More than 20 police officers reportedly responded to an 11:30 pm game in Long Beach, CA, issuing dozens of tickets for “loitering after hours.”
More than 20 police officers reportedly broke up a late-night pickleball session, issuing tickets and raising some questions about whether the show of force was justified, or a bit-heavy handed.
According to a Reddit post from Wednesday, September 16, the incident went down at the DeForest Park Pickleball Courts in Long Beach, CA, around 11:30 pm.
One of the players reportedly involved described it like this:
I kid you not, 20+ police officers came out and blocked the exits with their cars until every single person in the courts/soccer/basketball area was cited. There were probably at least 30+ people waiting to be cited until we were allowed to go.
Commenters were quick to point out that playing pickleball at a public park close to midnight is rather excessive, especially in a crowd so big when loud music was reportedly involved…