Pattaya police are warning bar operators to comply with 11 p.m. closing times, saying those violating the law risk a crackdown on everyone.
Superintendent Pol. Col. Pisit Poonsap said Feb. 15 that the national government has set the closing time for “orange” coronavirus-surveillance zones at 11 p.m., not local authorities. While he recognizes bar and restaurant owners find the early closing onerous, there is nothing local police can do about it.
From Walking Street, where go-go bars won’t close until police show up, to East Pattaya, where a beer bar was found open at 12:45, operators continually violate the law. It has to stop, Poonsap said.
First offenders will be given a warning. A second offense will be prosecuted under the emergency decree.
Bar owners flouting the law risk a stricter crackdown on everyone, particularly if a bar found to be open illegally late ends up on the list of places a future coronavirus patient visited, he said.
