Newport Beach 4th of July Descends into CHAOS — Over 100 Rioters Arrested

It was total mayhem in Newport Beach, CA during last night’s Independence Day celebrations.

Thousands of hooligans took over the beach town, rioting, throwing fireworks at cops, fighting each other, and looting stores.

Law enforcement was forced to shut down businesses and bars, and police on horseback were spotted breaking up a gigantic brawl happening on the beach.

Ultimately, over one-hundred of these rioters were arrested.

The Orange County Register described the chaos:

A large, rowdy July 4th celebration on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach erupted in chaos Saturday evening as fights broke out, fireworks were thrown into groups including police officers, and hundreds of people were reportedly arrested.

Video from the scene shows police on horseback charging into the crowd on the beach to break up unruly revelers.

“A Pavilions was ransacked and completely trashed outside … teens that were arrested for curfew violations had to be picked up by their parents. Newport Beach called for county-wide help for (the) situation …” wrote OC Hawk, a freelance news videographer.

Officers arrived at the scene on the 3100 block of West Balboa Boulevard after people began stealing items and throwing them at the front of the Pavilions, freelance videographer County News Service reported. “The situation escalated and police issued a “999” — an officer needs help call — prompting at least a hundred officers from surrounding agencies to converge on the location.”

Newport Beach Mayor Pro Tem Noam Blom, who was on scene, said people were throwing fireworks into groups of people, and police officers were among those groups, but they weren’t thrown at the officers directly.

Some officers had non-life-threatening injuries, ABC7 reported.

Blom said hundreds of people were arrested. He did not have a specific number.

Collin Rugg on X shared a compilation of some wild footage from last night:

Authorities in California were forced to shut down businesses from Newport Pier to Pacific Coast Highway due to non-residents wreaking havoc on July 4th.

Hundreds of people reportedly swarmed police officers and threw debris at them before fighting each other.

Newport Beach… pic.twitter.com/fWjZZpzgaU

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 5, 2026

Authorities in California were forced to shut down businesses from Newport Pier to Pacific Coast Highway due to non-residents wreaking havoc on July 4th.

Hundreds of people reportedly swarmed police officers and threw debris at them before fighting each other.

Newport Beach stores were also looted, according to local reports, including a Pavilions grocery store. Video footage shows a massive amount of trash and debris left outside the store.

Authorities say about 100 people were arrested and multiple police officers were injured.

Here’s another video, showing the aftermath of the Newport grocery store being looted:

BREAKING 🚨🚨🚨#NewportBeach / #California

Pavilions Grocery Store in Newport has been reportedly Looted tonight but the unruly riot mob. pic.twitter.com/O7Q1yjsqMi

— OC Scanner 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 (@OC_Scanner) July 5, 2026

Frankly, it’s terrible to see this happening on what should be a night full of peaceful, patriotic celebrations of our nation’s 250th birthday.

But, it’s even worse for the local residents of the area, who have to deal with the damage caused by “non-resident” thugs.

July 4th: Americans celebrate the 250th birthday of this great nation

July 5th: California business owners call their insurance companies to cover all the riot and looting damages pic.twitter.com/7odI2xrD1N

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) July 5, 2026

Newport Beach residents were busy this morning, doing their part to clean up the trash and restore their town back to normal after the pandemonium last night.

The Los Angeles Times shared:

The scene on Sunday morning was much quieter, though the mess left behind cluttered streets and sidewalks. Some local residents made their way out to the Pavilions parking lot, pitching in to help restore the neighborhood grocery store to normalcy.

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Local real estate agent Bill Forsythe, who was on his way to his office at Engel & Voelkers on Shipyard Way, stopped in for coffee at Starbucks inside Pavilions Sunday morning as the clean-up was taking place.

“I spoke to a man who lived on 28th Street, who had seen the incident last night and came out this morning to help clean up the parking lot,” Forsythe said.

“He said the unruly people were throwing large fireworks like cherry bombs into the crowd, and he had heard that many were from out of state.”

Newport Beach should be a beautiful beach town for families and friends to gather and celebrate the 4th together.

But, unfortunately, thanks to Democrat leaders like Gavin Newsom who refuse to punish crime, this is what you get instead.

Take a look at some of these on-point replies from folks on X:

Shocker. This is what happens when the law isn’t enforced, they’ll let these people off with just a slap on the wrist, so you can expect it to keep happening. Before long, every nice neighborhood could end up looking like Skid Row. pic.twitter.com/dPn4QPh6I3

— HipCheck (@HipCheck520) July 5, 2026