ORDINANCE REPEALED

The ordinance was repealed by a three to two vote of the Hillsborough Township Committee on 28 February 2001

A First-hand CURFEW Discussion Report

Curfew Discussions

Then the committee brought the Townships Police Chief Robert Gazaway to testify and answer questions about the curfew. They discussed the propasal with the Chief, and the exchange gave the appearance of an open and frank discussion, but no further comments from the public were permitted.

Commiteeman Glenn van Lier pointed out that curfews were in place in neighboring towns, and asked Police Chief Gazaway how they fared after the other police chiefs in the other towns had gotten them. {I was thinking ... is it really true that curfews always are initiated by police chiefs?} Chief Gazaway replied that in some of the towns they made no difference, in others they were perceived as being detrimental, but in others they seem to be providing some benefit. Franklin Township was pointed out as one example of what could go terribly wrong, and a place where a curfew might have lessened problems. It was mentioned that "We don't want it to ever get as bad in Hillsborough as it is in Franklin Township!" At one point police chief Gazaway stated that Hillsborough did not have a problem now, but that he wanted to institute the curfew before any problems occurred.

Glenn van Lier responded to some of the public's earlier comments, with what seemed to me to be mostly specious and incorrect statements. He made comments about emergency lights outside his apartment one night for two hours. {might it have been a Fire Truck or ambulance? Chasing skaters for two hours ... I don't think so!} Glenn stated "not everyone can be a Libertarian", but that what gets him especially annoyed is "skaters." He told of how he gets very angry when he sees youth out at night using skateboards, and that there is no excuse for teens to be out at 1:00 PM when they should be at home studying. {I wanted to ask him if the skaters were using proper Personal Protective Equipment, and if perhaps they might instead be permitted to sleep, but alas public discussion was closed off ... by the way, how are you supposed to skate when the parking lot is filled with cars? I also wondered what Glenn is doing out so late, doesn't he need to get up in the morning ?

Haven't these people heard of flex-time?
Are there still people left who don't drink Jolt and stay up working all night?}

Deputy Mayor Edward F. Boylan started his remarks by rebuking an elderly gentleman for having made references to Mussolini and Hitler. (the comments that were made had merely been that Mussolini and Hitler started by restricting freedom of movement, and judging from the gentleman's age might have been first hand testimonials of experienced unpleasant events] But Edward F. Boylan responded vehemently, as if it had been a personal attack (The curfew hadn't even been voted on yet). Since comments from the public had been closed off, and Edward had the floor, no-one was permitted to respond. {I was thinking that the elderly gentleman had gotten it wrong, as Edward was acting more like a Communist than a fascist, and getting a little worried about possible emergency health consequences of such a vehement response to the elder gentleman's comments ... OK, Boylan, maybee you aren't a Fascist or a Communist, but you are surely a Bully}

Deputy Mayor Edward F. Boylan then stated that he he had never been a policeman, was 37 years old, and that he was thus too old to ever become a policeman. Then he said that as an elected official, he "brings a lot of baggage" to the office of Deputy Mayor, that he had grown up in Staten Island, and that he never went out. Then he repeated that he had never been out at night as a teenager, except for special occasions. {I started thinking, didn't he just contradict himself, was there a curfew in Staten Island ... (I think not), for if there had been wouldn't he be admitting that he had violated said curfew - on special occasions?)

As always, Mayor Brett Radi was the most pleasant, and referred to his age stating that it had not been so very long ago that he had been a teenager. He was having some difficulty speaking into the microphone, as he needed to stretch to get his mouth into close enough proximity for adequate amplification. This was a repeated topic of discussion between Mayor Radi, and the back row. {The meetings take place in a courtroom, The judge must have thrown the Book at someone.}

He pointed out that if the curfew ordinance were to be approved, that it would be the Township committee who had approved it, and not the Police Chief. He stated that he wished the Press would point this out correctly, that it was not to be Police Chief Gazaway's curfew, but the committees'.

Brett recognized that many of the public had voiced opposition to the curfew, but that Brett had never had any "security experience," and thus was totally dependent upon the expertise of it Police Chief Gazaway. He said that if the Police Chief recommended a curfew and it wasn't enacted, that his only option would be to "Fire the Police Chief" {Thus Brett, the Mayor was forced to vote for the ordinance by the action of his subordinate, the Police Chief.}

Committeeman Joseph Tricarico pointed out that Teenagers had died defending their country in almost every war, and thus the right for freedom of assembly and movement had been won for our Teenagers by their forebears.

Joseph indicated he would like to come to a compromise agreement with the other committeemen, but that the proposal would have to limit the freedom only of perpetrators of wrongful acts, and that it was wrong to punish the many for the acts of the few. {Clever idea Joseph, a "curfew" only for those found guilty of crimes ... it could be part of their sentence?} He also pointed out that there had been a significant decrease in the Township's crime statistics over the previous year, without any curfew, and thus, the lack of a need for the curfew. [Brett Radi then pointed out that in the last month, crime was higher than over the same month last Year]. Joseph then responded that crime measured over the last year was more significant than crime measured over a month.

After these comments were made, a short discussion ensued between the mayor, Deputy Mayor, Committeeman van Lier and their legal advisors seated to their left. The outcome of this discussion was that any change in the ordinance would open it up for public discussion, the issues discussed were not applying the curfew to 17 year olds, modifying the hours of the curfew to something more reasonable, changing the language to allow any school related activity (such as a party after a play}. The committemen stated that they "felt comfortable" with the ordinance as it had been originally written by Police Chief Gazaway, and that any of those changes "wouldn't alter the opinions of any of the people in this room"

Mayor Brett A Radi, Deputy Mayor Edward F. Boylan and Committeeman Edward van Lier voted to institute the curfew. Counclilman Joseph Tricarico voted against the curfew, but the three Republican yes votes overwhelmed the one Democractic no vote, and so the Ordinance was approved. {No independents were elected to the Township Committee}.

Under new business (after the curfew issue was all closed up and put to rest) I requested that a referendum be put on the upcomming ballot, that would rescind the curfew that had just been passed. The Township's legal advisors pointed out that only the Township Committee could put referendum issues on the ballott.

Then Brett Radi told me that he didn't understand why I was asking him to put a referendum on the ballott, hadn't I just seen them vote for the curfew? [Why would they want to leave the door open to undo their own doing] I responded that such a non-binding referendum would be a tool for them to find out what the public wanted, and allow them to comply with that after the votes came in, if they chose to. Brett refused to put it on the ballott and said that he himself would judge how effective the curfew was in six months or so.

He also invited people to write the committee requesting a referendum, and that if "enough people" responded, they would consider it. "The little league people delivered bags of postcards!"

Postscript

ORDINANCE REPEALED

Teenage Curfew's effects

An online copy of "General Curfew" Ordinance 98-28

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(last update 17 Dec 20221)