During the nation’s inaugural Juneteenth federal holiday, a large black mob of Juneteenth revelers cheered as a white woman was mercilessly beaten to a bloody pulp in the streets of a Long Branch, New Jersey district.
Police later arrived on the scene as rioters commemorated the end of slavery on the streets outside, trapping retail personnel inside their stores.
According to local media reports, the Juneteenth celebration, held in Long Branch’s Pier Village, descended into a full-blown riot with hundreds of people smashing up local businesses and property throughout the Pier Village area.
As retail employees, many of whom are under the age of 18, remained stuck in their places of employment as the crowd targeted storefronts for destruction, local police warned locals to avoid the area, dispatching policemen in riot gear to quiet the commotion. In addition, police said that “numerous fights” involving officer attacks had erupted on the streets.
“Police have area locked down due to riots in the area,” a bulletin from the Ocean County Scanner read as the Juneteenth violence played out. “Parents are reporting their children are locked in businesses they work in with no way out. Reports of police in riot gear trying to control the scene. Numerous fights involving police, and vandalism. Avoid the area.”
Video footage recorded at the scene of the riotous Juneteenth celebration shows a pair of black women ruthlessly beating a white female attendee, as countless members of the crowd surrounded the group cheering on the violence and, at times, throwing their own jabs at the victim of the attack.
Additional video shows a mob of hundreds of rioters tearing through city streets as police struggled to keep the situation under control. As has been seen in recent race riots throughout the country, several rioters took breaks from the action to twerk while others danced on the tops of moving vehicles.
All told, police from multiple jurisdictions, including state authorities, descended on the riotous scene, eventually regaining control of the situation. While media reports on the riot have been few and far between, local outlets report that the riot’s cause is “unknown.” It is unclear how many – if any – arrests were made.
