Edison officials to Menlo Park Mall owners: Act now or risk another night of mayhem

🚨Social media posts drew 300 teens to the Menlo Park Mall on Saturday night

🚨7 juveniles were arrested, none of whom were from Edison

🚨The township has requested mall ownership take several steps to improve security

EDISON — Mayor Sam Joshi and Police Chief Thomas Bryan are demanding Simon Properties, the owner of Menlo Park Mall, take “immediate and decisive action” to prevent another incident like Saturday’s from occurring again.

An estimated 300 rowdy teens converged on the mall Saturday night in response to a social media post for the "Menlo Park Linkup." Teens shouted through the mall and caused stores to drop their gates as the crowd size grew.

Seven juveniles were arrested, none of whom lived in Edison, according to Joshi.

Joshi told Eric Scott on the New Jersey 101.5 Morning Show that the crowd grew from 100 to 300.

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'There has to be accountability on a number of fronts'

The township is looking for Simon to take several steps including:

• Installation of license plate readers throughout the property
• Deployment of additional surveillance cameras across the mall
• A significant increase in private security presence, especially on weekends and peak hours
• Consideration of a mandatory adult escort policy for juveniles during certain hours

"There has to be accountability on a number of fronts, and we did make it very clear to Simon malls and Menlo Park Mall leadership that we have certain expectations," Joshi said. "This is a private company, so the burden really falls on them to make sure that they are taking preventative measures."

Joshi and Bryan admitted that while Edison police monitor social media for potential events, this one got by them.

"This was a teen who didn't have a large following, that wasn't really a known influencer. It was a random teen up in North Jersey. And he posted it, it was shared internally amongst other teens and next thing you know there's 300 teens that show up," Joshi said.

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'Where are the parents?'

The teens arrested came from Fords, Port Reading, Woodbridge proper, Hillsborough, New Brunswick and Linden. None were from Edison, according to Bryan. Joshi said that some of the blame for these gatherings must go to parents who are not monitoring what their kids are posting and viewing on social media. He pointed out that since the NJ Transit strike was still on, all those who showed up had been driven to the mall.

Simon Properties on Tuesday morning did not respond to New Jersey 101.5's request for their response to the mayor's demands.

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