MAHWAH

Prosecutor: Mahwah park ban could illegally target Jews

MAHWAH — Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal ordered the Mahwah Police Department on Thursday to ignore a new municipal ordinance banning non-state residents from township parks, calling the regulation a possible violation of constitutional rights.

Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal

In a directive to Police Chief James Batelli, Grewal warned that the ordinance could lead to racial profiling, unlawful searches and seizures and illegally target out-of-state members of the Orthodox Jewish community who use Mahwah’s parks.

“At best, the ordinance invites Mahwah Police Department officers to stop individuals for no reason at all,” Grewal wrote in a letter to Batelli. “At worst, Mahwah Police Department officers may be called on to stop individuals for impermissible reasons.”

The township adopted the ordinance on June 29 with the aim of curbing the number of outsiders flooding its parkland, sometimes by the busload, Council President Rob Hermansen said. It went into effect Thursday.

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Batelli reached out to the prosecutor Monday with concerns about enforcement, according to Grewal. Batelli told Grewal that the Police Department received numerous calls from residents asking that the ordinance be specifically applied to Orthodox Jews that they believed were visiting from out of state, the prosecutor wrote in his letter.

Batelli could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Hermansen said the ordinance was not drafted with the Orthodox Jewish community in mind. He said the council was simply responding to complaints from residents that Mahwah’s public parks were being taken over by people with New York license plates.

“It’s not an attack on anyone,” Hermansen said. “We are an inclusive town. All we’re trying to do is protect the town.”

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The township has been engulfed in controversy since the news broke that a New York Jewish group planned to extend a religious boundary known as an eruv into Mahwah, Upper Saddle River and Montvale.

Hundreds of people gathered in a Mahwah park on Monday to protest the eruv and voice concerns over out-of-state residents venturing across the New York border into Mahwah. Township officials have called for the eruv’s removal, citing zoning regulations that prohibit signs on utility poles.

Jewish leaders, meanwhile, have called the response anti-Semitic.

Hermansen on Thursday said the council will rework the parks ordinance in light of Grewal’s directive but maintained the township will continue to put its residents first.

“When you have certain things going on that cause problems in town, you have to come up with solutions,” he said.

Hermansen accused Batelli of sitting on the sidelines during the drafting, introduction and adoption of the ordinance and said he was blindsided by the police chief’s decision to contact the prosecutor for guidance.

“The police chief did not come to the table to sit down with us to come up with any solutions,” Hermansen said. “He did not want to enforce this at all.”

Mayor William Laforet said Batelli had expressed reservations about the ordinance to the township attorney, Brian Chewcaskie, over the past several weeks.

Chewcaskie could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Laforet lauded Batelli’s communication with Grewal and said the prosecutor’s directive would help Mahwah avoid serious profiling lawsuits.

“If the chief had not done what he did, I think we would’ve found ourselves in a box,” Laforet said. “It’s important for our community to know that we are doing things appropriately.”

Email: shkolnikova@northjersey.com