Murphy’s new directive about teens causing chaos for shore towns (Opinion)

Directives from the Murphy administration and the attorney general's office have been an absolute nightmare for police in several Jersey Shore towns.

Teens have been loitering or vandalizing property, and have gotten a virtual pass on their activities. Police departments are frustrated with their lack of ability to make arrests or even contact the parents or identify the teens.

Frustration has been growing all summer long for property owners and police departments, especially along the southern part of the Jersey Shore.

The Avalon chief of police is at his wits' end. His officers have given as many as 1,300 curbside warnings, but can only tell the kids to just “knock it off," and then they must move along.

In Ocean City, 6ACBC-TV reports police have issued 10,000 warnings.

North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello has had it with the new rules as well.

Add to that the police are not allowed to make arrests or even inquire when a teen is smoking weed or drinking underage. Many of us may jokingly wonder why this wasn’t the rule when we were kids. But now that we’re adults we see that things could evolve into chaos if this kind of stuff continues.

The idea behind the directives was to keep young people out of the juvenile criminal justice system. That’s not necessarily a bad idea but there has to be a balance.

Police should at least be able to take their names and contact parents to try and stop this kind of stuff from spiraling out of control. The kind of chaos this brings could invite vigilantism or worse. But Murphy and the “wokesters“ in his administration feel that the end justifies the means.

None of us are for the police being heavy-handed with our young people, but some boundaries and rules are necessary to keep us from spiraling into chaos.

Only a couple of months till November. Please vote responsibly!

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy. Any opinions expressed are Dennis Malloy's own.