Breakdancing Town Critic Shows Up To Jersey Shore Meeting

JACKSON, NJ — A North Jersey man whose breakdancing at a town council meeting made the rounds on social media showed up in Ocean County to encourage residents there to keep speaking out about issues in their town.

William Thilly, a Cranford resident who has been a vocal critic of the town, in particular focusing on overdevelopment, and has twice run for office there, spoke at the Jackson Township Council meeting on Tuesday night.

Thilly caught attention not only for breakdancing at a September 2025 meeting but three weeks ago was arrested by Cranford police after refusing to stop speaking when his time expired during public comment.

Cranford police allege Thilly deliberately fell down during the meeting and that a police officer was injured. Video taken by a member of the public showed Thilly sitting down briefly before officers forced him to his feet and walked him into the booking area. Neither officer appeared to be injured in the video.

Thilly said he came to the Jackson meeting to address the public after seeing social media postings by Jackson Councilman Chris Pollak, who has been challenging the town's officials and criticizing its actions with regard to concerns about overdevelopment since before he was elected in November.

Pollak has repeatedly questioned ties between Jackson officials and local real state developers and professionals. At a recent meeting, Pollak raised questions about Council President Mordechai Burnstein's ties to developer Mordechai Eichorn and Burnstein's relationship with Ocean County Commissioner Frank Sadeghi, who owns Morgan Engineering. He also questioned actions of Mayor Jennifer Kuhn, who was appointed as mayor in October 2025 after the sudden resignation of former mayor Michael Reina.

Overdevelopment has been a persistent concern and complaint throughout Ocean County for decades because much of the land sits in the environmentally sensitive Pinelands.

Thilly didn't address overdevelopment or any of the other issues in Jackson directly in his remarks during public comment at the Jackson meeting. (You can see his remarks at the 1-hour, 29-minute mark of the meeting video below.)

"We've been fighting all the same issues in Cranford that are happening here," Thilly said. "You won't be surprised, these issues are common among all New Jersey towns. So,
the reason I'm here is to in general to bring more attention to what's happening here so the whole state is aware."

"Everyone's doing fantastic fight here," Thilly said. "This needs to be known by all the media in New York, blah blah blah and all because that's going to inspire all the towns in New Jersey to realize, oh, same thing's happening here. We can do what Jackson's doing in our town. And that's when everything takes over and you hit that critical mass."

Thilly has used a number of methods to draw attention to his criticisms in Cranford, and filed a lawsuit last year alleging Cranford officials have repeatedly disrupted his alloted 5 minutes of comment during their meetings, which he said is an attempt to censor him.

In Jackson, Thilly started out addressing the crowd before he was told twice by Burnstein and by Gregory McGuckin, the township's attorney, to address the council. He concluded his remarks by chanting then he broke out his breakdancing moves, spinning on his back in the middle of the council chamber.

The council did not address Thilly or his statements after public comment was closed.