SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NJ—Memorial Day weekend was chaotic at the Jersey Shore, not the best way to start the summer tourism season that depends heavily on families. Instead of images of families walking up and down the boardwalk, children on rides, and gatherings at the beach, the imagery of this past weekend is the stuff of horror movies.
Teens running scared, believing there were active shooters. Boardwalks filled with rowdy and unsupervised mobs of teens, the stench of marijuana, fights, stampedes, brawls, disrespect, and chaos.
Welcome to the new normal at the Jersey Shore under Governor Phil Murphy’s new juvenile criminal justice reform. Where cops and towns can’t enforce their laws for fear of violating the civil rights of teens who know they can get away with anything they want.
Disturbances on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, Ocean City, and Wildwood led to arrests, citations, and injuries.
“The entire place smells like weed,” many families reported to Shore News Network after the weekend.
Today, the New Jersey State PBA president commended his agency’s actions to keep the peace as much as possible under new juvenile justice guidelines and policies set forth by Governor Phil Murphy’s administration.
J State PBA President Pete Andreyev said, “Our officers did an outstanding job handling out-of-control and unsupervised teens all along the Jersey shore. It will be a long summer if we don’t hold parents responsible. We all deserve better.”
Andreyev did not, however, address the handcuffing done to local police under Governor Phil Murphy’s new juvenile justice reform.
The writing was on the wall. Last year, Ocean City Mayor Jay Jillian saw it coming and laid the blame squarely where it belonged: on Governor Murphy’s desk.
“The laws they forced on all municipalities threaten public safety, and they deprive families of the opportunity to enjoy the Jersey Shore,” he said.
“In order to ensure that the safe enjoyment of the Jersey Shore is available to every family and resident, this administration will continue to work with the local elected officials and law enforcement officials of our shore towns to address this issue fairly and responsibly,” Murphy’s administration said last year.
Since then, Murphy has further eroded the tools available to police at the Jersey Shore when it comes to dealing with juvenile delinquency.
In January, Murphy rejected a bill on his desk that would have imposed a $50 ticket on minors caught with illegal alcohol, saying the law violated the rights of inner-city youth and financially disadvantaged teens.
“Affluent individuals who have the financial resources to pay fines can do so repeatedly without any impact on their behavior, which neither serves as a deterrent from future delinquent behavior nor addresses the underlying concerns with substance use,” Murphy said upon rejecting the bill. “Individuals without those same resources, who are disproportionately juveniles of color, are at risk for further involvement with the legal system because of non-payment. These consequences affect not only the juvenile but the entire family unit.”
After handcuffing police in charging juveniles for cannabis use, Murphy used the relaxed laws he imposed on juvenile cannabis possession as the reason for not allowing fines for alcohol.
“There is no persuasive justification for treating the possession of alcoholic beverages more harshly than the possession of cannabis items, which is not subjected to monetary fines under the bill,” the Governor said.
Worse, new policies enforced by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office could see police officers facing disciplinary measures if they hassle teens smoking weed. A 2021 law enacted by Murphy made it easy for officers to face civil rights charges and fines for enforcing illegal possession laws when it came to minors. They could even lose their job or, worse, face jail time.
New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin says the Murphy administration’s juvenile justice reforms are working despite the mayhem at the Jersey Shore and rampant car thefts being carried out by juveniles statewide.
The transformation of New Jersey’s youth justice system is nothing short of remarkable and as a result, New Jersey continues to be a national model for reform,” said Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin. “Even with these successes, New Jersey’s youth justice reform continues, with a specific focus on minimizing racial disparities throughout the youth justice system, increasing opportunities for the diversion of low-level offenders into community-based programs where they can obtain needed services, and strengthening partnerships between schools, the youth justice system, and other stakeholders.”
It’s not all Phil Murphy’s fault. Sure, he lit the match, but the fuel of the current problems at the Jersey Shore also lies with bad parents. Parents who have no control over their kids and let them behave as if they are the center of the world and entitled. Parents who know their kids aren’t going to get in any criminal trouble. Maybe just a few bumps and bruises.
The 2024 season at the Jersey Shore appears doomed before it even got started. The area desperately needs the income of vacationing families in light of the economic turmoil, inflation, and rising costs of living. The Jersey Shore is one of the last affordable escapes for the family unit, but they may choose to spend their dwindling cash reserves elsewhere if the governor doesn’t give towns the tools they need to maintain law and order.
Governor Murphy has not responded to the weekend of civil unrest and mayhem at the Jersey Shore over Memorial Day weekend.