Global Courant
It’s summer on the Jersey Shore. For many young people that only means one thing: party!
But officials and residents of several beach towns say New Jersey’s criminal justice reforms in recent years — such as decriminalizing marijuana use — are having an unintended effect, encouraging large groups of teens to run amok on beaches and boardwalks, knowing that there is little chance that they will. get into trouble with it.
Now some legislators are trying to walk back parts of those laws, which also cover alcohol consumption and possession. The laws aimed to keep more young people out of the justice system and placed a number of restrictions on police officers’ interaction with them.
“You don’t want to see a kid with a record that will last the rest of their life, but you can’t make them believe they can do anything they want to do,” said Seaside Heights Mayor Anthony Vaz. “That’s unacceptable.”
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Over Memorial Day weekend, police and media reported episodes of underage drinking, drug use, fights and assaults in Ocean City and Seaside Heights – home of the infamous MTV series “Jersey Shore” in which a bunch of summer renters generally go to hell. caused the city.
Though teens have been drinking and smoking marijuana on the Jersey Shore for generations, long before the state changed the laws, some elected officials and residents say the situation has worsened dramatically over the past two years.
During Memorial Day, teens hung from the balcony of a Seaside Heights motel and climbed onto the roof of another motel. In Ocean City, eight teens drank themselves unconscious on the boardwalk and had to be hospitalized. Toilet visitors were abused and spat on by young people. Several teens carried knives and one had a replica pistol that police said looked just like the real thing.
Young people gather on the beach in Seaside Heights, New Jersey on June 2, 2023. Officials and residents of several New Jersey coastal cities say the state law decriminalizing marijuana use is having an unintended effect on state beaches. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
“Enough is enough,” Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian wrote in a message to residents on the city’s website. “It’s become clear over the past two summers that unless something changes, these crowds are only going to get bigger and more unruly.”
Holly Kisby, an Ocean City resident who has worked on the boardwalk for more than 30 years, said teens drank, smoked marijuana, set off fireworks in the crowd, fought, vandalized property and stole from stores, among other things.
“You get better with 300+ kids if I have to guess, 700 plus a few nights, all acting wild,” she said. “Like a bad house party without the house. This is by far the worst it’s ever been.”
Ocean City police chief Jay Prettyman said most of the troublemakers were minors, but added that New Jersey’s recently passed cannabis law says anyone under 21 cannot consent to a police investigation of marijuana or alcohol.
Previously, teens caught with those things could be arrested. Now they get a warning or are taken to police headquarters for a parent or guardian to pick them up, except in the most serious situations.
Word spread quickly among teenagers, who know they don’t have to give officers their names as long as they don’t walk away from the officer during questioning. The children even know that officers themselves can be sued if they violate the rights of teenagers in these circumstances.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s office did not respond to requests for comment. The American Civil Liberties Union supported the changes, saying teens should be given alternatives to criminal charges whenever possible.
Over the Seaside Heights boardwalk Thursday, a small plane towed a banner asking, “Do you know the signs of alcohol poisoning?” Sitting on a bench with friends, 22-year-old Santiago Caceres said police shouldn’t search people for illegal substances.
“People of color are searched much more often than white people,” he said. “That’s why people are in prison.”
“A lot of underage people make a stupid mistake and they end up with a criminal record,” which ruins the rest of their lives, his friend Angel Aguero, 23, added. Both had come to the beach from West New York, a New Jersey town just across from Manhattan.
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Nick DiMattina, a 15-year-old boy from Beachwood, New Jersey, thinks the police should be able to frisk underage people like him. He heard about the change in law on TikTok.
“If kids are allowed to do it and not get searched, then they’re going to do it,” said DiMattina, who said he doesn’t drink or use cannabis.
Several legislators from both parties have introduced bills that would reinstate fines for possession of alcohol and marijuana by minors, and allow police officers to frisk teens in possession of the items.
Ocean City police chief Prettyman said officers across the state are hesitant to address teens regarding alcohol or marijuana for fear of being themselves charged with a third-degree crime of depriving the teens of their rights. He said bills that would remove that provision and reinstate penalties for possession and consumption of alcohol and marijuana by minors would reverse some of the excesses of the current law.
Senator Michael Testa, a Republican, was shocked by the “lawlessness” on the Jersey Shore over Memorial Day weekend. He sponsors a package of bills, including one that removes the threat of charges against police officers acting in good faith, and another that allows cities to designate alcohol- and marijuana-free zones.
New Jersey is not alone in reforming its laws to try and keep more youth out of the criminal justice system. Several Maryland law enforcement officials say the state’s juvenile reforms have made it more difficult to question and investigate teens suspected of committing crimes, though the state’s Department of Child Welfare says the laws are having a positive effect.
The mayor of Seaside Heights said he heard children as young as 13 talking to police officers with impunity.
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“A couple of them basically said, ‘You can’t do anything to me,'” Vaz said. “I heard it with my own ears.”
The municipality is considering raising the minimum age for renting a motel room from 18 to 21 if the disturbances continue.
In the wake of its own unruly weekend, Ocean City acted quickly to regain control of the beach and boardwalk by closing beach access at 8 p.m. and banning backpacks on the boardwalk after that hour; adopting an earlier curfew and closing public restrooms at 10 p.m. Seaside Heights has taken similar measures, including one that allows officials to close the beach and boardwalk if things get out of hand, and other coastal cities have introduced curfews and alcohol bans.
