[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Council of the Township of Mount
Holly 7-7-1980 as Sec. 3-3 of Ch. III of the Revised General Ordinances. Amendments
noted where applicable.]
Widespread public disorder has erupted in municipalities throughout
the country resulting in numerous deaths and personal injuries and in property
damage of hundreds of millions of dollars, and the Township Council is charged
by N.J.S.A. 40:48-1, Subdivision 6, to make and enforce ordinances to preserve
the public peace and order and to prevent and quell riots, disturbances and
disorderly assemblages, and by the provisions of N.J.S.A. 2A:48-1 et seq.,
the Township is liable for destruction or injury to real or personal property
by reason of a mob or riot, subject to the conditions therein set forth. The
Township Manager is the chief executive and administrative official of the
Township charged with the duty of executing all laws and ordinances of the
Township, and it is deemed necessary and in the public interests that the
Township take all appropriate action to ensure that orderly procedures exist
to protect persons and property of the citizens of the Township of Mount Holly.
Whenever, in the judgment of the Township Manager or in the event of
his absence, disability or other inability to act, the qualified administrative
officer designated by him to perform his duties during his temporary absence
or disability (N.J.S.A. 40:69A-94) or in the event of his failure to make
such designation or the temporary absence or disability of both the manager
and such administrative officer, then the Chief of Police of the Township
determines that an emergency exists as a result of mob action or other civil
disobedience, including riot, rout or unlawful assembly or real or present
danger thereof causing or likely to cause danger of injury to or damages to
persons or property, he shall have the power to impose by proclamation any
or all of the following regulations deemed by him necessary to preserve the
peace and order of the Township:
A.
To impose a curfew upon all or any portion of the Township,
thereby requiring all persons in such designated curfew areas to forthwith
remove themselves from the public streets, areas, parks or other public places;
provided, however, that physicians, nurses and ambulance operators performing
medical services, utility personnel maintaining initial public services, firemen
and Township authorized or requested law enforcement officers and personnel
shall be exempted from such curfew.
B.
To order the closing of any business establishments anywhere
within the Township for the period of the emergency, such businesses to include
but not be limited to those selling intoxicating liquors, alcoholic beverages,
gasoline or firearms or ammunition.
C.
To designate any public street, thoroughfare or vehicle
parking areas closed to motor vehicles and pedestrian traffic.
D.
To call upon regular and auxiliary law enforcement agencies
and organizations within or without the Township to assist in preserving and
keeping the peace within the Township.
E.
Issue such other orders as are immediately necessary
in his judgment for the protection of life and property.
The proclamation of emergency provided herein shall become effective
upon its issuance to news media or immediate dissemination to the public,
its posting on a bulletin board in the Municipal Building and, where feasible,
by public address systems throughout the Township.
Any emergency proclaimed in accordance with the provisions of this chapter
shall terminate after 48 hours from the issuance thereof or upon the issuance
of a proclamation determining an emergency no longer exists, whichever occurs
first; provided, however, that such emergency may be extended for such additional
comparable periods of time as determined necessary by the Township Manager.
A.
During the period of such emergency, no person shall
make, carry, possess or use any type of Molotov cocktail, gasoline or petroleum
base fire bomb or other incendiary missile.
B.
No person shall consume any alcoholic beverages in a
public street or public place or in any motor vehicle driven or parked thereon.
C.
No person shall carry or possess any rock, bottle, club,
brick or weapon or other object capable of being used as a weapon, unlawfully
against the persons or property of another, provided that anything herein
contained shall not apply to any law enforcement officer or other person engaged
lawfully in enforcing the emergency restrictions or thereunto authorized by
the Manager.
D.
No person shall carry or transport gasoline or other
liquid flammable or combustible products in any container other than a gasoline
tank properly affixed to a motor vehicle.
E.
No person shall intercept or interfere with police and/or
fire radio broadcasts.
F.
Nothing herein shall be deemed to authorize any of the
proscribed conduct at any other times when it is prohibited by law.
Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this chapter or who shall willfully fail or refuse to comply with the proclamation or shall willfully fail or refuse to comply with the orders of duly authorized law enforcement officers or personnel charged with the responsibility of enforcing the proclamation of emergency shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished liable to the penalty stated in Chapter 1, Article II.
[Amended 6-22-1992 by Ord.
No. 1992-5]
This chapter shall be construed to be an addition to any other ordinances
or statutes on the same subject, and the Township Manager is hereby constituted
as a lawful delegated authority under this chapter to close any street or
other public or private place in anticipation of or for the prevention or
cessation of any riot, disturbance of the peace or disorderly conduct, pursuant
to the terms of this chapter.
