PENSACOLA, Fla. (WSVN) — Police in Florida broke up a massive Easter Sunday gathering of over 100 people.
Videos posted to Facebook showed dozens of people gathered for a massive event. According to WEAR, the event was organized for kids in the community.
Pensacola Police told WEAR it took two hours to break up the event, and the event was disbanded by 7 p.m.
NO SOCIAL DISTANCING: We’ve received several videos of this Easter party in Pensacola yesterday. I took this video from a distance. Tonight on Ch3, find out why the police didn’t break it up. @weartv #COVID19 #Easter #bigparty #Pensacola pic.twitter.com/4cmDBv3vpF
— Rebekah Castor (@RebekahCastorTV) April 13, 2020
“The officers were really just educating those at the party about the importance of social distancing,” Officer Mike Wood told the station. “Many of those in attendance were young, and we were trying to explain to them that while they may think they’re not at high risk for the virus, they can bring it home to their older family members.”
No citations were issued and no arrests were made.
According to the Pensacola News Journal, Pensacola police have not been instructed to write citations or make arrests, but simply get the group to disperse and understand the importance of social distancing.
“This one took two hours, but we’ve had groups before, 20 or so people playing basketball, and we would go up and ask them to disperse, and they did,” Wood told the paper. “Overall we haven’t had a big issue with it until yesterday.”
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