The Miami Beach authorities declared a state of emergency and curfew on Monday, with the aim of containing the violent incidents that took place during the “Spring Break” that left injuries and shootings.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber and City Manager Alina Hudak announced the emergency order at a joint press conference. The measures include a curfew for the South Beach area that starts early on Thursday after midnight and runs through the weekend.
The city commission will hold an emergency meeting this Tuesday to discuss the statement, and Hudak said he plans to recommend that the curfew be extended until next weekend.
The “Spring Break” is the northern spring break in the United States, for which every year thousands of young people travel to South Florida for a few days of fun and lack of control, which generate the displeasure of the inhabitants of cities like Miami Beach.
Anita Cheek, a 52-year-old neighbor, laments: “I was young too, I understand that, but they don't take into account the people who live here.”
“They get drunk, they throw up on the floor, they leave bottles everywhere, they do all these crazy dances. I have many neighbors who say they are willing to move because of this,” he added.
The heat, the parties and the almost naked bodies are already part of the collective imagination when thinking about Miami Beach and its southernmost neighborhood, South Beach. But the inhabitants seem increasingly upset with that, despite the economic benefits it brings to the city.
Faye Bridges, a 29-year-old waitress, sums up those mixed feelings.
“I love having people here. Since I work in a restaurant, it's good for me, it's good for business,” he says. “But at the same time, South Beach is now that place where tourists gather and those who come for Spring Break (...) destroy everything and it's not a pretty thing,” he says.
This is the second year in a row that South Florida city officials have declared a state of emergency at this famous party venue.
The mayor said that about 100 guns were seized in the last four weeks and that several policemen were injured while controlling the crowd.
“We can't stand this. We just can't,” Gelber said. “This isn't your mother's or father's spring break. This is something completely different.”
Gelber reported that five people were shot during the weekend despite 371 police deployed.
Three people were injured early Sunday on a street full of spring vacationers in the city's South Beach neighborhood, police said. Two injured victims at the scene were taken to a hospital, while doctors from another hospital reported that a third person arrived there with a gunshot wound. Everyone is expected to survive.
Early Monday, officers were patrolling one block from the site of Sunday morning's shooting when they heard gunshots, police said. Officers found two women with gunshot wounds. Police said his injuries weren't life-threatening.
(With information from AFP and AP)
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