ASBURY PARK PRESS :: MONMOUTH EDITION

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BEST OF THE BEST

SUNDAY 07.03.16

Meet the All-Stars of the 2nd annual APP Hockey Classic, Sports

Friction growing
as watch turns 10
Born of controversy, Lakewood group forged bonds with residents,
police, but recent rumors have neighboring towns on defensive

beachedition
YOUR WEEKEND GUIDE DOWN THE SHORE

Movie on the beach

Come to Seaside Heights and bring a blanket and some snacks
to watch a showing of the classic Jaws on the beach.

ANDREW FORD/STAFF PHOTOS

A Lakewood Civilian Safety Watch volunteer who declined to speak to reporters helps control traffic at a community event.

Strawberry festival
Make your holiday a
sweet one at the
annual Strawberry
Festival and Liberty
Extravaganza
Concert in Red Bank.

ALEX N. GECAN @GEEKSTERTWEETS

LAKEWOOD - When the townships Orthodox community lost confidence in the police department a decade
ago, two men one of whom now is facing a federal kidnapping charge, and both of whom faced life-insurance
scam claims helped form the Lakewood Shomrim, a neighborhood watch group.
Over the last 10 years, the Shomrim became the Lakewood Civilian Safety Watch, a group of dozens of volunteers who patrol residential neighborhoods. By all official accounts, the LCSW and the Lakewood Police Department have forged a solid working relationship.
A respected rabbi, active in local and county government, now guides the group. The original founders
appear to have dropped out or at least backed away two years ago, according to public records and interviews.
But friction with the LCSW has grown in recent months with residents in neighboring towns. As members of
the majority Orthodox community buy homes in Jackson and Toms River, township officials there have put up
legal barriers and told the LCSW that their patrols are not welcomed, even if new homeowners request them.
Residents have said at public meetings and on social media that they see the LCSW as a thinly veiled advance
team to scout out homes for sale, intimate non-Orthodox residents into moving, or an Orthodox-only police
force.
Lakewood police and LCSW members said those
rumors are unfounded. The LCSW aids Lakewood police by helping to direct traffic, patrol residential
neighborhoods at night to deter vandals and burglars,
report on suspicious activity to township police and
take calls from residents as needed, according to the
groups administrator, Rechy Svei. She said there are
about 70 men and women members, though that number fluctuates through the year.
Along with the Chaveirim, a volunteer emergency
management organization, the LCSW forms the
core of the townships Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, according to Police Chief Robert Lawson.
Chaveirim takes its name from a Hebrew word that
roughly translates to friends.

Celebrate
America
Listen to the Garden State
Philharmonic Orchestra and
the GSP Community Chorus
at this annual concert.

Parades and music

Show your patriotic side at these Fourth of July parades.

An LCSW volunteer helps control the flow of traffic. See

videos at APP.com.

See LCSW, Page 11A

GAS TAX HIKE

Has Christie lost N.J. Republicans?

MIKE DAVIS @BYMIKEDAVIS

TRENTON - Fourteen hours after the Assembly

passed legislation to raise the states gasoline tax and
cut the sales tax, Gov. Chris Christie doubled down on
it.
The goal was to give tax fairness to New Jerseyans with a 1-cent sales tax cut, Christie said, paying
credence to the buzzword he coined.
It would cancel out a 23-cent gasoline tax hike that
provided more than $2 billion to the flailing Transportation Trust Fund a massive investment in the
states transportation infrastructure.
He ignored the writing on the wall more than
half the Assembly Republican caucus voted against it
and ensured the success of his bill: When all the
discussion is over, Christie said, the bill will pass.

Concentration camp survivor

Elie Wiesel, Holocaust writer,
educator, dies at 87. 1B

@ISSUE
BUSINESS
CLASSIFIED
LOCAL
LOTTERIES

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Gov. Chris Christie held a "Fairness

Formula" forum at the Wall
Township library on Tuesday.

It flopped.
The Senates inaction on the controversial bill to renew the Transportation Trust Fund is the first sign
that Christie may be out of touch with the Republican
legislators he once kept at his beck and call. Of the 16
Republicans in the Senate, 10 have publicly decried
raising the gasoline tax in any form despite the govSee CHRISTIE, Page 15A

OBITUARIES
OPINION
SPORTS
SUNDAY BEST
WEATHER

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VOLUME 137
NUMBER 158
SINCE 1879

All this and more inside! 2A