Fireworks and fights: Hundreds arrested at Fourth of July celebration in Newport Beach

Los Angeles Times ^ | July 5, 2026 Updated 2:46 PM PT | Andrea Flores

[E. Pluribus Unum]

• Fourth of July celebrations on the Newport Beach Peninsula devolved into chaos, with illegal fireworks, street fights, looting and more than 400 mostly young people arrested within 36 hours.
• City officials enforced a “Not in Newport” zero-tolerance crackdown, tripling fines in designated safety zones and threatening one-strike permit revocations for short-term rentals tied to unruly holiday crowds.
• As volunteers fanned out Sunday to clean debris from the beach, leaders blamed social media and out-of-state youths for fueling disorder and pledged a full post-holiday safety review.

A Fourth of July celebration erupted into chaos in Newport Beach, leading to more than 400 arrests by local law enforcement.

Officers were dispatched to the Newport Peninsula about 7 p.m. Saturday following reports that large crowds were lighting fireworks and fighting, per City News Service.

Digital footage obtained by The Times showed large aerial fireworks lighted at close range, while another video showed fireworks being thrown by an unknown individual into the crowd. In another clip obtained by The Times, one individual with a Spider-Man mask was seen climbing a traffic light before leading the crowd in a chant: “USA, USA, USA.”

Emily Alcala, 18, who traveled from Las Vegas to Newport and stayed with family nearby, described the scene as terrorizing.

“It’s very unsafe to have fireworks popped in the middle of crowds,” Alcala said. “There was a firework to your left, [then] you run to your right and there was a firework [there]. It was very chaotic. There was no way that you could go that was safe at all.”

Other videos uploaded to social media showed individuals carrying broken street signs and looting at the nearby Pavilions grocery store on West Balboa Boulevard.

Mia Meyers, 19, was closing up shop at Sancho’s Tacos, which...

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TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS:

[E. Pluribus Unum]

“Teens.”

[TheDon]

“Many minors and individuals from outside of Newport Beach were in the roundup.”

[No name given]

The children of Obeyme.

[No name given]

Let me guess: it’s them again, Yogi.

[drwoof]

‘Teens’ conspiring on (anti) social media have destroyed civic life. Social media in general has ruined just about everything.

[albie]

Youths=Animals

[webheart]

“Mostly young people”. It’s so hard to figure out what kind of people participate in Tik Tok takeovers. The media people have a really difficult job of trying to keep from reinforcing the stereotypes by failing to address the cultural and physical characteristics of the looters. They are aiding and abetting the criminals by not saying who they are.

[faithhopecharity]

average house price in Newport Beach is $3,700,000.69 and climbing

so whatever motivated these youths to go feral ... it wasn’t poverty or hunger

[CivilWarBrewing]

So the homies, Cholos and turd-worlders escape their dangerous cities SUCH AS SANTA ANA (75%+ ILLEGALS) and go to Newport Beach where they're safe, thus in-turn causing Newport Beach to become unsafe on July 4th. THEY SHOULD'VE JUST STAYED HOME, BUT THEY'VE GOT PREDOMINATELY WHITE ENCLAVES TO CONQUER !!!

Make the entire city of Newport Beach a GATED COMMUNITY, accessible only by proof of residence or being on a guest list.

[frank ballenger]

Maybe the teens were fighting to demonstrate choreographed re-enactor versions of the historical battles.

Maybe not.

[ApplegateRanch]

Interesting that the only photo shows white females cleaning up; no photos of the ones who made the mess.

[Fiji Hill]

We rented a beach house in Newport Beach in 1955, 1958 and 1964—a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. More recently, I have shopped at the Pavilions that was looted. It was one of the few supermarkets where they didn’t harass you during covid if you shopped there without wearing a mask.

[Fiji Hill]

Interesting that the only photo shows white females cleaning up; no photos of the ones who made the mess.

The closest neighborhoods with large numbers of "youths" and "teens" are about 30 miles away. They must have been drawn there by social media.