Can You Have a Curfew for Mischief Night
ALLENDALE — Trick-or-treaters in this small-scale boondocks can run down the street dressed as monsters, ring doorbells and stuff their bags with candy — but they need to be home past 8 p.m.
Like many towns, Allendale has a Halloween curfew.
For "the purpose of maintaining society," the Allendale mayor and Borough Quango last week adopted the 8 p.yard. curfew for those under 18. It goes into consequence the nighttime of Oct. 30 — known as Mischief Night, Goosey Night or Cabbage Nighttime, depending on where you live — and lasts until sunrise on Nov. 1.
Councilman Steve Sasso said Allendale has been imposing the annual curfew for as long as he can remember.
"Past 8 o'clock at night, there's no reason why you couldn't exist done with your trick-or-treating," Sasso said. "It's nighttime by then, and the curfew is done in the involvement of public safety. Nearly importantly, it came at the request of the chief of police."
For years, the borough, like many others, has imposed a curfew to discourage those more interested in toilet paper, eggs and shaving cream than in costumes and candy.
"Safety comes beginning," said Mayor Liz White. To her knowledge, no citations take ever been issued.
That'southward not to say Allendale doesn't get into the spooky spirit. The Allendale Vacation Observers civic group will hold its almanac costume parade on Midweek. Starting at vii p.chiliad. at Brookside Schoolhouse, the upshot is rain or shine for kids in pre-K through Grade 8.
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And, for the first fourth dimension, a portion of Dale Street popular with play tricks-or-treaters will exist closed to cars from later schoolhouse till 6 p.chiliad., with crossing guards stationed, White said.
Towns around New Jersey have been setting curfews during Mischief Nighttime and Halloween on and off for decades, hoping to curtail would-exist vandals and proceed children safe.
Garfield has had an annual 9 p.m. curfew on Oct. 30 and October. 31 for decades.
"I've been here 31 years, and it [the curfew] predates me," said City Clerk Andrew Pavlica, recalling that there was a curfew in identify when he was a kid. "Information technology dates back at least to the 1960s."
"For Goosey Night, it'south to encourage kids to become home and not cause havoc," he said.
Garfield also celebrates the season with a citywide Halloween decorating contest, with local seniors determining prizes for the pinnacle five homes and three businesses.
Other towns with Halloween curfews include Alpine, Englewood Cliffs, One-time Tappan, Washington Township and Oradell.
A fire whistle sounding in Wanaque at 9 p.m. signals the end of the fun, a tradition dating back over 25 years.
"It's usually for public prophylactic, around what people telephone call Mischief Night or Goosey Dark. It is intended to make sure kids are off the streets and ensure they are safe," said acting Borough Administrator John Eskilson
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Like a growing number of communities, Wanaque provides an culling to nighttime play a joke on-or-treating: a Truck-or-Treat with a haunted maze and hayride.
"I think there'southward plenty of fun to exist had earlier ix o'clock. Well-supervised, good former-fashioned, Halloween fun," Eskilson said.
When the state deemed juvenile curfews in West New York and Due west Orange unconstitutional in 2015, Northvale and Garfield joined other towns like Bergenfield and Hasbrouck Heights in repealing their curfew laws, hoping to avoid litigation.
But nether country police, municipalities nonetheless accept the pick of passing "situational curfews" for the two spookiest nights of the year.
Wanaque faced a complaint by the American Ceremonious Liberties Union in 2022 because its curfew ordinance didn't permit for exceptions with a parent's consent. Co-ordinate to the ACLU, the complaint came after a borough 17-year-quondam attending customs higher was cited by constabulary for existence outside after 10 p.m. The borough repealed the ordinance in 2015.
The Northvale curfew, in place since 1943, forbade those under 16 to be out in public after 9 p.m., fifty-fifty with their parents. Though it was in identify year-round, borough officers said they only really enforced the rule on Cabbage Dark and Halloween.
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Often safety, not the fearfulness of mayhem, is behind the curfew.
In 2012, a rash of luring reports in Bergen and Passaic counties prompted towns including Bergenfield, Dumont and New Milford to impose Halloween curfews.
Flim-flam-or-treating'southward chief danger, though, is from vehicles. Children are more than than twice equally likely to be hit by a car on Halloween than on any other day, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Around dusk on Halloween in 2016, passers-by helped lift a vehicle off a x-year-old girl struck crossing Park Artery in Rutherford. The girl had bruises and lacerations, but no serious injuries. On Halloween in Nutley in 2009, a speeding motorist claimed the life of a ix-year-sometime girl and severely injured a three-year-old boy.
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Source: https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/2018/10/29/nj-towns-impose-mischief-night-and-halloween-curfews/1755788002/
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