Long Branch Gets $500K From State To Reimburse For Pop-Up Party

LONG BRANCH, NJ — Last week, Long Branch was earmarked to receive $500,000 in state aid to reimburse the city for extra costs it incurred policing a very large pop-up party that occurred there on May 21.

Long Branch is the only Jersey Shore town that received such aid, although Belmar, Point Pleasant Beach and Asbury Park have all been named as locations for pop-up parties as well.

The $500,000 was doled out last week in the fiscal year 2022-23 New Jersey state budget, which Gov. Phil Murphy signed Friday before departing for a vacation in Italy.

That half a million dollars from the state will be spent to reimburse the city for the cost of hiring additional police officers it has had to deploy to the beach, according to Long Branch Mayor John Pallone, a Democrat.

The summer 2022 season kicked off with a notoriously large pop-up party on May 21 that attracted more than 5,000 people to descend on Pier Village, and resulted in 15 arrests. Crowds of people danced on top of a police car and smashed its windows in; the squad car was destroyed. People also drank alcohol and smoked marijuana on city streets, and dozens of fistfights broke out, some of them extremely bloody and violent.

Since that May 21 melee, Long Branch has been a threatened destination site for multiple additional pop-up parties — although none have actually materialized. Long Branch has had to brace for the crowds anyway, Pallone previously said, and the city has had to bring in police officers from neighboring towns to provide back-up, and pay its own officers overtime.

Long Branch has also had to deploy extra police officers to its beachfront.

In mid-June, a Monmouth County Superior Court judge ordered the six men who were primarily organizing the pop-up parties to stop advertising them on social media, and three of the men signed written agreements promising they would stop. Read that story: Judge Orders 6 Jersey Shore Pop-Up Party Promoters To Stop; 3 Agree

Another pop-up party was advertised on Instagram and TikTok to take place June 19 in Long Branch, but organizers canceled it after the judge issued her court order.

State Sen. Vin Gopal is the Democratic state lawmaker who represents this area in Trenton, and he helped Long Branch get the $500,000.

According to Gopal, this is the first time in years the state of New Jersey gave this kind of direct support to the Long Branch Department of Public Safety.

"For the past several months I have been working in a bi-partisan effort with legislative leadership in Trenton to secure direct funds for Long Branch," said Gopal.