Miami Beach, Florida, has declared a state of emergency over concerns about spring break people for the second year in a row after two shootings over the weekend.
Rowdy tourists have created an “unacceptable” atmosphere of fear in the city, Mayor Dan Gelber said Monday in a joint news conference with police and other local officials. Gelber said he could not allow people to come into town just to worry that they had been shot.
“I know this can happen all over the country, as I have seen on some national reports, but honestly, that does not make anyone better here,” Gelber said. “Because this is our city, and we can not allow it to descend into this kind of chaos and disruption.”
Five passersby were hospitalized in two random shootings over the weekend, NBC Miami reports.
Police said they found two women with non-life-threatening injuries after responding to reports of gunshots at 1 a.m. Monday. Three other people were injured Sunday morning in a shooting on Ocean Drive at 8th Street, NBC Miami reports.
Gelber told reporters that if he could stop the flow of spring break people, he would. But with revelers still pouring into the city, he said, authorities are pushing for more extreme responses – including a curse. The flight is an attempt to repel the rumor that Miami Beach is a “24-hour party city,” Gelber said.
The midnight flight goes into effect Thursday and will remain in effect until 6 p.m., March 28, said city manager Alina Hudak, who signed the order.
Gelber said, “We do not want the spring break here … but they are moving on. People are coming here more and more, so much so that it creates an almost impossible situation for our police.”
It is the second year in a row that Miami Beach authorities have declared a state of emergency, linked to flooding and spring break visitors. Last year, Gelber announced a 20-hour flight to control the entertainment district of the South Beach neighborhood for humans and potentially Covid-19 outbreaks. Violence spread through the city as people erupted into strife.
Police have made hundreds of arrests, for an extension of what was initially only a 72-hour state of emergency. The authorities have made it clear that the blame does not lie solely with the typical college students associated with the holidays.
Cheap flight fares, sunshine and a lack of masks or social distance restrictions were associated with a new and more turbulent kind of spring break last year.
It was a spring break “like no other,” said former city manager Raul Aguila at the time, blaming Florida’s lax covid rules for attracting all sorts of people to the area.
Add Comment