California Police Tell 93-Year Old Couple They May Not Sit in Chairs on Beach

Over the weekend, California police were out patrolling their recently re-opened and crowded beaches. One of the police officers who was enforcing the area told a 93-year-old couple that they couldn’t sit on foldable chairs on the beach.

In the YouTube video, you see an officer ride up on a horse and begin to talk to an elderly couple sitting down on the beach.

The elderly couple had not done anything to intentionally stir up trouble.

They had not setup camp right next to people, and they were clearly following the orders to social distance, endangering no one.

The couples clear attempt to follow the rules didn’t result in the officer passing by without giving them a hard time. The officer says, with a smile on his face, “you’re not supposed to have chairs.”

The elderly couple questions the officer, and he responds by informing them of the order and the reason for it.

He says, “So, basically, you’re supposed to be just kind of walking the street or resting from you’re walking. But they don’t want chairs, they don’t want tents.”

At that moment the guy recording the incident yells out, “but they’re old people.” Also, a young man comes from off screen and asks the elderly woman, “how old are you ma’am?”

Obviously, the point of them bringing up the age of the couple is to let the officer know that maybe he should just leave them alone. Clearly, the couple was not hurting anyone, and they have a legitimate reason for needing good seating.

The cop was smiling and laughing as he talked to the couple, so he was trying to be nice about the situation. This was definitely a positive and important to note.

Also, it’s unclear if the officer really cared to make them follow the order or if he was just informing them.

Even if he was being nice and just informing them, it still shows the willingness of some officers to check their common sense when they put on their badge.

This is obviously a situation in which he should have just completely ignored that the couple wasn’t following the rules to a T. It’s just not that big of a deal.

Yet, this officer (and many others) either is not given the freedom to make such decisions or is choosing to be an overly concerned hall monitor type.