NJ parents outraged over new law that could put them in prison for their kid's bad behavior: ‘Snake eating its tail'
Moms and dads in a New Jersey suburb can be tossed in prison and fined for their badly behaving children — under a bonkers new ordinance that some say strips parents of their rights and potentially sets a 'dangerous precedent.'
The new law in Gloucester Township, passed in late July, is called 'Minors and Parent Responsibility' and stipulates that parents will be held 'accountable for public disturbances caused by' their child, and could go to jail for three months if their kids are found guilty of multiple offenses.
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'Parents are feeling pretty outraged,' Alex Bougher, chair of the Bergen County chapter of parents' rights group Moms for Liberty, told The Post Tuesday. 'They're getting attacked from every angle here.'
3 Rowdy teens brawled and destroyed property at the 2024 Gloucester Township Day and Drone Show.
Debbie Rayner
The ordinance is the result of a massive brawl that broke out last year among a throng of 500 minors at the Gloucester Township Day and Drone Show, according to NJ.com. Eleven people — including nine teens — were arrested. Three officers were also injured.
The juvenile offenses that fall under the new law are sweeping — there are 28 in total — with 'being a disorderly person,' 'immorality,' 'destruction of playground equipment' and 'loitering' joining the likes of assault, mugging, drunkenness and drug dealing.
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'If a child is repeatedly found guilty in juvenile court, their caretaker could face up to 90 days in prison and/or a fine of up to $2,000,' Gloucester Township Police said in a recent release clarifying the law.
3 The Drone Show brawl was just the last incident of teens causing chaos in New Jersey in recent months.
Debbie Rayner
Police Chief David Harkins told NJ.com that the law consisted of 'general legal language' and that parents would receive a warning first for the kids' bad behavior.
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'Our ordinance was actually sampled from other towns,' Harkins said, referring to the Jersey Shore's Wildwood, which has also seen a spate of crazy teen behavior. 'We're not necessarily the first, but we're probably the first bigger town to adopt it.'
Gloucester Township is located just eight miles from Philadelphia and has a population of nearly 66,900.
The drastic move has been supported by Mayor David Mayer.
'We have to hold parents responsible,' he told the Courier Post.
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3 The new law that aims to put parents behind bars if their kids become repeat offenders was passed in response to the 2024 Drone Show brawl.
Debbie Rayner
Bougher, a mother of three herself, said many parents she's spoken with feel the law is an overstep — and an alarming move toward stripping away parents' right to make choices for their own children.
'It's a very dangerous precedent. Like, this should not be. This should not be,' she said, adding that the new law was also a 'contradiction' of policies already in place in the state.
Bougher cited New Jersey public schools' Policy 5756, a recent guidance which advises teachers not to tell parents if their kids begin identifying as a different gender in the classroom — and to create a 'confidential file' of school records to keep hidden from parents.
Policy 5756 is intended to protect transgender students who might be endangered by parents who don't agree with their identity choice, but Bougher and others see it as an infringement on parents' freedoms to raise their kids — and a policy that also makes the 'Minors and Parent Responsibility' illogical.
'Parents are basically being told that they don't have rights as parents to know what's going on with their children,' she said, 'but then on the other side, it's 'How could you not know what was going on with your children? How come you didn't step in?''
'If you're going to block the parents, how can you blame the parents?' she added.
Nicole Stouffer, one of the organizers of parents' rights group the New Jersey Project, says the new ordinance on its face doesn't make sense.
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'A 90-day jail sentence is extreme — for parents who maybe have other kids, maybe they have a problem kid,' she said. 'Now this person can't pay their bills and their mortgage or take care of their children? And they're going to go to jail because they have one child that's out of control?'
'It's kind of like a snake eating its tail — nothing is going to get fixed,' Stouffer added.
Stouffer thinks the problem lies in post-pandemic movements to roll back policing — and that cops need to be allowed to intervene and diffuse kids before situations get out of hand.
'We have eliminated powers for the police to maybe do their job,' she said. 'It's just an extreme response to something that's not being taken care of by the state.'
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And yet again she was granted a supervised release, in spite of a request for bail. 5 Randall-Pizarro was let go on supervised release and on her own recognizance by several judges. facebook/ebelliousQueenTina And, again, in a May 15 case that saw her supposedly steal a backpack from a motorman's cabin with keys and an MTA escape mask, a request for a mere $2,000 cash or $4,000 bond was denied, and a supervised release was once again granted instead. In yet another April case involving a stolen backpack containing MTA keys and an MTA radio, a judge denied a request for supervised release and instead let her go on her own recognizance. Assistant District Attorney Olivia Mittman has also said in court they have video of Randal-Pizarro subway surfing on the top of a train. How has she not been banned from the transit system? What a waste of police time and resources. What an unnecessary ongoing menace to MTA workers (what ever happened to the promise 'assaulting MTA New York City Transit subway personnel is a felony punishable by up to 7 years in prison' written on signs all over?) How much travel has she personally disrupted? And what a disservice to Randall-Pizarro herself. An 18-year-old should not be enabled to produce such an extensive criminal record in her first year of adulthood. There's really no justification for this suffocating leniency. 5 Randall-Pizarro says she found an idle subway car at the Broadway station in Astoria. Wikipedia There should be consequences for your actions, and opportunities to learn from them. Unfortunately, the only lesson learned here is: do what you want, and even if you get caught, and it won't catch up with you. Especially since the pandemic, our culture has adopted an all-out hostility towards the justice system and consequences being doled out as they are intended by law. We've been told that crime is the product of social constructs and systems of oppression, and that it is merciful to shield its perpetrators from any consequences. 5 Justine Randall-Pizarro's cases will all be consolidated into one, according to the DA. facebook/ebelliousQueenTina But it's plain to see this utopian world where crimes are forgiven and everything is fine and dandy is simply a fantasy. Recidivism is real, and consequences are what keep a society from succumbing to lawlessness. On August 5, Randall-Pizarro was arrested for skipping out on a court appearance and hauled before court, where all her cases are now consolidated into a charge of felony burglary and misdemeanor reckless endangerment. Her bail was set at $50,000 and she is being held in the women's jail at Rikers. The court has also ordered a mental health evaluation, after an earlier one expired. Toxic empathy has allowed Randall-Pizarro to continue this self-destructive spiral. And it also put MTA workers and innocent travelers at unnecessary risk, too. Hopefully finally facing justice and getting help will be the wake up call she needs.
