Massive 'Water Wars' party held in Long Beach Park against local health orders
LONG BEACH, Calif. - A large outdoor “Water Wars” party with hundreds of people was held at a Long Beach park over the weekend in violation of local COVID-19 health orders.
FOX 11’s cameras were at El Dorado park on Sunday as at least 200 people gathered in the park with squirt guns, buckets, and drinks, with minimal masks or social distancing.
Long Beach Police responded to the party, but were unable to break it up due to its size.
DJ West B, the organizer of the event, spoke to FOX 11 about why she threw the party against health orders.
“The world has been shut down, people have lost jobs, people are on the verge of losing houses, there’s so much other stress going on, can we at least take people’s minds away, If they shut us down at least we know we got shut down for a good cause,” she said.
But the party was not shut down.
Long Beach Police responded, but due to the crowd size, were unable to clear the partygoers out of the park.
Long Beach PD provided FOX 11 with the following statement.
"On 8/31/20, a large group of approximately 200-300 people held an unpermitted gathering in El Dorado Park in the City of Long Beach. The Police Department received several calls from people in the park complaining about people drinking, smoking, and using water guns. COVID-19 Health Orders prohibit large gatherings of any kind and no permits are currently being issued for events in the park. Officers and Park Rangers used their PA systems to try and disperse the group but they were uncooperative and refused to leave."
"Using de-escalation measures, Officers developed a plan to contain the group in one area away from other people using the park, and ensure that no violent criminal activity was occurring. Officers also closed the vehicle entry gates into the park to ensure that no additional vehicle traffic showed up at the event. Officers also closed the park two hours early and worked with the DJ at the event to make repeated announcements regarding the closing of the park and that everyone must leave. At that point, the group began to disburse and left the park without incident. Unfortunately, the group left behind a large amount of trash and other debris that park employees had to clean up the following day."
“Having the police there, that just made it super official, because the police don’t come to nothing if it’s not official,” DJ West B said. “They made sure we were safe, shout out to Long Beach PD.”
She told FOX 11 that Water Wars started 5 years ago as a way for the community to give back to black business owners, and they felt it was important to continue it this year, even if it meant breaking the rules.
“It’s not only Black Lives Matter, but the black dollar matters,” said KNMontana, another organizer. “So for black entrepreneurs whose businesses are shut down at the moment, they need that money, they need that exposure so they can feed their families and friends. This event showed people you can have an event, we can do things peacefully without you intervening and shutting us down and having guns pointed at us.”
“How can we peacefully protest, and let everybody know that not all black people, we are not out here to hurt y’all, so that just shows the police we can come together and have fun without the bulls***t,” DJ West B said.