[brief] Plaintiff is a former Police Captain for Defendant [...], having worked for the Township’s Police Department for twenty-five years until his retirement on September 1, 2017.  (Plaintiff Dep. 8:5-18, 824a).  This matter arises out of a police response to an incident after the Township’s July 4th fireworks display that took place on July 5, 2016.  (Plaintiff’s Complaint, 63a).  The following specific facts are established in the record regarding the July 5, 2016 incident:  [a] following the July 4th fireworks display that night, a crowd of juveniles, totaling approximately fifty, failed to disperse, and questioned police officers’ directives to do so and instead stood in an active roadway where traffic was supposed to flow, with a number of the juveniles becoming highly irate and shouting profanities at the officers while refusing the officers’ orders to exit the roadway; & [b] members of the crowd were acting in an unruly and disorderly manner and engaging in physical altercations or ‘fights’.  (Deposition of Township Administrator [...] at 32:24-33:14, 510a; 43:25-44:2, 513a; Deposition of Captain [...] at 45:5-16, 46:2-5, 48:7-23, & 52:2-53:10, 591a-593a; 370a; 354a).  Multiple juveniles were arrested, and some were combative with police officers and resisted arrest, including one individual who grabbed an officer by the hand and attempted to pull him away from another individual.  (370a; Williams Dep. 46:7-20, 49:8-50:4, & 53:11-16, 591a-593a).  Another arrestee spit at an officer and was being disorderly, agitated and combative, and was shouting profanities at officers even after he was arrested.  (Id. at 49:15-50:24, 592a-593a; 369a-370a).  Then-Township Administrator Manning testified that one or more of the juveniles assaulted one or more of the police officers who responded to the altercation.  (Manning Dep. 44:21-25, 513a).  According to Township Committee Member [...], on the night of the incident there was a fight amongst individuals in the crowd after the fireworks and “the police needed to intervene to break up the fight and to disperse the crowd”.  (Deposition of [...] at 21:1-17, 623a; 54:20-23, 632a).  Lembrich testified that several individuals in the crowd, who were in their “teens and early 20s”, were acting in a “disorderly manner” and “some people acted in a confrontational manner towards our [Maplewood] police when the police tried to break up the fight and disperse the crowd”.  (Id. at 21:21-22, 623a; 28:14-16 & 29:8-15, 625a).  The officers on scene attempted to “disperse the crowd and ultimately, not all of the crowd did disperse”.  (Id. at 30:13-14, 626a).  According to Lembrich, one of the individuals in the crowd spit on an Irvington Police Officer and was taken into custody.  (Id. at 57:19-24, 632a).  There were “multiple arrests made” and “an altercation between individuals [in the crowd] and officers of both departments”.  (Id. at 59:18-22, 633a).  Also, an officer on scene used “OC” spray which Lembrich admits was “deemed appropriate” as a use of “non-lethal force” to break up the fight.  (Id. at 61:3-62:5, 633a-634a).  The suggestion that the officers on scene were directing the crowd to Irvington is contradicted by Defendants’ own testimony.  Township Committee member [...] testified that based upon the video footage she reviewed the police vehicles were following the crowd as they moved east, and she was not aware that they were being led by police in any one direction.