Tuscaloosa police officers were called in to work on Sunday afternoon after several pictures of young people congregating at certain bars without observing COVID-19 precautions circulated widely on the internet.
Members of the department issued 12 citations for not wearing masks and arrested two others who refused to sign their citation.
The behavior exhibited in the pictures received widespread condemnation online, including from University of Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox and players on the Crimson Tide football team.
Of note in the ordeal is that each UA student was required to take a coronavirus test before returning to campus. Those tests had a positivity rate of under 1% as of the latest released data, and each person who tested positive was required to quarantine and isolate.
Also of importance is that more individuals than just students can be customers at the off-campus bars featured in social media posts over the weekend.
States such as Texas and Florida have closed bars or banned them from selling alcohol because such establishments were identified as hotspots for transmission of the virus.
Jeff Sirkin, the owner of Gallettes, a bar outside of which many of the viral photos were taken, responded to the uproar on Facebook.
“It is not my responsibility to police people 50 yards from the entrance to my front door on city property,” he wrote, pushing back on commentators who said local establishments should have done more to enforce COVID-19 precautions.
“We were at 1/4 of our capacity for the ENTIRE DAY. Well below the 50% threshold that is mandated after 9pm. We have gone above and beyond what is required by city and state mandates,” Sirkin added.
A release from the Tuscaloosa Police Department says that the citations issued on Sunday “were the first citations written and arrests made since the city and state mandates went into effect.”
“TPD will continue to patrol the Strip and downtown bar areas to enforce the mask regulations for as long as they are in effect,” the department warned.
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: henry@new-yhn.local or on Twitter @HenryThornton95
