This year, for the first time since 1998, the Mischief Night/Halloween combo falls on a Friday and Saturday. Does that portend trouble in the form of tissued utility lines, egged front doors and soaped-over car windshields?
Not as far as Red Bank police are concerned. They say crackdown on teenage after-hours loitering in general, and an annual curfew for two nights bookending Halloween in particular, has reduced problems dramatically in recent years.
Though the borough council’s Halloween curfew resolution is a pro-forma item approved each without much discussion, it has the intended effect, police Captain Steve McCarthy believes.
“Everyone respects it,” he said.
The normal curfew for anyone under 18 not accompanied by a parent or guardian is 10:30p to 6a Sunday through Thursday, and midnight to 6a on Fridays and Saturdays. The Halloween curfew, effective for October 30 and 31, starts at 9p both nights.
Not long ago, after-hours loitering by teens in borough parks and around stores was “a considerable problem” and the subject of a growing number of complaints, McCarthy said.
In May 2007, after store owners complained of vandalized vehicles and customer harassment. Mayor Pasquale Menna blasted an influx of “rich kids from other towns” grafitti-bombing the public library and hanging out in front of businesses near West Front Street and Maple Avenue.
A police crackdown that summer found that most of the violators were in fact from out of town, McCarthy said. It also had the effect of reducing the problem. Since enforcement was upped, the problem has abated, he said.
In all of 2008, there were 14 reported incidents, involving 35 individuals, of teen curfew violations, according to department stats. Just one of those cases, involving 10 kids, came on Halloween — which fell on a Friday night. In that incident, an East Side resident called in a complaint shortly after 10p, and when police told the kids to go home, they all did, McCarthy said.
“We give warnings, initially. ‘Time to start heading home, kids,’ ” McCarthy said. “Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the time, they comply. That’s really our goal, to get them to go home.”
Those who don’t are arrested.
What happens after that? Under a state Attorney General’s directive, a unit headed by borough police Lieutenant Mike Clay reviews all arrests of juveniles to determine which cases should go to the family division of state Superior Court and which can be addressed by the police in a sit-down with the juvenile and parents in what’s known as a “stationhouse adjustments” program.
That program, in which participation is voluntary, accounts for the vast majority of juvenile cases, McCarthy said. It usually results in a teen agreeing to perform community service or write an essay, though some matters result in referrals for alcohol abuse or anger management, and some call for restitution for damages. Cases can go to family court at the defendant’s request, he said.
Drug possession, sexual offenses and cases in which someone suffered significant injury are among those not eligible for the program, according to the guidelines.
Here’s the curfew resolution: curfew-resolution
By the way, Fair Haven has a two-night curfew Friday and Saturday starting at 8p and Rumson is pulling in the sidewalks for teens at 6p on Friday and 8p on Halloween.
Fair Haven’s Curfew is 7pm on Oct. 30th and 8pm on Oct. 31st!!
Lord John - I’m not impacted by the curfew, so what say you and I go paper the town!
Bring it on “rich kids from other towns.” Hey, Rumson boys, Ditch and neighbors are ready for your blue organic free range hen eggs and Truefitt & Hill Shaving cream. And bring the guy with the toilet paper who wipes your arse as well. We shall defend our street, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on Cindy’s bench, we shall fight in the Y, we shall fight in the Westside and in the Dub, we shall fight in the inclusive Borough of Red Bank; we shall never surrender.
….we may even fight with some rotten tomatoes and sour grapes….
…..I propose RB lift its draconian ban on sidewalk skateboarding for these two nights only…..
Nemo, many thanks for the shout out and the invite.
But, like Ditch, I too shall be laying in ambush for any misguided youths who cross the Warfen property line. Still not sure about going with the hose or blow gun.
I stop at 7-Eleven every night and see the packs of teenagers who hang out there and who used to hang out in the bank’s parking lot and Riverside Gardens Park.
I do not see “rich kids” I know most of the RFH students and these are not RFH kids, I see TONS of both Raritan HS & Middletown North sports jackets, usually there is a t-shirt of jacket in each group so it makes it easy to see where they are from.
..go with the blow gun…the nasty brown water around these parts is far too expensive to waste on wayward teens…
This curfew ordinance invites selective enforcement and is therefore unconstitutional. What is a “bona fide” or “properly supervised” social meeting, gathering or assemblage”? With every person you ask, you may come up with a different answer.
In 2001, the New Jersey Appellate Division considered the same language at issue here and held that it was unconstitutional in two respects. First, it was too vague for the reason stated above. And two, it failed to allow an exception for kids going to the movies, or bowling, or visiting friends and relatives - or any number of other appropriate events. See Betancourt v. West New York, 338 N.J. Super. 415 (App. Div. 2001).
If we imposed this curfew on everybody all year long, crime would definitely go down. But we don’t do that because our right to freely travel and assemble is too important to us. As annoying as some of them can be, these kids are just young citizens. And, in America people shouldn’t be arrested for their potential to do bad things. If they actually do or attempt to do something bad, that’s a different story.
Here’s my two cents: Scrap the curfew before the town gets hit with a civil rights lawsuit and increase police presence during Halloween.
I make a motion we make that sign in spanish to
With Rumson’s 6PM curfew and FH’s 8 PM curfew, it’s only natural for any teens not wanting to stay indoors 30 minutes after dark on a weekend to migrate to the town that allows them to be on the streets after those times.
(but some very funny comments on this forum)
Hey JDOD, while you’re at it…why don’t you make the sign in Italian, Polish and Russian too. I thought we all live in America. When I migrated from Italy years ago, they didn’t have notices in Italian on one side and English on the other. We had no choice but to learn English quickly!!
After along day of preparations I am now ready for Mischief Night. My deer stand is in the tree and I have readied my darts and blow gun.
If these miscreants dislodge me in a full frontal assault I have a pit dug with an AstroTurf over it and I have assembled a fairly respectable duck blind stocked with paint filled balloons as a fallback position.
Now all I need is some moonshine.
Godspeed my fellow tax payers.
Good to know Lord John. The Waverlyite militia drilled away last night and perfected the implementation of an ambush. We also passed out provision; Face paint, egg blockers (garbage can lids stolen from Branch Avenue) and six packs. Smartly we placed a mole over at the Oyster Point during the Urban Outfitters job fair and I am confident we gathered reliable intelligence. We heard talk of stink bombs. I pulled the old Dutch Oven on my wife Bumpy last night so she would be prepared. Tonight we have a conference call with Carl Spackle. If all else fails, we have implemented a tactic that I learned through extensive studies of French military tactic - stop, drop, and run.
Ditch,
Tactically, I’m wondering if perhaps we should set up a comms link between your militia and my folks (while not a formal militia, I do have a few neighbors who prefer to remain in the background due to political affiliation).
We are more of a collection of lone wolves, a little grey about the snout but always ready for a tussle.
That way we can pool resources / refreshments and coordinate transport should we need to plan a strike into higher income zip codes.
That sign should say
WELCOME TO RED BANK-LEAVE YOUR MONEY AND YOUR TRASH
It is so strange to live in a town that wants people to come but not if you are a kid.
They must have no patience for their own.
We are just hanging out with our friends.
Our parents would kill us if we screwed up and they got a call.
come-on already,have some faith in the kids of the parents who pay the taxes and police salaries.
I think the worst offenders are not us kids but old mayors driving drunk and hitting people like bowling pins and getting off easy.
now ,dude, that’s worse than throwing eggs, wouldn’t you say?
what’s ed’s curfew?
I might not like that kid, but he sure makes an interesting point. Its time to dig out the paintball gun.
teenagerfromredbank, worry not. Our town fathers have you best interests in mind. They want to put a community center in ! Problems solved.
wow!!!!,
I don’t know what his curfew is but I wouldn’t let my kids trick or treat near the hospital. On mischief night they should let him take out an unmarked cop car and drive up the sidewalks to knock down the little brats eggin’ the houses. That will teach them to come around here.
WITCHwaverely, please to join our self defense association of community activists.
We are a community service group that also tries to register voters, or just plain folk, not really an issue.
Apologies to all, LordJohn is battling (successfully) the undocumented flu.
That Al Gore for the internet and WiFi in the hopper.
That should have been “thank Al Gore”
….undocumented flu? is that sortakinda like … oh nevermind.
Ok, Lord John, remember that you can itch, but just don’t scratch….
Aww come on, Ed was just taking his allergy medication…..