Miami has extended its very unusual emergency measures, including the old ones at 6 a.m. and the closure of the driveway, through April 12 to quell the crowd of unruly spring breakers who have come in the party city defying COVID-19 security rules in the reports.
The Miami Beach City Commission voted to extend the curfew during a last-minute emergency meeting Sunday, a day after interim municipal manager Raul Aguila declared a state of emergency, Miami reported Herald.
More than 1,000 partygoers have been arrested since February, with more than half out of state, Aguila said. He added that many come “to engage in illegality and a party attitude” all is well “.
Officials noted that the multitude of spring outbreaks were not the usual people at the university, but the adults who wanted to let go in one of the few fully open states during the pandemic.
Aguila noted that the crowds did not eat at restaurants or sponsor companies that generated much-needed tourist dollars, but only gathered by the thousands on the street.
Over the weekend, police trying to enforce the unorthodox curfew used pepper balls to curb crowds, causing a stampede.
The curfew at 8pm in the South Beach entertainment district and the 22-hour eastbound lane closure of MacArthur, Julia Tuttle and Venice roads will remain in effect Thursday through Sunday for the rest of the holiday of spring, according to the newspaper.
Aguila, who took the strict measures on Saturday, needed the commission’s support to extend them for more than the 72-hour period allowed under the city code.
He said the measures will try to “contain the overwhelming crowd of visitors and the potential for violence, disruptions and property damage” during the chaos unleashed by out-of-control spring switches.
South Beach has been plagued by fights, stampede and police clashes with the use of pepper balls. At least five police officers have been injured on the job, officials said.
“These are not your typical spring days,” Aguila said, according to the Miami Herald.
Police officers from at least four other agencies, along with SWAT teams, were added to help contain the masses, but it was not enough.
After holidays, Miami Beach officials enacted the very unusual curfew Saturday from 8 p.m. to 6 p.m., forcing restaurants to stop sitting outdoors and encouraging local businesses to close. -is voluntarily.
Officers wearing bulletproof vests threw pepper spray balls Saturday night at a defiant but mostly violent crowd, who refused to submit to the curfew that had only been enacted four hours earlier.
Some people responded by jumping on top of cars, making turns and throwing money into the air.
Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements initially worried last Monday when crowds seemed larger than normal on what is normally a quieter day.
A group of vehicles blocked the street, “and basically held an impromptu street party,” he said.
But on Thursday, the crowd grew and fights erupted, causing dangerous images of people running for safety.
“We couldn’t go any further,” Clements said during Sunday’s emergency meeting, defending the city’s curfew. “I think that was the right decision.”
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said he has trouble sleeping at night amid the pandemonium.
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“When hundreds of people run through the streets in panic, you realize that this is not something that a police force can control,” he said during the commission meeting on Sunday.
Local officials have struggled to enforce coronavirus ordinances in Florida, where there are no state mask rules, capacity limits or other such restrictions, courtesy of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pro-business stance.
“I think there are very few places open as our state has been open,” Gelber said. “We are in the middle of a pandemic. The virus is still very much present in our community. Most days we have 1,000 infections a day.
Meanwhile, Miami Beach authorities also faced accusations of racism as they used force to clean up many people in the invaded entertainment district.
“I was very disappointed,” Stephen Hunter Johnson, chairman of the Miami-Dade Black Affairs Advisory Committee, said Sunday, according to the Miami Herald.
“I think when 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 the Miami Beach Black Affairs Advisory Committee, said he was on Ocean Drive helping “goodwill ambassadors” guide the crowd off the street, but did not see what led the police to use bullets. pepper.
Ambassadors are city workers who hand out masks and help tourists.
Before the dispersal, the crowd was peaceful, he said, but tensions rose as a Coral Gables SWAT truck approached.
The pepper ball shots caused a panic and the crowd ran down the street.
“The truck showed up and no one knew why the truck was there,” said Hall, who covered himself behind a tree. “When we tried to calm things down, that was publicity.”
DeAnne Connolly Graham, a member of the Black Affairs Advisory Committee, told the Miami Herald that “we must realize that we are definitely fighting a nuance of racism” among the city’s white resident base, some of whom have called the “spring blacks.” thugs ”on social media.
Johnson said the use of force reminded him of how Miami police treated 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. “It simply came to our notice then. … The thought and idea is, ‘Let’s get more aggressive with our police. Let’s scare them. “
Ailene Torres, a 46-year-old Afro-Latino resident living in South Beach, said she is concerned about the way some local residents talk about black tourists publicly and online.
On private Facebook pages, Torres said, there are those who have called spring breakers “animals.”
One person even recommended someone to “light the hose” to disperse the crowds, he said.
“They dehumanize us,” Torres said.
Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements told the Miami Herald that Saturday night’s incident would be reviewed internally.
He said police only fired tear gas as the crowd began to rise towards officers, adding that they would not fire pepper balls simply to break up a crowd of people.
“I think the agents felt threatened at the time,” he told the newspaper. “There must be an element, either in the struggle of the crowd or in the attack of the officers.”
Over the weekend, police trying to enforce the unorthodox curfew used pepper balls to slow down the crowds, causing a stampede.