head. This surf shop worker pulled people in the store and locked the door. Thank God me and my friend were lucky enough to get in and get safe. We were just two small town girls wanting to meet Dweezil Zappa. On our drive up to where we were staying in Long Beach we had heard just down the road that a massive plane crash had just happend in Cerritos. I will never forget the day.
Funny you mention Vince because I remember seeing him down there that day. The plane crash in Cerritos was horrible. One of our friends lived on that block and part of the plane landed in his front yard. Ray York and O connor make complete sense. I remember the girl who had her bikini ripped off she was with a guy and it was exactly at the bottom of the steps by the pier-south side. She was wearing a leopard bikini and had blond hair just past the shoulders. I too will never forget her amazingly large and real breasts beacause back then a good c was considered large when natural but worse I'll never forget that her being charged by some dudes who would have raped her if the police did not intervene. She punched out a dude or two though and I think she hit the one who grabbed her first. We bolted
I was down behind the bleechers when the whole thing really kicked off. From the start of the bottle throwing up until we were pushed a good half mile or more down the road by the riot police. And everything was fine until one of those lifeguards went "tough guy" and cold cocked some dude from behind. Everyone was whining, cat calling and acting up over the girls. But things didn't start truly deteriorating until that point where dude got cracked on the nugget from behind, cuffed, and eventually tossed on the back of an atc. Then as they started training back to the station, the crowd started getting ugly and bottles really started flying. We got back to the station and they were trying to calm the crowd and telling the crowd to disperse. Then a bunch of guys on the stairs next to the station started rocking the handrail back and forth, everntually breaking off the hand rail. They tossed it at some guy (not in a uniform) trying to calm the crowd and he got blasted right in the head. The uniformed lifeguards retrieved him and retreated inside and as soon as the doors were closed all the vehicles in the parking lot were set upon.
But again, from were I was standing (about 15 feet from the whole thing) the riot didn't become a riot until that lifeguard clocked that guy from behind. That really pissed a lot of folks off.
I was in the bar on the pier. People started running onto the pier and the old lady that owned/ran the bar closed the doors and locked us in. It was chaos outside. I was not wearing a shirt and the old lady pinched my nipple and scolded me for it.....god i was wasted....had no clue about the the how or why regarding the riot but later was thankful for being locked up in the bar!
HAHAHA go figure different recollections of a long time ago. The HB locals blame it on everyone else. FUCK THE HB PD. I am pretty sure it was not the finals because I was on the ramp and hi tailed my ass outta there as the wave of people started running over the fence around the ramp. Whatever HB still Sucks, sorry to all my local friends I still love you guys.
JB
this shit started on the n side of the pier right where the restrooms used to be. the doughnut formed around the chick with the crop top and her friend who tried to protect her when her bikini was ripped off. she threw a few punches in defense as her bikini was almost off.. lifeguards jumped in as the officer rode down steps on his motorcycle to assist. if the riot had already been going on than the officer would not have been alone. he beeped his beeper and the crowd attacked him pulling him off his bike. the girl and her friend ran the first chance they had, i saw this thing from the pier and thats when the doughnut formed. backup police came in soon after and the riots were in full force less than 5 min after the op pro contestant was attacked. the reason the guy were so pissed off was because she was dq'd for being too young. but the riots began on the n side of the pier after an officer tried to rescue the sexy blonde bikini crop top contestant with a leppard bikini on . i dont know who started this article but maybe he saw rioting already going on and started his own little fire where he stood as well, like so many others did.
Everyone is ignoring the what happened prior to the fight in the doghnut. Around 10:00am about 12-20 beach cops started on the South end of the beach and formwed a skirmsih line. The swept the beach, opened everyones coolers and bags and dumped thousands of bottles of beer into the sand. The opened them and stuck the necks into the sand. They were a bunch of dicks and treated the crowd like shit. Everyone was pissed. I didn't see what started the fight but I arrived at the cicle and saw 4 or 5 guys battling it out. Six cops broke into the circle and started spraying mace and hitting everyone with clubs. I was hit event though I was just standing there on the perimeter. The crowd got pissed and chased them until they were pressed against a wall. We let them go and they retreated to the supstation. The crowd gathered outside, the guy was hit in the head with the pole, the cops drove out throught the angry crowd etc. What started the riot was the cops hitting everyone in the donut with their clubs, they didn't count on the the beer bottle ammunition they created. The biggest battle when the riot teams arrived was over the skate ramp. It took an hour for them to re-take that area of the beach
I still have that bathing suit top...who knows where the bottoms wound up!! lol...NOT! Sounds like a ball...sorry I missed it!!
Me, my brother, & a friend were body-boarding to the left of the pier (if facing the water) where swimming was allowed during the OP Contest... while coming in on a wave I noticed black smoke by the rescue station. Until then we were oblivious to what was occurring...LOL! after we made it to shore it didn't take long to determine it was time to high-tail it out of there! As we passed the the Rescue Station we could see the crowd over-turning a police car and I think they were rocking a rescue vehicle (Jeep?) and turning it over. I remember hearing a loud pop and seeing a small round object flying straight up in the air. It came from a Police Motorcycle that was laying on the ground and on fire. I think it was the fuel cap. We picked up pace and ran towards PCH near where we were parked. Once we were driving on PCH in front of Maxwells the people in the fleeing crowd were jumping on our hood to leap over the car (it was an old beat up Monte Carlo). Now I didn't see how it started but I did see in my opinion too much. The accounts I heard immediately after the riot are very similar to O'Connor's. I only wish we had more photos of the account and some News video footage. I can't find much of anything on this subject.
You all have a piece of the elephant...but I was at ground zero...bleachers...south side of the pier...two hot girls below were wearing that bathing suit described..plus sun bathing face down...no straps....boyfriend pours ice on her back....she jumps up topless...crowd yells for her to show some more....cop comes over and starts citing her for indecent exposure...crowd boos..starts throwing cups with Ice....helicopter comes in as a show of force and blows sand like crazy in all of our eyes...now we are all pissed off....one inland moron starts jumping on a cop car..police do nothing for 40 minutes....the guys breaks window with fire extinguisher...police do nothing...idiot burns car...nothing...then 40 minutes later...cops now have extra bodies and start clubbing everyone in sight...we ran like hell...HB police was known for over reaction...but all of the other stuff happened after this 1st citation started...the tourist got courage when they saw it was getting out of control...
I can't beleieve that none of you remember the helicopter that started the whole thing...kids were throwing coke cups and ice at it...when it retreated...that is when the moron from Redlands starting jumping on the police car...and when the other crazy things started happening...
You want to know who started these riots? That would be the FIRST person who caused an incident (ripping bikini off of blonde girl) that would require police to respond. Then of course those who attacked the motorcycle officer who attempted to rescue her. The riots extended from there & moved south. The kid who ripped her bikini off was a red headed dude named Carl Brower. So find him. then talk to the motorcycle cop who was the FIRST to be assaulted on that day of the riots. If I am correct he should be easy to find by asking the department which motorcycle cop rode down the steps North side of the pier to help a girl in a leopard bikini who was under attack. That's all you gotta do and the rest will unfold.
Field connect;
You are both right and wrong. First off that incident with the ice and girls jumping up did not cause any type of rioting. The rioting had already begun NORTH side of the pier EXACTLY at the bottom of the steps, which is when the motorcycle officer called for back up. He was the FIRST officer under attack. Sidenote; Helicopters are NOT called in unless there's an emergency & must be called in by police. The copter was called in for the first incident, the girl who's bikini was ripped off (north side) because guys all joined in once the first guy grabbed at her top. Officer probably expected that she'd be in need of medical assistance. Luckily she escaped. Additionally, NO helicopter is going to land or even hover over, and in between bleachers,a pier & thousands of people, (which was South of the pier where the event took place)unless something HUGE is already happening.
Everyone seems pretty close. I think it is all different vantage points.
Me and 2 buddies had come in from Las Vegas and had been bumming rooms, hanging out because MTV's travel across america thing was ending at the OP tourney. We were just hanging out at the half pipe watching when tons of people started running by us. (Didnt see what started it all but was told that someone had ripped a girls top off) As we were standing there a cop came by screaming at us to clear the beach and hit my buddy Aaron with a baton in his hip. We were stunned because up to that point we had no clue what was going on.
I remember the cops lining up basically from the PCH to the ocean and walking in a straight line pushing everyone north past the pier. The ended getting set up under the pier where they weren't able to get hit with so many bottles. After about 5 minutes of organizing they rushed the crowd and chased everyone up into the city and basically just cleared everyone out. We were able to get in Jacks before they locked the doors.
I remember it was wierd because after the cop lines pushed past Jacks we started going outside and it was real calm and quiet. It was like as long as you were inside the lines it was all good.
Lot of years ago, but that is as much as I can remember. We had great pictures but my buddies left their backpack with the camera at a restraunt. Wish we had them
I not only was there but was arrested a week latter for inciting a riot.I never knew until now just exactly what got the cops fired up but I was out by the water trying to take photos of the surfers (the waves sucked so it was not what I expectected) I was standing near the shore when a few people started chanting sit down, get out of the way and it started to get frantic up front as myself my two friends and about ten to twenty other people were taking pictures. well the croud started to throw cups of sand at us and we started to throw anything back at the crowd.(we had a good start up drunk going on). why is this incident important? I believe it set the pace for throwing things, so follow me through this. The crowd started trowing cups of sand and we started to throw stuff back we were unbeleivable out gunned it felt like a sand storm up front I never felt anything like this sand was flying in at a high rate of speed I mean like it felt like thousands of cups were coming at me I will never forget it, this was like being on a battle field . Well my camera was ruined, covered in sand,beer, salt water i was pissed and decided to swish my camera through the salt water,(I was buzzed and thought it a better option than covered in beer and sand)I had just bought it that week $580.00 I was lets say pissed off. well right afterwards I walked towards the bleachers and saw 2 cops there and one of them was hitting an older guy with his night stick, So I (still pissed) was like hey what the
fu _ _ and pick up a cup crumbled it up and threw it at the cop. Well I got a little rush out of that after being blasted by cups of sand decided to be the aggressor and I filled a cup up with sand and threw it at the same cop.Right about then he turned and started yelling at me. Almost at the same time others including my friends started to pick up first cups with sand and then almost anything to be found and then started to throw it at the two officers.Well they took off running just like I had just previously done due to the massive barrage of incoming projectiles.Well once they were on the run, like a pack of hungry wolves we chased them up to the rescue station and well we all no what happened next. I have to say that My friends and I were lucky that day that when we stared to actually get into throwing bottles at the five to ten cops up against the wall at the rescue station, that we didn't kill someone, we were throwing these bottles with everything we had they were shattering on the wall and bursting out glass like explosives.How stupid were we? We could have killed cops even some that had nothing to do with the start up of this riot.Dumb youth just add booze and you have one stupid human on the loose and with one perfect throw to the head of one of these officers I would have been in jail for the rest of my life, thinking everyday of how stupid I was how immature and uncaring of my own future, Just for some retarded revenge of what had happened to me earlier.I think back and wonder how much joy I would have missed in these last 27 years, (all of which I would have been in prison) if I was maybe one foot in either direction with my bottle throwing aim.I hope god can forgive me as well as the officers that I was taking their lives into my braindead hands and their families which I could have robbed of their father,husband,son or friend. I wish sorry was enough but it isn't and never will be. I wonder why god was so gracious to us all that day.There were relatively few if any injuries. God please educate our young people of the conciquences of the actions they do.For real be smart everybody. One dumb move or action can ruin your life.I was lucky that day. Are you willing to gamble your life or freedom away like that.To all those lives I affected that day.Please forgive me and read this to your young maybe it will draw a picture of my dumb choices and stop them from following the wrong path.
you all have it wrong
especially O'Conner the HB kook.
It was Glenn Winten vs. Occy in the Finals. The fact is HB was full of wretched inland scum on any given weekend back then. No surfer started this and no one person or small group of people started this. It was a hot day in a lame town near a decent beach and people had a southcentral LA mentality...i.e. "this isn't mine so lets break it"
THE PERSON WHO ORIGINATED THIS BLOG IS FULL OF SHIT, I WAS BORN SND RAISED IN HUNTINGTON BEACH, I GRADUATED FROM EDISON HIGH, AM A LOCAL WHO SURFED HUNTINGTON BEACH PIER ON A DAILY BASIS...
THE OP PRO WAS THE ANNUAL EVENT THAT I WENT TO EVERY YEAR...
O'CONNOR, MEL, RAY AND THE OTHER RESPONSES
ARE RIGHT ON...
Lets get it straight once and for all. The beach cops started the riot when they moved into the initial fight scene. They sprayed everyone with mace and hit inocent bystanders with their billy clubs. Everyone got pissed and the anger spread like a wild fire. I was in the middle of the whole thing and saw it unfold. If any of you were right there you would know what I know. After the cops pulled that shit the group around the fight chased them to the wall and then let them retreat back to the station. The crowd could have killed them on the spot but let them split. The crowd also let them leave the beach 8 or so in two cars before they took over the station. The cops started the riot. The cops started the riot. The cops started the riot. Get it? They want everyone to think that it was some unrully mob because he cops that were there know what they did...
I had been there all day and had been drinking beers in the Green Burrito, under Maxwell’s, when the riot broke out. I was supposed to meet my roommate there an hour later. So I went outside at sat on an elevated palm tree planter right outside the restaurant, next to the boardwalk. Randy Johnson, the surf photographer, was shooting photos of the riot from a balcony above and to the north of me, on the back of Maxwell’s. The riot police had shields and police dogs. The formed a line to the south and worked their way north, towards the pier. The crowd ran back and forth on the beach. The beach was covered with shoes and cups of sand that they were throwing at the cops. Then a group of people overturned a police car about fifty feet from where I was sitting. It was right in front of me. The trunk flew open when the car rolled over and some stuff flew out. A guy found a road flare, lit it and removed the gas cap. He threw it in as he laughed and the car burned. Then they looted the lifeguard storage rooms nearby and ran off with the rescue gear and boards. I think they later threw the ATV’s into the fire too. A helicopter kept buzzing over the beach crowd. I saw guys get clubbed and police dogs bite girls in bikinis. Finally my roommate showed up and we ran up onto PCH. The cars had stopped by the pier as people ran across the street. A cop with a nightstick was beating on some guy in the middle of PCH as we ran by. My car was parked inland a few blocks. We went down the main street and got out without being thumped.
I concur with your 12 year old view! I saw exactly what you saw from the peer! Being a young 16 year old in a bikini, I was petrified and ran for my life when the bottles started flying. On the peer was not the place for a bikini draped 16 year old girl that day! Thank the Lord I was running around with HB punks! Who made sure I escaped safely!
I didn't see anything about the long haired teen who was getting his ass beat by the cops behind the grandstand by the cops. The kid dumped cold water on a girl with her back strap undone to avoid a tan line. The teen was shifty avoiding the cops and climbed up the back of the grandstands... Most of the people in the grandstands eventually turned around but I was at ground zero. 20 feet away. The cops chased the teen up the back of the grandstands but he jumped off behind them. His legs bent from the fall and when the cops got down, he was in a perfect position to throw sand in their faces. The cops went ape shit. caught the kid and were clubbing him with bad intent. If they had just cuffed him and arrested him, there would have been no riot. The "donut group" surrounded the cops pounding the kid. I was part of that group... several dozen of us out of instinct to save the kids life. We went in... the cops turned at us and the circle got big. they went back to beating the kid, we went in. (Back and Forth) Funny thing is. the kid got away and the circle would not let the cops pursue the kid. THAT's when the shit hit the fan.
what started it was some girl in a white gauze thong covered with a tattered little gauze sarong (yes tarzan’s jane-like) washing off at a shower by the pier. A group of drunk guys on top of the grandstand started woohooing her, and a bunch of other girls tried to get in on all the attention and started dancing. After some encouragement a couple girls started untying their tops. The crowds got crazy.
Mel York, I am working on a historical piece about HB in the 1980s. You claim to have a pic of Robin--who was the focus of the start of the riot. I do not see the link in either of your postings. Do you have the pic? Is it online somewhere? Do you have other pics from that day? Or anyone have pics from that day--not the ones circulating online. I will give the contributor full credit for their contribution to the project.
This will be referenced in an upcoming Rockumentary film titled BRAKOMA: Decades of Delirium but unsure of its release date TBA!!!
I was there on the bleachers.
It was definitely the cops that started the riot for being the usual out of control psychopaths they always are and I am pretty sure it wasn't HB cops but Fountain Valley or some other inland cops that went haywire.
Phucked around and found out.
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