Following stabbing, Jersey Shore official says unruly teens won't be allowed to 'steal summer' (2024)

Amy S. RosenbergThe Philadelphia Inquirer

OCEAN CITY — It was supposed to be just another night on the Boardwalk with her husband, their 6-year-old son and a set of grandparents, reliving a ritual that has gone on in the family for generations.

But this year, said Kari, of Dutchess County, New York, their adored shore town was not the same resort. (She and her husband did not want their last name used, given the nature of the topic.)

The family found themselves huddled on a bench at the bottom of the 10th Street ramp as “droves of kids” ran by them leaving the Boardwalk, where there had been a stabbing.

“It wasn’t the same feeling we’ve had coming here,” Kari said, standing outside Steel’s Fudge in the relative quiet of the Tuesday after a hectic Memorial Day weekend, as her son and husband went inside for a treat. “It’s very unsettling, very disappointing. We hope they come up with some solution.”

Up and down the Jersey Shore, it was a weekend that saw huge crowds of teenagers on boardwalks from Wildwood to Seaside Heights, multiple fights, a stabbing near 10th Street on the Ocean City Boardwalk and the total shutdown of the Wildwood Boardwalk from midnight Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday after officials cited “civil unrest.”

A new shore season

After weekends filled with rain, and a holiday that coincided with prom and senior weeks, shore towns were inundated with visitors to begin the 2024 season.

Aside from the chaos on the boardwalks, there were other, less dramatic signs of towns being at or near the breaking point: hours-long waits for lattes, thousands of bagel orders, a line outside TacoCat in Margate that stretched around the block.

The overall level of commotion left shop owners, officials and visitors uneasy. There were similar incidents in Seaside Heights, and even in resort towns in Massachusetts.

Shore towns have enacted curfews and backpack bans and employed various strategies in recent years to deal with unruly teens. But local officials contend that state laws changed in 2020 to address unnecessary punishing of juveniles have left local police departments without the tools to keep control.

Gov. Phil Murphy and juvenile justice reform advocates contend the laws are necessary to “alleviate disparate racial and socio-economic outcomes in the criminal legal system and to address substance use matters with an approach focused on public health.” This year, he declined to sign legislation that included a $50 fine for underage drinking, saying it ran counter to his efforts at reform. He contends police have the tools they need, and that the law has been tweaked to help support their efforts.

On Tuesday evening, Murphy spoke on News 12′s “Ask the Governor” segment and said, “We take all of those incidents very, very seriously, as I know the communities do.” He said his administration would conduct a “postmortem” to see what “we as a state can do to help out.”

Murphy downplayed reports of widespread chaos. “The weekend was overwhelmingly a successful weekend, including even in those towns,” he said. “The shore did not have a chaotic weekend. There were three serious incidents.”

Hampered by laws?

On Wednesday, the State Police PBA called for changes to the state’s juvenile policing policies in the wake of the weekend’s events.

“The recent juvenile outbursts are a sign that more needs to be done to allow police to protect our communities,” PBA President Peter Andreyev said in a statement. “This past weekend is just more proof that the law is broken, there needs to be real consequences for violent drunken and dangerous behavior for both juveniles and adults.”

Brian Reed, a Realtor in Wildwood, said that although he wondered whether using the term “civil unrest,” was necessary, he believed police were being prevented from doing their jobs by the current laws. Murphy and others say the towns still have the tools they need.

“I think that it comes down to government allowing police to do their job,” Reed said. “It’s really difficult.”

Reed said he was not worried about the Memorial Day weekend chaos prompting people to not want to come down to the shore or buy real estate.

“The one thing lacking in all the shore towns is inventory to sell,” he said, noting that a version of the weekend’s events had been going on for years. “If you were to tell me that people are going to sell, I’ll tell you I’ll flip it. I should be shouting from the rooftops that you might want to sell.”

A stabbing in ‘America’s Greatest Family Resort’

In Ocean City, there was heightened concern.

Hordes of teens fighting, stampeding off the Boardwalk at 9:12 p.m., a stabbing — this is not at all what people associate with America’s Greatest Family Resort, as the dry town refers to itself.

The stabbing occurred outside the Allcampus cap shop near 10th Street. People flooded into the store for safety, including the 15-year-old victim, a witness said. The teen was taken to a hospital in Atlantic City with injuries that were not life threatening, police said.

Other business owners reported getting into scuffles with teens rushing for their cash registers in the mayhem.

“It hurts our business, and it hurts the city,” said one Boardwalk store owner, who did not want to be identified. “It’s not a good look. I’m sad as a business owner and a civilian. These kids are not being arrested. They’re not having any consequences.

“If you’re a family, why would you be up here anymore at night?” he said.

Others in Ocean City on Tuesday said they did not notice the moments of chaos, despite being on the Boardwalk in the general vicinity.

“I did see it on TikTok,” said one mother of 14- and 17-year-old daughters. “I still love Ocean City. ... I still feel like it’s a safe area.”

A ‘local disaster emergency’

Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian said officers made “multiple arrests” Saturday night and were able to “quickly restore order to the Boardwalk once the teens involved in these incidents were removed.” He said the city “will not tolerate” continued incidents.

In Wildwood, city officials said they responded to “an irrepressible number of calls” on Saturday evening, most related to the “extremely large number of young adults and juveniles that were in the city for the Memorial Day weekend.”

Shortly after midnight, unable to keep up with service calls in the city, police Chief Joseph Murphy declared a “local disaster emergency” and closed the Boardwalk. This allowed the city to “effectively address numerous incidents of civil unrest and ensure the safety and welfare of our residents and visitors.”

The state of emergency was lifted at 6 a.m.

On Tuesday, city officials still had not detailed the number and type of arrests, or described any specific injuries or incidents that prompted the extraordinary actions.

Ocean City Councilman Jody Levchuk, owner of Jilly’s Arcade on the Boardwalk, said Ocean City remains “wildly safe.”

Wes Kazmarck, owner of the Surf Mall and head of the Ocean City Boardwalk Merchants Association, said the weekend was the first decent weather at night all spring. There was pent-up enthusiasm for a night on the Boardwalk, he said, and he’s hopeful the shore season will settle down.

“Memorial Day weekend lined up this year with a really wet, cold spring,” Kazmarck said. “You didn’t have to be in this business for a long time to not expect it to be seriously crowded. We always brace ourselves.”

“I think Ocean City is very, very aware that the resort business drives the economy,” he said. “The Boardwalk is a big part of that. We’ll make sure it continues to be a safe environment. They’ll make sure of that.”

Press staff contributed to this report.