‘We got lucky’

There was more than rides, games of chance and cotton candy at the Middlesex Fire Department Carnival at Mountain View Park on Friday night. A huge crowd that turned unruly spurred local police to call in reinforcements from nearby towns as they shut the event down early.

Apparently fueled by social media, a flash mob comprising hundreds of teenagers descended on the carnival at Mountain View Park. When some could not gain entrance to the crowded carnival grounds, they began jumping the fence to get in.

After the carnival ended, some teens spilled into nearby areas, sparking fights which ended up on Instagram.

Police Chief Matt Geist said carnival organizers sold between 5,000 and 6,000 tickets for Friday night. Police estimated there were another 1,000 people trying to get in, when the decision to shut the event was made at about 8:30 p.m.

“When things like this happen, it’s not the norm,” Geist said. “My team felt it was unsafe and the only way to control it was to close down.”

Geist said Friday night’s teenage carnival-goers came “from far and wide,” some using public transportation and arriving by bus.

Unfounded rumors spread through the community of a shooting, spurred by erroneous reports posted on social media. State Police and law enforcement from numerous nearby towns such as Scotch Plains, Green Brook, Dunellen and Warren Township were called in to help the Middlesex Police Department restore order.

The gunshot rumors, according to Mayor Jack Mikolajczyk, were apparently spurred by a car traveling near the carnival grounds with a loud, sputtering muffler.

Mikołajczyk was at the carnival grounds when the trouble occurred between 8:30 and 9 p.m. He was also briefed by police the following morning.

The carnival reopened at noon on Saturday, April 27 and was scheduled to remain open into the early evening. But it was closed at 5:30 p.m. after a social media post suggested crowds might again congregate at MV Park.

“Let’s make it happen PT 2,” the post read. “If yall are content creators this is a great time to get some good content for yall channels.”

Posted social media videos showed fights among carnival-goers after they left on Friday night. At least one, appeared to show a group kicking and stomping a downed teen on a sidewalk. 

Other video showed several youths fighting in the middle of a street while car drivers honked their horns due to the blocked roadway. Another scene appeared to be taking place inside a local business. One caption noted it was inside Wendy’s.

Mikolajczyk said there were no reported injuries of police, carnival patrons or workers, at least as of Saturday morning. He acknowledged the investigation is continuing.

While the event had to close early on Friday night, Mikolajczyk credited the Middlesex Police Department’s response plan for dealing with the melee after it erupted.

The mayor said that when he arrived at MV Park on Friday night, he could not get into the carnival due to crowd size.

“You could tell it was a flash mob or something. When I was walking in, I was looking around and I could see all these kids and I could guarantee they weren’t from our town,” Mikolajczyk said.

Teens started jumping the fence surrounding the carnival. “There were just way too many people, and at that point, I think there were some people who were looking for trouble,” he said.

“As far as our police, they take it on the chin sometimes, but their operation plan was Grade A,” the mayor added. “They had backup people there in like two minutes. No one got hurt, which is the main thing.”

Friday’s crowd problem was the second time in recent years that a carnival night got shut early by police. On still another occasion, the Department of Public Works had to be dispatched to clean up a nearby neighborhood after carnival-goers dumped a large amount of trash there.

Asked about the carnival’s future, neither Geist nor Mikolajczyk would say it’s time to end the event, which is a major fundraiser for local fire companies. But it might be time for changes, according to the mayor.

“It’s a tough question to answer,” said Geist. “I can’t say it’s time to close it down. It’s not my call.”

The chief said that manpower is pulled in for the carnival to supplement other officers who continue to patrol the rest of Middlesex. “The real world is still going on,” Geist said.

Mikolajczyk said the event carries no financial cost to the municipality, as the firefighters pay for any needed police or DPW overtime.

“I’m not saying you’ve got to end it,” the mayor said. “But we’re going to debrief and have an action plan, because you’ve got to find some way to prevent this from happening.” 

“The bottom line is we can’t continue to have this,” Mikolajczyk added. “Yeah, we had no arrests, no injuries that we know of. Great we got lucky. But sooner or later – if you’re going to keep spinning the wheel like that – it’s going to go bad.” 

“Why put yourself, unnecessarily in a bad position, when you can make changes to this event?” he added. “You want it to be a family event and have it for its intended purpose.“

“You can make a million dollars or whatever, but if you get to the point where someone gets hurt, whatever you think you gained, it was not worth it,” he said.

“It doesn’t cost the town anything,” Mikoloajczyk said of the event’s finances. “But right now, it’s costing us in our reputation.”

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