Always remember, Big Brother is watching your every move, whether it’s your digital footprint or your actual footprint at the Super Bowl.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor announced in a press conference on Monday that she will be directing law enforcement to identify any Super Bowl fan who attended the big game on Sunday without wearing a face mask.
After stating she was proud that most attendees she saw did comply with the mask requirement, Castor said, “those bad actors” who did not “will be identified and the Tampa Police Department will handle it.”
BREAKING: At a press conference Monday, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said that maskless fans at the Super Bowl will be "identified" by law enforcement and that police will "handle" the situation pic.twitter.com/S20Xv97jYJ
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 8, 2021
The mayor’s statement was prompted by dozens of viral videos that showed thousands of Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans flooding the streets in celebration of their team’s Super Bowl Championship win, many without wearing face masks.
The Tampa Bay Times tweeted one example, describing it as a “dangerous scene” that overwhelmed police officers who were there to enforce COVID-19 restrictions.
In Tampa's SoHo area, a cluster of maskless Bucs fans turn a celebration into a dangerous scene, as captured by our reporter. Officers get into the middle of the crowd, appearing overwhelmed before taking a person into custody.
Read live updates: https://t.co/cgoJswyYsr https://t.co/tsKUrxPgBL
— Tampa Bay Times (@TB_Times) February 8, 2021
However, one significant impediment to the Tampa mayor’s dystopian directive to crack down on anti-maskers is the fact that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was also maskless at the Super Bowl.
Politico reporter Marc Caputo tweeted a photo of the governor who went without wearing a face covering.
“Caught DeSantis before he left an event and he brought up this picture on his own by saying, ‘Someone said, ‘Hey, you were at the Super Bowl without a mask… but how the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on? Come on. I had to watch the Bucs win.’”
Caught DeSantis before he left an event and he brought up this picture on his own by saying, "Someone said, 'hey, you were at the Super Bowl without a mask' … but how the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on? Come on. I had to watch the Bucs win." https://t.co/OEDAeW2eGM
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) February 8, 2021
Furthermore, DeSantis made mask-wearing non-enforceable across Florida back in September 2020 when he pushed the state forward to Phase 3 of reopening.
“Just as an act of executive grace, all outstanding fines and penalties that have been applied against individuals are suspended,” DeSantis said. “I think we need to get away from trying to penalize people for not social distancing and work with people constructively,” he suggested.
Perhaps Tampa’s mayor forgot about this important fact when it comes to pursuing legal action against individuals who decided to not wear a face mask.
Unless Castor is going to attempt to go after the Florida Governor himself for not wearing a mask, she has little to no chance of prosecuting the thousands of fans who did the same.