Soccer players cited for breach of virus rules

Central Marin police cited a group of soccer players for violating the county coronavirus mask order at a park in Larkspur.

Margo Rohrbacher, spokeswoman or the Central Marin Police Authority, said officers received a walk-in complaint Sunday at the Larkspur police station. The complainant reported a “very large group of soccer players at Piper Park who were not complying with the public health order,” Rohrbacher said.

Rohrbacher said the first officers on the scene observed about 200 soccer players in various groups. Given the large number, she said, the officer requested assistance. Many people left the park in the interim.

Police issued 10 citations. Officers have relied on warnings and education over the past six months, but are now ramping up enforcement of public health orders, Rohrbacher said

“Unfortunately, many members of the public are still not complying with the public health orders, even with numerous education and warning efforts,” she said. “Due to this fact our agency has begun to increase the number of public health order citations we are issuing.”

Santiago Perez, 29, was one of thepeople cited. He recorded the incident and posted the video of the police issuing citations. Perez saidhe believes the platers were targeted because they are Latino. He said no one else in the park was cited, including groups of White people playing soccer, volleyball and ultimate frisbee.

“After giving us tickets, they literally walked over to the volleyball players and said a couple of words and they kept playing. They didn’t give the many tickets,” he said. “So that seemed really discriminatory to me. I was like really? OK.”

Rohrbacher denied the officers acted with a racial motive, but confirmed no one else in the park was cited.

“Officers went through the park interviewing groups and determining whether any other public health order violations were occurring,” Rohrbacher said. “Racial profiling did not occur. This is absolutely not an instance of racial profiling.”

Reese Osborn, who lives across the street from the park, said he saw another group play volleyball 100 feet away without getting cited. He said he was surprised to see the police focus on the group of Latino players.

“Not a half an hour after they left there was another group of people were playing soccer again,” Osborn said. “So it seemed a ridiculous that the cops went after that one group instead of the whole park.”

Rohrbacher said the citations were issued because people in the group “did not live in the same household. Theywere observed playing without face masks and failed to maintain 6 feet of social distance.”

Across Marin, law enforcement agencies have been empowered by the county to issue citations under Marin County Code section 7.99, which says face coverings are required. Violators face a fine ranging from $25 to $500.

Representatives of the county’s larger law enforcement agencies — the Novato and San Rafael police departments and the Marin County Sheriff ’s Office — said no citations have been issued for Section 7.99 violations.

Novato police Lt. Chris Jacob said the department has relied on oral warnings and has not yet ticketed anyone under the new mask order.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Brenton Schneider said the county has not issued citations since March.

San Rafael police Chief Diana Bishop said that since March, the police have issued 55 citations for violating state Health and Safety Code section 120295, which carries a larger penalty of up to $1,000.

“Only three of those were for outdoor recreation and those were in March when Peacock Gap Golf Course was closed, and we had a report of three people golfing together,” Bishop said. “The other citations were for groups of people loitering together, unmasked.”

“Our goal has always been education and compliance,” she said. “The people cited had been warned and did not comply. The issuance of these citations has lessened as time as gone by.”