TYBEE ISLAND — Authorities arrested 54 people, issued 116 citations and recovered three stolen firearms and a stolen vehicle during last weekend’s Orange Crush beach party near Savannah.
Tybee officials published the preliminary numbers from the annual unsanctioned gathering Tuesday and could release more detailed statistics, including the number of visitors, on Wednesday. The arrest numbers were made public in the wake of news reports from TMZ and The New York Post that asserted “Spring Break reached rowdy new heights” and featured a video posted to social media that showed a brief fistfight between a group of women on the beach.
Tybee Mayor Brian West said the news stories were not an accurate representation of the event. He credited law enforcement for intercepting troublemakers before they could reach the island’s most popular beach, located near the Tybee Pier.
Island leaders implemented unprecedented traffic and public safety measures this year after a violent and chaotic gathering last April. Orange Crush dates to 1988 and draws tens of thousands of students and alumni from historically Black colleges and universities as well as other young adults — a majority of them Black — to the popular beach destination.
More than 100 law enforcement officers from the Georgia State Patrol, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and other local police departments assisted Tybee’s 12-person police force over the weekend. The arrest numbers more than doubled last year’s total, although the crowds were so large in 2023 that Tybee officers focused more on crowd control and property protection than on enforcement.
The 2024 arrest tally fell below previous Orange Crush weekend highs, such as the 81 arrests made in 2019.
Credit: NATRICE MILLER
Credit: NATRICE MILLER
Tybee officials also reported bagging up enough trash left on the beach Saturday to fill more than 10 all-terrain vehicle carts. Tybee Ocean Rescue lifeguards led the effort, which also included volunteer help from local residents and groups of Savannah State University students.
Still, with high tide hitting at 6:54 p.m., some trash washed into the ocean.
Tybee mobilizes similar beach sweeps on other high traffic weekends, such as Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day.
Savannah also dealt with Orange Crush-related crowds over the weekend. Club parties advertised over social media drew a large number of college-age celebrants downtown, prompting the temporary closure of West Congress Street. The Savannah Police Department routinely closes downtown streets to traffic when large gatherings spill into the roadways.
“We have a protocol for that, and we implemented it,” Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said. “From an enforcement perspective, we stopped the unpermitted activities and engaged with them. At that age, you just want to have a good time.”
Johnson interacted with several Orange Crush participants Friday at Daffin Park, a large public park in the heart of the city. Johnson was there for an unrelated Earth Day event but made a point to engage with the young people, many of them Savannah State University students. Johnson is an SSU alum and as a student there was among those who organized the early Orange Crush parties.
He said the students he spoke with Friday nicknamed him “OC OG.”
“They got a kick out of that,” Johnson said, “and I guess I did, too.”
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