Late-Night Pickleball Ends With Police Issuing 40 Citations

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.

According to the Long Beach Post, more than 40 citations were written for "loitering or remaining at a park after hours."

At the heart of the show of force were noise complaints levied by nearby residents.

The players contend the lights were on and the gates were open, though it does appear that there were signs posted saying the park hours are from dawn until dusk.

"I accept that we shouldn’t have been there," the Reddit poster conceded. "I’m saying that using 20+ police officers for such a trivial thing and citing everyone seems extremely excessive and not a good use of the departments time and energy."

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Feature image attribution: Jacob Sisneros for Long Beach Post