Miami has extended its highly unusual emergency measures – including 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfews and elevated road closures – through April 12 to subdue the multitudes of unruly jumpers who have come to the party city in violation of COVID-19 safety rules. to reports.
The Miami Beach City Commission voted in a last-minute emergency meeting Sunday to extend the curfew – a day after interim City Manager Raul Aguila declared a state of emergency, the Miami Herald reported.
More than 1,000 partygoers have been arrested since February, more than half of them outside the state, Aguila said. He added that many come “to indulge in lawlessness and an ‘anything goes’ party attitude.” ‘
Officials noted that the crowd of spring breakers was not the usual college, but adults looking to unleash themselves in one of the few states fully open during the pandemic.
Aguila noted that the throngs did not eat in restaurants or patronizing businesses that brought in much-needed tourism dollars, but only gathered in the streets by the thousands.
Over the weekend, the police trying to enforce the unorthodox curfew used pepper balls to curb the crowds – triggering a stampede.
The 8 p.m. curfew at the South Beach entertainment district and the 10 p.m. closing of the eastern lanes of the MacArthur, Julia Tuttle and Venetian dams will remain in effect Thursday through Sunday for the remainder of spring break, the paper said.
Aguila, who enforced the tough measures on Saturday, needed the committee’s support to extend them beyond the 72-hour period allowed by the city’s code.
He said the measures will be designed to stem “the overwhelming crowd of visitors and the potential for violence, disruption and property damage” amid the chaos unleashed by the out-of-control spring breakers.
South Beach is ravaged by fights, stampedes and police confrontations using peppercorns. At least five police officers have been injured on the job, officials said.
“These aren’t your typical spring breakers,” said Aguila, according to the Miami Herald.
Law enforcement officers from at least four other agencies – along with SWAT teams – were added to curb the masses, but it wasn’t enough.
After days of partying, Miami Beach officials enacted the highly unusual Saturday curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., forcing restaurants to sit outside and encouraging local businesses to voluntarily close.
Cops wearing body armor unleashed pepper spray balls on Saturday night in a defiant, but mostly nonviolent crowd, who refused to submit to the curfew imposed only four hours earlier.
Some people responded by jumping on cars, twerking, and throwing money in the air.
Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements was initially concerned about Monday, when the crowds seemed bigger than usual on a generally quieter day.
A group of vehicles blocked the street “and basically had an impromptu street party,” he said.
But by Thursday, the crowd grew and fights broke out, causing dangerous runaway people to run for safety.
“We couldn’t go on any longer,” Clements said at Sunday’s emergency meeting, defending the city’s curfew. “I think this was the right decision.”
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said he has trouble sleeping at night amid the pandemonium.
“When hundreds of people run through the streets in panic, you realize that’s not something a police force can control,” he said at the committee meeting on Sunday.
Local officials are struggling to enforce the coronavirus regulations in Florida, where there are no statewide mask regulations, capacity restrictions, or other such restrictions, courtesy of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s pro-business stance.
“I think very few places have been open since our state was open,” said Gelber. ‘We are in the middle of a pandemic. The virus is still very much present in our community. We have 1,000 infections a day on most days. “
Meanwhile, Miami Beach authorities have also faced accusations of racism for using violence to remove many colored people from the overrun entertainment area.
“I was very disappointed,” Stephen Hunter Johnson, chairman of Miami-Dade’s Black Affairs Advisory Committee, said Sunday, according to the Miami Herald.
‘I think they are young black people [on South Beach], the answer is, “Oh my God, we have to do something,” he added.
Glendon Hall, chairman of Miami Beach’s Black Affairs Advisory Committee, said he was on Ocean Drive helping “goodwill ambassadors” lead the crowd off the street, but didn’t see what prompted police to use pepper balls.
The ambassadors are city workers who hand out masks and help tourists.
Before the dispersal, the crowd was peaceful, he said, but tensions mounted when a Coral Gables SWAT truck drove nearby.
The peppercorn shots caused panic and the crowd rushed down the street.
“The truck showed up and nobody knew why it was there,” said Hall, taking cover behind a tree. “When we tried to calm things down, things got hyped.”
DeAnne Connolly Graham, a member of the Black Affairs Advisory Committee, told the Miami Herald that “we must realize that we are absolutely fighting an undertone of racism” among the city’s largely white resident base, some of whom have called black spring breakers “criminals.” on social media.
Johnson said the use of force reminded him how Miami police dealt with Black Lives Matter protesters over the summer.
“The way they have acted and the way they have approached this whole situation is a product of racism,” Johnson said last week. ‘None of this is new. … The thought and idea is, ‘Let’s get more aggressive with our police. Let’s scare them. “
Ailene Torres, a 46-year-old Afro-Latina resident of South Beach, said she is concerned about the way some locals talk about black tourists in public and online.
On private Facebook pages, Torres said, some have called jumpers “animals.”
One person even went so far as to recommend that someone “put on the snake” to disperse the crowd, she said.
“They dehumanize us,” said Torres.
Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements told the Miami Herald that Saturday night’s incident would be reviewed internally.
He said the police only fired tear gas when the crowd started pouring out to the officers, adding that they wouldn’t fire the pepper balls just to tear apart a crowd.
“I think agents felt threatened at the time,” he told the newspaper. “There must be some element of the crowd fighting or coming on officers.”
Over the weekend, the police trying to enforce the unorthodox curfew used pepper balls to curb the crowds – triggering a stampede.