As someone who lives 14 miles from Perth Amboy, I'll go ahead and stick my hat in the ring.
1. I think the cops are doing the kids a favor by using "bike license" as an official reason here. Plenty of charges in LEO are moved to "seat belt violation" or another minor code point INSTEAD of creating a record that would really disrupt a kid's future job prospects - like "civil disobedience." To think this is really about a bike license is rather naive. It ain't about the bike license.
2. Here in the NYC area there really is a "thing" going on where these kids are going into what I'll call "rodeo mode" where a pack just becomes circus-like in the middle of the road. Here on BF, there've been quite a few postings on this, including when the older folks from CT were threatened in the car in Midtown NY, refer to this thread:
https://www.bikeforums.net/advocacy-...doing-car.html
3. Time to get schools fully re-opened. These kids are dangerously bored.