Downtown Crowds Drawn via Social Media

South Orange police, with assistance from several other police departments, broke up a gathering of young adults, whose estimated number ranges from 200 to 500, and apparently resulted in an assault, on Saturday night. It is believed that the teens may have been informed of Saturday’s get-together by social media. So far, police have been tight-lipped about the incident and the role of social networking sites. 

An employee of New York Fried Chicken was punched in the head and face on Saturday night at around 8:20 p.m., while attempting to remove people who weren’t purchasing food from his store.

Three arrests for disorderly conduct were made on Saturday. 

Downtown South Orange has seen large gatherings as recently as October, when about through town, and for the past three summers. The gatherings have been a recurring challenge to local business owners, some of whom locked their doors and closed early on Saturday. Likewise, local parents commented that they no longer permit their teenagers to spend evenings downtown.

 Earlier in the day on Saturday, messages such as “over 200+ people going to South Orange Ville,” were tweeted and retweeted. Other messages included, “mad people going there tonight,” and “people just going, like valentines day weekend. but its gonna get shut down.” Other tweets suggested that there would be “wilding” in South Orange, which is known as “South Orange Ville, “The Vill,” and “The Ville.”

Likewise, two New Jersey-based Facebook users posted an “event” called “South Orange CHILL AT THE VILLE,” scheduled for Feb. 12, from 6:30 p.m. onwards. One of the posters has 1429 “friends,” while the other has 1224.

In March of 2010, when approximately lage and fighting broke out, Trustee Deborah Davis Ford noted at a public meeting, that teens are flocking to downtown when word spreads via Facebook and Twitter. At that time, she asked Police Chief Jim Chelel if police are monitoring social media. He responded then that the department is aware of the role social networking plays in driving up crowd sizes. 

The medium of choice may be changing. In August of 2009, Patch spoke to a teen who said that MySpace messages drew him to town. At that time, Khalil Banner, of Newark, said that Jersey Gardens in Elizabeth was once a big hang-out spot, but he started reading posts by fellow MySpace users describing the scene in South Orange. "It'll say on a Sunday, 'The Vill was popping last night,'" said Banner.

A Facebook group called “The Ville” was established last year to counter such messages. The group’s most recent post, dated yesterday, reads, “SOPD was out in force last night. The Ville is no fun if you are up to no good...unless you count being arrested as fun.”