AVALON – Young people gathering in large groups and engaging in noisy and, at times, destructive behavior appears to have become a new fact of life at the Jersey Shore.
Avalon Mayor Martin Pagliughi makes clear his belief that this undesirable addition to the summer season in shore communities is the result of the state’s juvenile reform initiative and its policing directives tied to the legalization of cannabis.
State officials have said the changes in how juveniles are dealt with were made to address racial disparities in the justice system. Local municipal officials say they see a direct link between changed state rules and rowdy and disruptive behavior on beaches and boardwalks.
This year, towns responded with increased video camera monitoring of key locations, beefed-up police patrols, and, in Avalon, the proactive closing of the beach and boardwalk through late night and early morning hours.
Memorial Day weekend can be seen as one test of how well the plans work. In Avalon, Police Chief Jeffrey Christopher said the police were aware of two incidents where crowds gathered on the borough boardwalk and engaged in undesirable behavior.
One Avalon homeowner complained of “obscene and destructive” behavior, fueled, in part, by “backpacks packed with alcohol,” just outside his boardwalk home.
Over Memorial Day weekend, the homeowner experienced having his home “attacked by these disrespectful morons who were throwing fence rails at our house.”
He noted that the potential for serious harm was narrowly avoided when a rail just missed “the sliding glass doors” of a room where a 2-year-old slept.
House cameras caught some of the crowd. After the incident, pictures showed a memorial bench dislodged from its place on the boardwalk and thrown “into my landscape,” according to the homeowner.
He said the behavior went on from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., a period in which the boardwalk is officially closed to the public.
Christopher later reached out to the homeowner, who found the encounter with the chief “very helpful.”
Christopher said, so far, when the police hear of an incident and inform the groups of individuals that the boardwalk is closed, they generally disperse, some less agreeably than others.
Christopher said he would rather see the crowd disperse than have officers engage in an intervention that escalates the situation.
He added that if the police saw individuals engaged in the destruction of property, they could and would act, otherwise clearing the area is, at times, the best response. Christopher admitted that police have found backpacks filled with alcohol, as the homeowner reported.
So far, the incidents have been few, the damage has been limited, and the crowds have dispersed when told the area was closed. All that may change, as the population of the shore towns swell.
One hope is that the publicity the unruly behavior has generated might lead parents to play a more involved role in knowing where their young people are and what they are doing. If not, what a homeowner over Memorial Day weekend called lawlessness could get worse before it gets better.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
