Perhaps you saw video of that violent encounter last week between Belmar police and a surfer over a badge he either did or didn’t have.
That was just the latest incident in a long tradition of tiffs between surfers and the towns that try to expand their jurisdiction beyond the limits of land.
I’m proud to say I was at the center of one such incident in my youth.
It was in late spring. The water was so cold you needed a full wetsuit
That meant no one was on the beach or in the water.
Those are ideal conditions for a surfer, so I headed to a remote spot in Lavallette to catch a few waves.
It wasn’t remote enough. I realized that when an old guy on the beach started blowing a whistle.
He was apparently some sort of a lifeguard captain - or major or perhaps even generalissimo.
But technically I wasn’t in Lavallette.
I was in the ocean.
If I headed east, there was nothing but water all the way to Spain.
So I ignored him. This got the guy literally hopping mad. The more I ignored him the more he hopped.
After 15 minutes or so a small crowd had gathered. The boardwalk rides hadn’t opened yet so this was the only entertainment for the bennies.
It took a while, but finally the old lifeguard recruited a few younger lifeguards to go out in a rowboat and tell me to come in.
They guys were probably surfers themselves and thus well aware that Shore etiquette states that surfing isn’t restricted until the badge-checkers show up. And they hadn’t shown up yet.
But when I got back to the beach and told the old guy that, it just got him madder. He told me he was going to write me a lot of tickets.
I took the tickets. There were three of them and the fine was $15 each.
When I got home, I called the American Civil Liberties Union to ask if they were interested in fighting for my civil liberty to access the ocean.
They weren’t. But Justinian was.
Justinian was the Roman emperor who codified the law 15 centuries ago. He included a proviso that stated “By the law of nature ... the air, running water, the sea, and consequently the shores of the sea” are “common to mankind.”
Beach access thus became part of English and then American common law. But someone forgot to tell the Belmar Police Department.
Belmar made the news last week when an armed police officer violently arrested a surfer after demanding to see his beach badge.
According to videos of the incident, the officer, Ryan Braswell, confronted the surfer, 28-year-old Liam Mahoney, and asked him to display his beach badge.
A video showed Mahoney responding “I do not need one,” and then attempting to walk off the beach, after which the cops tackled him and put him in a headlock. He was then charged with disorderly conduct, obstruction of justice and resisting arrest, which the video shows he did.
This set off a frenzy on the internet. Those backing the police argued for a strict adherence to authority that would shame a Prussian officer.
The surfer’s defenders, on the other hand, noted that he had just emerged from the water and was wearing a wetsuit.
“Where the hell is he supposed to place his badge, puncturing his wetsuit?” one commenter said.
During one of the videos, Mahoney’s girlfriend is shown telling the cops that he in fact had a badge but had left it with her. But the brawl was in full swing by then.
That video sparked hundreds of online comments. Perhaps the most succinct came from an out-of-state website:
“What the f--- is a beach badge?” this wag asked.
I wish I never had to learn.
I’ve been to beaches from Cape Town to Costa Rica, from Byron Bay to Biarritz. I’ve seen quite a few where you have to watch out for sharks in the water. But here in Jersey you have to watch out for the sharks on the land.
Belmar is perhaps the best example. It’s not just that it’s highly priced - though at $12 the daily badge is among the most expensive in the state.
It’s the way that money is spent.
Towns are allowed to use revenue from beach badges to pay the cost of extra police hired for the summer.
If you’re asking yourself why a town would put armed officers on the beach, there’s your answer. They’re not protecting the public; they’re protecting their salaries.
A release from the Belmar Police Department said the cops were patrolling the beach because some surfers were going on without paying.
So what? Many towns exempt surfers from badge fees on the grounds that surfers don’t require any services from the government.
Unless you consider a wrestling lesson a service, that is.
As for me, I never complained about that $45 in fines.
I felt I got my money’s worth.
BELOW: My little tiff with that Lavallette lifeguard came before the foundation of Surfrider, which fights for surfers’ rights. Watch this video.
More: Recent Paul Mulshine columns
Paul Mulshine may be reached at pmulshine@starledger.com.
Follow him on Twitter @Mulshine. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook and on Twitter.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
