"There's nothing I can do; there's a hundred of them and one of me," said the man recording on his cell phone.
The violence, police say, isn't a new concept for the city's Fourth of July fireworks show.
"It happens every year downtown," Grand Rapids police Sgt. Cathy Williams said. "We get 10,000-plus people downtown -- families who want to enjoy the fireworks and then go home -- and then you have 200-300 teens who come downtown to create havoc. And we have to use a large chunk of resources corralling these unsupervised kids."
Williams said there were about a dozen such fights in the area Saturday evening, July 6, during the city's annual Independence Day fireworks show. They were reported in the areas of Rosa Parks Circle, Grand Rapids Public Museum, Fulton Street Bridge, the Blue Bridge, Holiday Inn, and the Monroe Avenue and Louis Street NW area.
Police said each fight was believed to have involved teens ages 13 to 16 years old. In each instance, participants scattered when officers arrived.
This year, the fights resulted in two arrests. A 13-year-old girl was arrested for disorderly fighting at Rosa Parks Circle. A little later, a 14-year-old boy was arrested for punching another teen during a brawl near the Monroe Avenue/Louis Street NW bus station.