Police increase presence on Ruston Way

Freedom Fair mayhem blamed on street gangs

Tacoma Police Department (TPD) has increased its presence on Ruston Way in response to mayhem that erupted during Freedom Fair, the city’s annual Fourth of July festival.

Several unruly groups terrified vendors and people attending the event beginning at around 7 p.m.

According to City Manager Eric Anderson, about 40 young people were acting out, throwing fireworks into the crowd and fighting. No one was arrested, and no injuries were reported.

“It was a very volatile situation,” he said. “Our officers handled it extraordinarily well, and with restraint.”

TPD spokesman Mark Fulghum said fighting broke out around Silver Cloud Hotel, then the brawl shifted south along Ruston Way. He explained the incident was gang related. “The thought is that they were local (gang members),” he said.

After the fireworks show, a large group of officers stood shoulder-to-shoulder across Ruston Way and ordered people walking north to turn around and head south toward Old Town, in order to prevent further unrest.

There were about 85 TPD officers patrolling the event. Last year, there were 100. Staffing decisions are based on expected crowd sizes. Last year, Freedom Fair coincided with the Tall Ships event, so more officers were scheduled for the larger crowd along the entire waterfront.

Dr. George Keogh had a booth for his business, Proctor Chiropractic, about halfway between the Ram and Lobster Shop restaurants. He said the atmosphere got ugly later in the day.

“For most of the day, it was something that Tacoma could be very proud of,” he said. Around sunset it changed. “It became a very unstable crowd and very dangerous place to be.”

Before, during and after the fireworks display, Keogh said a group of about 40 or 50 youths were lighting fireworks and throwing them into the crowd. He witnessed people screaming and running in panic.

He noted police squad cars with lights flashing were parked about 100 yards to the north and south of his booth. He is frustrated officers took so long to intervene.

“Police management was very poor,” Keogh said, although he doesn’t blame individual officers. “I know they have to protect themselves, but whoever was making the decisions didn’t handle this well.”

A New Jersey native, Keogh said he used to live in the Bronx and has been to many large festivals. He said he has not witnessed a situation get as out of hand as Freedom Fair. 

“At this point, I would not bring my family down there,” he commented.

Keogh said he might consider bringing them down in the early afternoon but would not stay around for the fireworks display. One of Keogh’s employees brought his wife and young child. “It was very scary being there with a child,” Keogh remarked.

He added that it took him until after midnight to return to his booth to dismantle it.

Police will take the incident into account during pre-planning for next year’s event, Anderson said. They may consider using video cameras, in order to gather evidence should the crowd engage in violent behavior.

In May, TPD assigned eight to 10 officers to patrol Ruston Way, as warm weather traditionally draws more people to the area. That number was increased to 10 to 12 in June, in part because of problems caused by gang members congregating in parking lots and along sidewalks.

TPD now plans to have a paddy wagon and its mobile command unit available to officers on weekends, should more problems arise.