A surge of unsupervised youth wreaking havoc on New Jersey beach towns has prompted mayors and residents to demand stronger penalties for juvenile offenders and stricter repercussions for underage alcohol and cannabis consumption. Amid a state of emergency declaration in Wildwood and curfews in Seaside Heights, officials blame lax parenting and a recent state law decriminalizing marijuana use for the surge in juvenile misbehavior.
A growing number of New Jersey beach town mayors are demanding the state back away from a recent push to lessen penalties for youthful offenders as they take aim at bad parenting amid an influx of teen mobs wreaking havoc on vacation communities.
Memorial Day weekend saw a surge of unruly behavior in Seaside Heights, Ocean City, and Wildwood, prompting state of emergency declarations and police reinforcements. In Wildwood, Mayor Tony Troiano Jr. declared a state of emergency overnight from Sunday into Monday due to out-of-control teens, while Seaside Heights Mayor Anthony Vaz imposed summer-long curfews for juveniles and a ban on house rentals without an adult present.
In Ocean City, a famously dry town that bills itself "America's greatest family resort," video shows a group of young men and boys punching and kicking a teen pinned down on the boardwalk. A 15-year-old was also stabbed.
Mayors blame lax parenting for the surge in juvenile misbehavior, but they also point to a recent state law decriminalizing marijuana use as an unintended factor emboldening young people. The law, which took effect in February, has reduced the penalty for possession of small amounts of cannabis from a crime to a civil violation.
"These kids know they can't be arrested for smoking pot, and they're taking advantage of it," said Vaz. "They're getting rowdy, they're getting into fights, and they're making our towns unsafe."
Vaz is urging other local leaders to team up and head to the state legislature to ask for stiffer penalties for the worst juvenile offenders and stricter repercussions for teens who get caught smoking pot or drinking alcohol in public.
Troiano, who has declared his city "unwelcoming" to "unruly, undisciplined, unparented children," says Wildwood will not stand for rowdy behavior.
"We want everyone to have a good experience. Simple as that," he told Fox News Digital. "Pretend that you are home. If you act the fool at home, then stay home."
In a notice to residents Monday, the city said police were inundated with calls about the "extremely large" mob, many of them teens and young adults without their parents. The department already has less than 50 officers this summer when it usually has closer to 100 and has run into trouble sending officers to respond to other emergencies.
Troiano says unparented children need to steer clear of the beach resort town and that parents need to watch for unacceptable behavior.
"Come down enjoy what we have to offer," he said. "Just obey the laws. No underage drinking and smoking dope."
Troiano said he got a call from the governor after the emergency declaration and was hoping to see changes to state law that would "uncuff" his officers, who are working with a depleted roster and tasked with enforcing rules that repeat offenders continue to break due to the lack of consequences.
"Everything about this is bad," he said. "You're enabling these kids to break the law, and there's nothing you can do about it."
Ocean City Police arrested multiple teens and were quick to "restore order" on the boardwalk there, according to Mayor Jay Gillian.
"As in recent years and in other shore towns, Ocean City experienced a number of issues related to large crowds of teens on the boardwalk, fights, shoplifting and disorderly conduct during the start of Memorial Day weekend," he said in a statement over the weekend. "I understand the impact that this behavior has on all of our residents, guests and business owners, and I want to assure everybody that Ocean City will not tolerate it."
The worst offenders have always broken rules, according to Vaz in Seaside Heights. But he said he has repeatedly witnessed misbehaving minors exhibit no fear of repercussions whatsoever.
"And the young people know this, being younger than 18 and over 18," he said. "I've seen with my own eyes, where a cop has stopped a young person for whatever, cannabis smoking, and the answer is, 'You can't do anything to me.'"
"They don't believe in authority. They believe in entitlement."
They refuse to cooperate and often give fake names, he said.
The mayor, a former superintendent of schools, said he's worked with teens for decades and noticed a monumental shift in how they interact with not just police, but adults across the board.
"When I was young, I wasn't exactly an angel, but I feared repercussions if I did anything wrong, [and] that my parents, particularly my father, would take it into his own hands if I did something really bad," he said. "We don't have those parents today for the most part."
What he sees are groups of kids, some as young as 14, arriving in town without any adult supervision and getting their hands on drugs or alcohol.
"Good kids become bad kids," he said. "If you have no respect, that's more than being disobedient."
"If I was a boy, 17, I had a beer, and I got caught by a cop, I would have been nervous as hell," he said. "They're not nervous. They don't care."
Vaz said he also considered a state of emergency when his department became overwhelmed by the sheer number of kids on the boardwalk. He credited neighboring law enforcement agencies for supplying backup that helped calm things down.
"Saturday was a cluster of kids, thousands," Vaz said. "I'm here 58 years. This was the biggest crowd I've ever seen of young people."
Then someone yelled, "Shots fired!" Video shows the ensuing chaos, horrified teens running for cover. Investigators later determined there were no actual gunshots, the mayor said. But if there had been, the whole situation would've been far worse.
Betsy Branter Smith, a former police sergeant and a spokesperson for the National Police Association, said many of the troubles begin with lax parenting, but they get worse in an environment where police can't do their jobs due to state law or soft-on-crime prosecutors.
"This ultimately goes back to parenting, doesn’t it? But you can't regulate that. You can't legislate that," she said. "So, the business owners and the tourists are the ones who are gonna pay."
But she pointed to several recent cities that ran into the same problem of unruly youths and fixed them — spring break locations including Miami and Fort Lauderdale in Florida and Gulf Shores in Alabama.
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