Festivals canceled in Philadelphia area after teens' unruly behavior

The drone light show was over and families and their children were heading to their cars.

That's when the teens started fighting.

Under dazzling lights, hostilities broke out among a group of hundreds of young people who arrived throughout the evening. By the time Gloucester Township Police Chief David Harkins realized he would need more officers, the rally descended into chaos.

“They were hostile toward the police, cursing and yelling,” Harkins said. “We just moved them to a parking lot, trying to keep it separate from families. Then they openly started fighting among themselves. Many of them made TikTok videos, trying to give a bad image of the police.

The unrest during the Gloucester Township Day festival on June 1 was not an exception, but an extreme example of an increasingly visible trend in the Philadelphia area.

A recent spate of unruly incidents involving minors and young adults at fairs, carnivals and spring adventures threatens the future of family celebrations, as officials struggle to deal with conflict and disruption they say , are becoming more and more brazen and often fueled by social reasons. media.

A week after Gloucester youths clashed with police — leading to 17 arrests and multiple injuries — another large group of juveniles descended on Pennsauken Township's summer kickoff, where families were gathered to watch fireworks. That crowd also became disruptive, police said. Four young adults and two minors were arrested and the event ended prematurely.

Disruptions have a ripple effect. In addition to sparking frustration among community members, these incidents have lawmakers calling for action and the close-knit world of fair operators worried about the future of their industry as permits are revoked and profits at risk.

“These things are just absurd and they don't need to happen,” said Jeff Good of Goodtime Amusements, a carnival operator that was shut down in Exton this spring after a fight broke out nearby. “I have friends in Chicago, I have friends in Florida, it’s happening everywhere.”

A chaotic season

Harkins, a 29-year veteran of law enforcement, had assumed Gloucester's celebration would go as smoothly as it has in the past four decades.

Instead, the police chief said, the unrest reached a level he had never seen at a family event.

Members of the crowd, including many teenagers, cursed at the officers and tried to surround them as they broke up the fighting, according to Harkins. In one case, a 33-year-old man crashed his bicycle into the back of a police officer, the police chief said.

He thinks that the meeting was amplified by young people via social networks.

Gloucester and Pennsauken officials have pledged not to cancel their events next year despite the unruly weekend. But as the festival season enters its peak months, not all communities feel the same way.

In May, Upper Moreland Township officials announced that after 111 years, the Montgomery County community's beloved June Fair had been canceled due to public safety concerns.

“The collective opinion of our public safety officials is that while the additional safety measures proposed in the revised permit application were appreciated, the elevated risk of safety and security issues remains,” said the director of canton, Patrick Stasio, in an email.

Stasio, without mentioning specific incidents, cited “fights, assaults, robberies and gun violence that have overburdened public safety resources and led to the cancellation of some or all of some events in our immediate area “.

Other events disrupted or canceled this year due to public safety concerns include the annual Broomall Fire Company Carnival, Dreamland Amusements Carnival at Neshaminy Mall, Exton Square Mall Carnival, LEAD Fest Carnival at Mall Concord and Kennett Square's Kennett Blooms Festival.

Abington native John Spiegelman, a township commissioner, cherishes his memories of taking his daughter to June's centennial celebration, riding the Ferris wheel, small roller coasters and sampling other fairground staples.

“It’s a sad situation,” Spiegelman said. “It’s kind of a psychological and emotional shock for people here.”

A challenge for law enforcement

Until recently, police departments had little reason to create elaborate public safety strategies for family events, with most of the work devoted to protecting pedestrians from the influx of traffic on the day of the event, according to Harkins.

The recent disruptions have Harkins and other New Jersey officials reconsidering their efforts.

Gloucester police typically employ between 50 and 60 officers for spring celebrations, according to Harkins; After observing reports of unruly crowds of teenagers at Wildwood Beach over Memorial Day weekend, the police chief put the number closer to 70.

That’s still not enough, he says.

Gloucester police ultimately enlisted the support of neighboring departments, bringing in 40 additional officers — and the department “probably could have had more,” Harkins said.

Other festivals are taking note. In Burlington County, the St. Charles Borromeo Church Carnival in Cinnaminson announced this week that it would increase its police presence during the weeklong event.

Harkins did not say whether Gloucester Township Day would be more closely monitored in the future, although he suggested the township would consider starting the event earlier in the evening.

To kick off summer in Pennsauken, police had recruited even more officers — about 85, according to Mayor Marco DiBattista — although Saturday's disruption required additional officers from three separate counties.

“We will adapt our event so that we don't have another repeat,” said DiBattista, who had just left a meeting to discuss the future of the Pennsauken celebration. “We’ve never had anything like this in the past.”

Adding more officers could be a challenge, DiBattista said, because officers are already overloaded with other duties.

“We will only hold an event if we think we can protect it,” the mayor said.

A threat to businesses

Before the Exton Square Mall Carnival in May, Good, the operator of Goodtime Amusements, was ready to get down to business.

The long-time carnival operator had a permit from the local police and a fire and emergency services safety certificate, and had erected fencing around the perimeter of the festival for added security.

That didn't stop the assault that followed a large, unruly group of teenagers gathering near the carnival entrance — leading West Whiteland Township police to revoke Good's license near one week before the end of his event.

Good, whose Hellertown company operates in eastern Pennsylvania, estimates the closure cost him more than $50,000 after expenses.

“It’s a huge financial hit,” said Good, who was shocked that his business was penalized when he believed it was the responsibility of local police to control unruly gatherings. “It’s a shame,” Good added, “because it’s the community that loses.”

Today, Good's close-knit world of showmen chatters from the Jersey Shore to Pittsburgh, and the operator believes there's no “snowball chance” that anyone will go bankrupt over the course of next year due to cancellations.

Allen Bartlebaugh is also feeling the pressure.

Bartlebaugh, of Bartlebaugh Amusements, was recently informed by festival sponsor Kennett Blooms that his event, which was supposed to take place this weekend, had been preemptively canceled due to the incidents in Exton and the New Coast. Jersey.

That's a $30,000 win, he said.

Hoping to avoid more costly closures, Bartlebaugh and others in his industry are turning to tactics they hope will deter unaccompanied teens, closing their fairgrounds and introducing fees cover.

A member of the Pennsylvania State Showmen's Association, Bartlebaugh also hopes industry lobbyists will convince lawmakers to act.

“If you talk about public safety, you terrorize the public,” Bartlebaugh said. “If there’s no retaliation and there’s no parenting, someone needs to be held accountable.”

A judicial repression

New Jersey lawmakers, like state Rep. Dan Hutchison, are responding to these calls.

Hutchison, a Democrat whose district covers the middle of the state's coastal cities, is drafting a bill alongside his party colleagues that aims to deter unruly behavior by teenagers at public events and on the coast. The announcement, inspired by the Gloucester incident, included few details.

“We want to make sure we create strong penalties that deter this behavior, whether it's participating in a scrum or organizing this type of scrum on social media,” Hutchison said, adding that he planned to introduce the bill next week. “If you can prove that someone was involved in organizing this type of behavior, it should be sanctioned and punished.”

“We shouldn't need 150 police officers to protect the public,” he later added.

Community members also wonder if increased reactions are possible.

“You can't undo your way out of this situation any more than you can undo it now,” said Spiegelman, the Abington commissioner, suggesting that a solution to youth unrest requires effort from the parents of adolescents and their parents. School districts.

“That’s how things go round and round,” Spiegelman said. “You could shut the world out of fear of anything.”