Lambertville police sign on Bridge Street in April
The City of Lambertville Police Department has been cracking down on violations of state executive orders relating to covid-19 mitigation measures.
As of Wednesday, police had charged 16 people with violating or disobeying social distancing directives.
Police have been conducting high visibility patrols in various locations, including parks and the D&R Canal path, to assist individuals and remind them of the various executive orders put in place by Gov. Phil Murphy, they said.
“The Lambertville Police would like to remind everyone to practice six-foot social distancing while walking/biking/jogging, as well as the requirement to wear a mask while inside public buildings and when the six-foot social distancing is not possible, such as on a narrow sidewalk or the tow path,” officials said Thursday.
Lambertville police had also been enforcing an executive order closing state parks prior to their reopening on Saturday.
The tow path had been closed until Saturday.
On April 14, at 7 p.m., Sergeant Memolo and Patrolman Wurpel stopped a group of individuals congregating along the D&R Canal path near the Lambertville Municipal Utilities Authority. A 20-year-old male from Berrel Court in Yardley, a 20-year-old male from Plaza Boulevard in Morrisville, and a 21-year-old male from Veterans Highway in Levittown were each issued a summons for failure to obey a lawful order and given a date to appear in Lambertville Municipal Court.
And on April 25 at approximately 2:30 p.m., Lieutenant R. Brown observed three individuals bypass three separate “police line – do not cross” barriers indicating that the state parks were closed. A 58-year-old male from Daystar Drive in Doylestown, a 37-year-old male from North Charlotte Street in Pottstown, N.J., and a 48-year-old male from Sandybrook Drive in Langhorne were charged with failure to obey a lawful order, as well as violating the State of N.J. executive order.
Gov. Murphy on Wednesday signed Executive Order No. 138 extending the public health emergency another 30 days.
I wonder what Gov. Wolf is doing about the 6 foot rule for the people in Philly who are protesting side by about the murder of George Floyd? Are they being summoned? Remember the corona virus is an equal opportunity protagonist. It doesn’t care who you are or what you do. If you are less than 6 feet, it will jump from one person to the next. In about 10 days this country will see how many of those viruses that were present on protesters took the leap from an infected person to a non-infected person.
What would happen if an 8 yeara old kid living in Lamberville makes a phone call to the police chief and says the following: ”
“Hello Chief. I just want you to know that my father and mother are sitting in the living room with my four grandparents and a few aunts and uncles. None of them have on any masks. Do yuo want my address? Do the police have a right to “break up” this gathering?
DT you just said it “officers protecting people from themselves”. If you are happy being a child of the nanny state that’s fine. But I’m an adult who can make my own decisions and decide which risks I want to take. Zero risk people are welcome to stay home and watch CNN panic (and ratings) mongering. I guess you would also be OK if the Lambertville po arrested you for eating a bacon cheeseburger, drinking too much wine, swimming in a pool with no lifeguard, biking without a helmet. After all we need armed govt agents to protect us from ourselves
Well said Pat Farley.
It’s not about the risks you choose to take. It’s about the risk you’re imposing on everyone else. This isnt the equivalent of you choosing to eat a bacon cheeseburger, it’s the equivalent of you shoving a bacon cheeseburger down someone else’s throat, who doesnt want it. Please choose safety over your selfishness. You could be an asymptomatic carrier. Until people like you get this through their heads, we do need the policing. This is why we cant have nice things.
CNN is clouding your logic Nicole. Try to think for yourself. Free people should decide to go outside or not. That means Pat Farley AND other people who he might infect. Those, like you, who value “stay safe” above ALL ELSE, should stay inside until, well, forever…cuz this sh*t is never going away completely.
The summons aren’t being issued for being outside. Don’t you think us free people who concerned about our safety should also be able to enjoy outdoor spaces with common courtesy and respect from those other free people who don’t care about their own? Wear a mask. Don’t get too close. That’s all people are asking for.
“Patrolman Wurpel stopped a group of individuals congregating”…”each issued a summons for failure to obey a lawful order”. Presumably that (illegal) order was to disperse, and these 3 young men decided to stand up for their rights. Yes the Chief should be punished and these 3 should be given citizenship awards
I can assure you all that for every day that the liquor stores have been open throughout the pandemic, so have all of the parks, too, for some of us 😉
Every village has an idiot!
Glad to see the police doing the right thing.
While I am in full support of the stay at home order and social distancing guidelines (yes, I trust the overwhelming consensus of scientists, doctors, epidemiologists, virologists, etc..), I also understand the economic pain the pandemic is causing.
For that reason, I always feel conflicted when I hear of people breaking the orders out of financial desperation. It’s hard not to have sympathy for people choosing between risking their health and that of their families or paying the bills. It’s an impossibly sad choice for so many people right now.
And then, on the other hand, there’s the people in this article. Zero sympathy. Whiners willing to sacrifice nothing for the greater good – these are not people trying to feed their families. They’re dude-bros trying to get in a round of “Ultimate Frisbee” or smoke up with their homies in the park.
Thank you Lambertville police.
(Queue the “patriots” piping in to compare an international pandemic response to Gulags in 3…2…1…)
Hey Cece you don’t need to be Michigan AR15 kook to realize that cops arresting people for congregating in the “wrong” place with the “wrong” number of people is messed up. This is abuse of power and it scares the heckl out of me more than a bad bug that is under control
This is not America. Lambertville needs a police chief capable of independent thought and discretion. Instead we have a mindless automaton who slept through high school civics class.
Beth, I don’t know the police chief but your comment made me cringe. Attacking and publicly disparaging a person may be free speech but it is mean. I don’t care if he slept through physics class or wasn’t good at dodgeball. What matters (at least to me) is that he does his job. From what I can see, he is doing just that – in this case the officers are protecting people from themselves.