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NJPP531B

Weekend violence at Seaside Heights, mayhem at several malls, rowdy teens running amok. all has lawmakers in the state calling for action on what's known as a public brawl bill or something similar. The bill creates a crime known as inciting a public brawl, a 4th degree crime punishable to the organizers or promoters of chaotic gatherings with fines of up to $10,000.18 months in state prison. And those who take part could be charged with strengthened disorderly conduct offenses and face up to 6 months in county jail. If you're going to hide behind your keyboard, you're going to put up something on social media to get a bunch of young kids to congregate and do bad things, then you're going to be held responsible. The people that are causing these aren't even of legal drinking age. They're occurring in parking lots. They're occurring in malls. They're occurring on the beaches, and they're occurring on the boardwalks. More than 70 people were arrested in Seaside Heights over the Memorial Day weekend. Lawmakers hope to have the bill approved by the state Senate and signed into law by the governor before the upcoming extended July 4th celebrations. And joining me now is State Senator Bob Singer. Thank you so much for being here. It's good to see you. Thanks for having me. Appreciate that. Listen, you co-sponsored a bill that was was similar, I think, in many ways to this one as far back as 2020 when it was first reintroduced, and then you reintroduced it last year. Why has nothing been done here? You know, it, it's, it's really this, this nonsense thinking that it's, it's gonna go away. It's not, um, you know, I was talking to the police chief in in Seaside, uh, recently, Tommy Boyd, and here's an example, um, they're underage, um, you can't, uh, you can't put them in jail or anything, so you have to take a policeman sitting in a police car with them waiting for the parent to come down. So think about it. It might take 4 hours, 5 hours, 6 hours. You're taking that policeman off the job of helping protect the town to watch this one teenager that was doing something wrong underage. So not only do we have to take a look at the at the people that foster these events, we have to look at better strengthening how we deal with underage teenagers that do things wrong and that we have to find a better way to handle than having a policeman sitting with them, babysitting, and, and I have to tell you something. I don't have a problem putting them in a jail cell. Let them sit in a jail cell. Maybe we'll learn a lesson, and maybe they should be fined, and the parents should be heavily fined, and maybe that will change what is happening. We have got to change the direction. I was, I was with the mayor of Middletown last night at a dinner, and he informs me they're talking about a pop-up party in one of their beaches. Uh, he's informing them they close their beaches at at dusk and uh there's no drinking or smoking a lamb on the beach and they're appetizing free booze and and free weed. This is outrageous and why hasn't it been done? I will tell you, uh, the liberal wing of the Democratic Party in Trenton doesn't want to change anything because you know what, they don't represent short communities. I do. This is outrageous. This is hurting our tourism business. This is affecting business people, and it is creating an, uh, uh, a situation that is critical, and we've asked the governor to take action on it and if they won't pass the bill, do an executive order and we're still waiting to hear. How, how does your bill differ from the one that's currently co-sponsored by Senator O'Scanlon? Well, our bill is a little bit stronger. It strengths and moves to a third degree crime, which would create a longer term in jail and a higher fine. Uh, either one will, will, will start things in the right direction. We're just saying, I don't care which one passes, we have to start doing something and sending a very loud. Clear message. Don't mess with our communities. Don't mess with our beaches. Don't mess with our towns. If you do, you will pay the severe price and whether it's jail, whether it's a fine or a record, we will, we will hold you to the, the highest extent of the law, and it has to stop now. Senator, listen, while I have you, I want to talk about another bill that you're co-sponsoring and, and this is the one that adopts the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism and, and again, I have to ask, what's taking so long for the legislature to actually take action on this and take a stand? Well, you know, I, I co-prime it with Senator Beach. Uh, we had a hearing on it. The hearing took 3 days. Um, it's waiting for the Senate president to post it. Um, we're very upset about this. Anti-Semitism has been running rampant, uh, both in New Jersey and nationwide, um, and I can tell you that, that again, uh, Rutgers is not a stellar member of that. Uh, they have not done their part as well as they should have. Uh, this bill will be a clear definition. And if anybody questions it, they'll be able to look at the bill again. We're waiting for the Senate President to post it. It's on, it's on his desk, and if he posts it, I guarantee it will pass. But I mean really you're asking New Jersey to adopt something that 36 other states and 46 countries have already adopted. What's the hesitancy? Uh, there's been a pushback from the Muslim groups. Um, and they want a definition fine post the bill. I don't have a problem with the bill defining that, but that's nothing to do with that. This has to do with doing the right thing. And again, pressure comes and people fold to pressure and unfortunately, um, we haven't seen enough pressure from the Jewish community to push this forward. This is even more relevant, as you know, on the heels of last week's depraved anti-Semitic attack outside the Jewish Museum in DC. It really exemplifies what globalizing the intifada looks like. Jews here in the state and across the country have warned that this would happen. They warned that the hateful rhetoric, the blood libels, the vilification would incite violence and, and in this case, cold blooded murder by someone who was yelling Free Palestine. So I, I mean, how do you respond to critics who say that the IHRA definition. Limits free speech. Uh, first of all, no one wants to limit free speech, but hate speech is hate speech, and you know, by the way, as you know that tragedy here, one of, one of the those individuals wasn't even Jewish. Uh, the, the amazing factor is, um, I don't think 90% of the people that chant what they chant even understand it. Uh, unfortunately, um, my, uh, uh, daughter was in a terrorist bombing. Uh, about 21 years ago by Hamas individual, a 19 year old that got on the bus and set off the bomb that killed 17 people. My daughter was injured. She was on the bus and he killed himself. He was a hero, a 19 year old hero that died, killing 17 innocent people, women, children, people coming home from work. Uh, so when they chant, uh, to the rivers of the sea, they don't even know what they're chanting. And, and they don't even know what they're talking about. Uh, these are hate groups, these are terrorist groups, and when they, when they chant these things and say these things, they have to know the harm they're causing and, and things like that shooting in Washington is caused by that kind of hatred. State Senator Bob Singer, it's great to see you. Thanks so much for being on the show. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. And keep it right here on Power and Politics. Up next, renowned pollster Patrick Murray joins us to talk about the shuttering of the Mammoth polling Institute.

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Welcome back. Certain lines of work you need to have a thick skin. TV news, for example, politics, and by extension polling as well. My next guest knows that all too well. He became one of the most renowned and respected pollsters in the country, leading the soon to be shuttered Monmouth Polling Institute. I'd like to welcome back to the studio, Patrick Murray. Patrick, it's great to see you. Oh, good to be with you. I appreciate you, uh, joining us. Listen, I, I, I know that there's only so much you could say. About the shuttering of the polling institute, but maybe you can just talk about, I don't know, the range of emotions given how much time you spent there and, and how much you've done. Yeah, it's, it's, it's bittersweet. I, I will say because I mean we really built this to to something, but. In many ways it was time to move on and I was starting looking at the stuff that I was doing and one of my complaints about being a public pollster is not the slings and arrows when they're deserved, it's the fact that you know we might get 2 out of 3 right, but it's always the one you get wrong that they focus on and then they say the other two that you got right, you must cheated on, which is where we are right now. And so as election polling in particular has gotten harder, the public's and the media's expectations of precision. Has gotten worse, you know, and they're and what they expect us to do. But the other part of it that was really problematic and um I think that's why I, I, I was happy to make the transition into the private sector now and doing consulting work is all the. Other stuff that we do in polling that is really good. This is what polling always does well, which is understanding motivations, understanding what goes behind behaviors, what goes behind attitudes, those driving forces which I've done a lot of work on. But it doesn't get reported. In fact, we did some polls back in the 22 uh uh midterms where we actually our, our students went and did a content analysis of the media coverage of it, and only 18% of the media coverage of our polls actually mentioned anything about any of the issue stuff that we covered. So I decided, hey, this makes it it's a perfect time just to transition into the private sector and actually take all the work that I'm really good at and my background in social psychology and all that stuff. And you know start my own firm and uh you know provide those services for people who need them and appreciate what they can do for them. You spoke about the expectations. Do you think that these are unrealistic and unfair expectations on on the part of folks in the media? Yeah, I, I think so. I mean, there's no question that polling has gotten some things wrong and and it's been consistent over the past, uh, past few cycles has not been as bad. As everybody makes it out to say, and as I, as I said, one of the problems is that we used to do polls and you get one wrong and everybody would say, hey, you gotta, you gotta come back from that. Now you don't even get the chance to come back from that in, in the media's eyes in the public's eyes. Oh Patrick's new firm is called Stem Site Research. You can learn more about it by catching the rest of the interview on News Twelve.com. Thanks for watching Power and Politics. I'm Eric Lantz Kruner. See you again next time.

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Micah Rasmussen and state Sen. Bob Singer join the show. 

Power & Politics: NJ gubernatorial primary preview; inside the public brawl bill

Micah Rasmussen and state Sen. Bob Singer join the show.

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