In 2020, New Jersey initiated a set of changes regarding how police can interact with juveniles who are overtly breaking the law or engaging in disruptive behavior.
Laws legalizing adult-use medical and recreational cannabis were extended to the point where police could no longer confront juveniles illegally using marijuana or consuming alcohol.
Amid the pandemic, the state also upped the ante by restricting how police could interact with juveniles gathering in large groups and engaging in rowdy and disorderly behavior. The restrictions are intended to keep more juveniles out of the criminal justice system. The interpretation of the restrictions by many teens was a license to engage in disruptive and even criminal behaviors that they quickly learned would meet no interference from the police.
Here, in Cape May County, large groups of young people gathered on beaches and boardwalks during the summer season. Residents complained of vandalism, public urination, blocked walkways, excessive trash, and illegal marijuana and alcohol use. Police pointed to state directives that limited their ability to control or disperse the crowds.
Shore towns reacted with their own ordinances and executive orders, setting limits on where and when groups could congregate. In Avalon last summer, Mayor Martin Pagliughi closed the beaches and boardwalks from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. The move gave police a legal basis for dispersing groups of juveniles.
Now, we are about to enter a new summer season. Fear of a recurrence of the problems from the previous two years is leading Pagliughi to start the season with restrictions. He has proposed closing access to the beaches and boardwalk in Avalon from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. in the face of potential rowdy behavior.
The move to reduce the number of juveniles who enter the criminal justice system was well-intended. The decision to close access to beaches and boardwalks due to the negative behaviors associated with large groups of rowdy teens was also well-intended, but the unintended consequence of it all is further erosion of our freedoms. The beaches aren’t closed just to teenagers, they are closed to all of us.
There is something very wrong with this picture, especially when one considers that town after town has identified rowdy groups they are reacting to as being made up predominantly of juveniles. Simply put, where are the parents?
When laws and directives change, limiting the ability of police to interfere with underage drinking and marijuana use, teens all too often see the move as a license to engage in behavior forbidden to them before. Parents should see those changes as a call for increased involvement in what behaviors young people are engaged in. The police can no longer act in loco parentis.
In towns up and down the shore, police can no longer detain underage drinkers, for example. They cannot demand identification. They cannot notify parents. It has led to what Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey Sutherland termed “prom night all summer long.”
One part of the reaction by municipal officials has been to close off beaches and boardwalks to all of us during specific hours. This summer, Avalon is extending the closing of beaches and its boardwalk to nearby Surfside Park because when they closed the beaches last year, it resulted in gatherings at the park. Must we keep extending the restrictions on all as our solution to the behavior of juveniles?
The proper solution seems to come in three parts.
The legislation and directives that have so hampered police need to be adjusted. Does the public really intend that the police can do nothing about underage drinking until a serious crime results?
It is time to raise our voices and let Trenton know in no uncertain terms that we want the legislation cleaned up. We must do so as publicly as possible and in ways that draw attention to the safety issues created by the legislation.
Parents need to return to their proper role in monitoring and adjusting juvenile behavior. Do we really believe that the parents of these rowdy teen congregants are oblivious to the news reports concerning these gatherings and the behaviors they engender? We need to educate parents on the need for their intervention.
It may also be time for these shore towns to give serious thought to alternative activities for juveniles. To assume they will not gather is self-defeating. Where would we have them go? How do we establish, and fund, options less threatening to property and public safety, including the safety of the juveniles themselves?
When our municipal and county leaders gather, as they did recently in a closed-door meeting in Sea Isle, the easy resort to actions that impinge on the freedoms of everyone must be avoided. We need better solutions.
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Quotes from the Bible:
How good and pleasant it is when people live together in harmony. – Psalm 133 1
