Planning a trip to the shore this summer? Come on down! Planning a disruptive pop-up party? Don't even try it!
That's the message from one Ocean County mayor as a new state bill strengthens penalties for those looking to cause trouble.
As the weather warms and the days grow longer, scenes like this start to grab headlines in late May and early June - the result of unsanctioned, social media-driven pop-up parties, turning a calm spring day into uncontrolled chaos.
“We have to kill this right now. We have to stop this,” said Seaside Heights Mayor Tony Vaz. “As soon as we heard of these events, we immediately would place an injunction, and I believe we were the first to do that. The injunction stopped the organizers from coming and it worked,” he said.
Towns like Seaside Heights, Long Branch, Point Pleasant Beach and others enacted local ordinances to put a stop to the mayhem, efforts on a statewide level for an across-the-board law were successfully and unanimously passed by the state Assembly and Senate last month.
Assembly Bill 4652 creates a new inciting a public brawl offense and upgrades the petty disorderly conduct offense to a fourth-degree crime, bringing with it fines ranging up to $10,000 and 18 months in jail. Bill sponsors are confident it will be signed by Gov. Phil Murphy before Memorial Day Weekend and will take effect immediately.
“It’s a start in the right direction to curve this bad element that causes problems of quality of life for its visitors and residents,” said Vaz.
Underage violators will also be subject to the newly created fourth-degree offenses, according to one of the bill’s sponsors.
“We’ve worked on making this a family destination and it has ended up being that and we’re not going to change. We’re not going backward, only going forward," said Vaz.