Flynn Slams Dems After Violence Erupts at the Shore
May 27, 2025
TRENTON, N.J. – Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn says Democrats put politics over public safety after her attempt to override Gov. Phil Murphy’s veto of a bill set to protect towns from brawls was rejected along party lines last Thursday.
“Democrats and Republicans agreed on this bill after hearing what business owners and law enforcement officers said they needed to address these public brawls. Yet rather than protect our residents, businesses, and visitors to the Shore, politics won out,” Flynn (R-Monmouth) said. “I watched the news coming out of Seaside Heights this weekend and my heart just sank.”
Even with a 10 p.m. curfew for minors and increased police presence, violence erupted in Seaside Heights, with authorities arresting 73 people, including 21 juveniles, over the long Memorial Day weekend. A 21-year-old Beachwood man was also charged with possession of a firearm after police responded to a fight at Grant and Ocean Terrace avenues. Three separate stabbings within a block of the famed boardwalk led to its closure just after midnight Monday.
Flynn had hoped the bipartisan bill (S3507/A4652) would have been signed into law and in force by Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer, to help shore towns plagued by pop-up parties and brawls the last several summers. The bill passed in the Legislature would make inciting a public brawl a fourth-degree crime, punishable by up to 18 months in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Penalties for disorderly persons offenses would increase to six months in prison and fines up to $1,000. Any attempt to conceal one’s identity to avoid apprehension or hinder prosecution would also be a disorderly persons offense.
Instead, the bill was delivered to the governor in late March; he conditionally vetoed it May 8 over First Amendment concerns “that could have the unintended effect of chilling free speech and peaceful protests and, if improperly applied, penalizing people for the otherwise lawful activity of wearing a mask.”
“It seems to be a Democrat problem that they can’t differentiate between mostly peaceful protests and actual violence,” Flynn said. “This bill targets people inciting brawls and then trying to hide their identities to escape justice. There is real violence happening at shore towns that our mayors and law enforcement are pleading with us in Trenton to address.”
Flynn made a motion at the May 22 Assembly voting session to override the governor’s conditional veto, citing the unanimous support the bill received in both the Assembly and Senate. Democrats tabled her motion.
“Why wouldn’t we just override it?” Flynn asked.
