OCEAN CITY – Ocean City Police Chief William Campbell is against restrictrions on wearing masks on the boardwalk, something some council members suggested as another means to control unruly juveniles.
At the June 13 City Council meeting, Campbell advised against the ordinance because of constitutional and enforcement issues.
The suggestion arose because of the viral video of the fight on the boardwalk over Memorial Day weekend and subsequent stabbing. Some of the juveniles in the video were wearing masks to hide their identities.
Mayor Jay Gillian asked Campbell to offer his insights at the council meeting. “We had a rough Memorial Day weekend, we addressed it,” he said, adding the Police Department “has done a great job and will continue to get better.”
The mayor said the department would continue to look at options in addition to the rules that have cut down on bad behavior, including the 8 p.m. beach curfew and evening backpack ban on the boardwalk. He noted the city enclosed the area beneath the 11th Street bathrooms to keep teens from sneaking onto the beach after hours.
“Nothing is etched in stone,” he said about the ordinances, but wanted Campbell to address it as one of the city’s professionals. “We’re going to keep Ocean City safe.”
Campbell said a mask ordinance with exemptions for religious and/or medical reasons would be a “knee-jerk reaction for the very slight amount of people, teenagers primarily, who have masks on during the widely-circulated video” of the Memorial Day weekend fight and subsequent stabbing.
“I don’t think we should draft something where there’s not an issue,” he said, comparing it to the “very effective” backpack ban to stop alcohol- and drug-fueled beach parties.
“Practically every teenager who was on the boardwalk and was going to the beach had a backpack on. That’s what they were using to transport their alcohol, their fireworks, their drugs, whatever it was they had with them, the contents were in the backpack,” he said.
The chief said he got feedback from his senior staff, including boardwalk supervisors, who were “largely non-supportive of a mask ordinance for constitutional reasons, for enforcement reasons, potential liability for the city.”
He noted there could be a problem over claims of people being targeted because they were of a certain demographic and that the Philadelphia Police Department is not enforcing a mask ordinance there because of similar concerns.
“I’m not in favor of it,” Campbell said of the ordinance.
The mayor said state Sen. Michael Testa is continuing to work on the state level along with his First District Assemblymen Antwan McClellan and Erik Simonsen on the laws that changed that have limited police officers’ ability to deal with minors.
“If we’re not talking about it, nothing is going to get done,” Gillian said.
A 15-year-old was stabbed and another juvenile charged with attempted murder in the Memorial Day weekend attack. Both victim and suspect are from Atlantic County. Officials said the teens involved with the fight knew each other and it was a planned attack and that neither local residents nor visitors were targeted.
– STORY and PHOTO by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff