BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK — A flash mob of hundreds of teens materialized on Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 2 on March 9, leading police to intervene after fights broke out, according to witnesses and park officials.
The youth gathered following social media posts, officials said.
Video on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook showed police officers struggling with at least one individual as hundreds of high-spirited youth surged around them, some taking video with their cell phones and others running en mass at high speed.
A neighborhood resident told the Brooklyn Eagle that two New York Police Department aviation units were hovering over the scene, which, from the resident’s vantage, “resembled the Washington Square snowball event.”
Large, social media-triggered crowds are a regular occurrence in the park when weather turns warm, especially over spring break. The gatherings, sometimes referred to in postings as “Taking over Brooklyn Bridge Park,” have at times turned violent, with injuries and property damage.
The 84th Precinct usually stages extra police officers in the park during spring break, which for New York City public schools this year is scheduled from April 2-10.
Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 2 on the Brooklyn waterfront. Photo: Alexa Hoyer
Social media post calling for ‘viral moments’
Eric Landau, president of Brooklyn Bridge Park, told the Eagle that the park became aware of the social media post calling for a mass gathering, and reached out to the organizers in advance to get a handle on the situation.
“Our team monitors all social media channels to see what people are saying about the park generally,” Landau said. “On Friday [March 6], we came across a social media post that called for a gathering at Brooklyn Bridge Park because it was going to be 70 degrees.
“Basically it was like, ‘Hey, everybody meet up at Brooklyn Bridge Park Monday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. to create viral moments, but fighting won’t be tolerated. So don’t fight.’ We’ve seen this before, where someone posts something on social media and it draws big crowds. BBP staff reached out to the organizer to inform them that large groups needed a permit, and asked them to contact the park in advance. The person that we sent that comment to, the organizer, as I understand it, mockingly shared our post on social media and then blocked us from sending him any further messages.”
BBP then contacted the 84th Precinct to let them know that “sometimes these large gatherings have led to challenges in the park,” and the precinct responded, he said. “ Captain [Erek] Powers and his team had a detail in the park prior to that 3:30 p.m. call time — they were here around 2-2:30 p.m. Monday afternoon.”
By 4:30 p.m. there were “a few hundred” teens gathered on Pier 2, which holds basketball, pickleball and handball courts, and other exercise equipment. They were “just kind of hanging out waiting for something to happen,” Landau said. “The feeling was that the crowd was definitely getting large, but that it was still manageable.”
Park police shut Pier 2 in Brooklyn Bridge Park in April 2023 following a chaotic crowd incident. Photo: Mary Frost/Brooklyn Eagle
Around 5:30 p.m. that changed, as the crowd “got a little bit bigger, and fights broke out across the pier,” he said. “It was at that time that NYPD said to us that they felt that the situation was no longer manageable, and therefore recommended closing the pier.” Police began directing everybody out of the park via Atlantic Avenue, he said.
“As they were doing that, more fights continued, as I was told, and some of the people were fighting with NYPD. NYPD called for additional officers, and got everybody on the pier out of the park. They did make a number of arrests,” Landau said, adding he didn’t have details concerning the exact charges.
By 7 p.m., everyone involved was no longer in the park, Landau said. There were no injuries or destruction of property, he was told.
“So from our perspective, we became aware of this in advance, we tried to reach out to the organizers to explain how park rules and regulations work. That was unsuccessful. We worked in close coordination with the local precinct [to handle] the situation as best as humanly possible.
“I don’t believe you can prevent these types of things from happening. All you can do is manage it. I do think that we managed it as best as possible. Obviously, public parkland should be public parkland. It should be open to everyone. And when this type of thing does happen — and it’s happened in the past, obviously — what we can do is manage it and work with our partners as closely as possible.”
Police shut down Pier 2 in Brooklyn Bridge Park in March 2025 following an incident in the park. Photo: Mary Frost/Brooklyn Eagle
Plaudits for the 84th
Community groups, including the Brooklyn Heights Association and the Willowtown Association have been pushing for years for more park supervision and crowd management.
Linda DeRosa, president of the Willowtown Association, told the Eagle that she heard “a lot of commotion” on Monday, and discovered that the 84th Precinct had closed Joralemon Street after the ruckus broke out. She saw police shepherding teens “who looked like they were around 15 years old,” out of the park via Atlantic Avenue and at Pier 1 (Old Fulton Street), she said.
In years past, groups of youth have caused trouble on Joralemon Street as they exited the park, some jumping on cars and others crowding into shops, grabbing items and running out without paying.
DeRosa said it was “upsetting” that the mass groups of youth were starting so early this year.
“But I want to thank Captain Powers,” she said. “He did a really good job, getting the crowd under control very quickly.”
Thousands of park goers streamed out of Brooklyn Bridge Park along Old Fulton Street to Cadman Plaza West, shown above, in 2017 after sections of the park were evacuated by police. Photo: Mary Frost/Brooklyn Eagle
Bringing in Elite Learners again
Councilmember Lincoln Restler has been working for several years on the mass crowd problem.
In his recent newsletter, Restler said that, at his encouragement, the management of Brooklyn Bridge Park brought on a nonprofit organization, Elite Learners, to help manage crowds and deescalate large gatherings of young adults over spring break. “Moving forward, we are evaluating appropriate crowd sizes of young adults on Pier 2,” Restler said.
Landau said the park worked with Elite Learners last year on several occasions and would be working with them again during spring break this year.
“Obviously spring break is the time where we have seen this dynamic play out,” he said. “We will work closely with both our Park Enforcement Patrol detail, as we did on [that] Monday, and with the 84th Precinct.”
Police closed down Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 2 in April 2016 after large crowds, violent incidents and death threats on Facebook. Photo: Mary Frost/Brooklyn Eagle
Crowd incidents in Brooklyn Bridge Park through the years
– In August 2015, a gang of roughly 20 young adults leaving the park rampaged along Joralemon Street in Brooklyn Heights.
– On May 11, 2016, hundreds of young people gathered at Pier 2 and a brawl reportedly broke out. An unverified report on social media stated: “Bats canes bottles knifes grips it was like world war park.”
– Citing large crowds, violent incidents and death threats on social media, police closed down Pier 2 on April 27 and on other days in 2016.
– On April 11, 2017, a Level One Mobilization was called as sections of the park were forcibly evacuated by police due to overcrowding, fights and attacks.
— Large, unruly groups and three armed robberies took place there in one week in June 2022.
— In April 2023, up to a thousand high school-aged kids on spring break overwhelmed the park. Fights broke out, at least one assault took place and hundreds of youth stampeded.
— In March 2025, a 13-year-old boy was stabbed three times in the back after fights broke out among hundreds of teens who had filled the park.