(John Ransom, Headline USA) Under the strain of a pair of shootings that has put five people in the hospital, Miami Beach has declared a curfew during spring break.
But critics claim the measure was spurred by racism against black revelers, not aimed at maintaining safety for the community, according to the Miami Herald.
Miami Beach declares “state of emergency” midnight curfew for Music Week and Ultra Weekend. The real emergency is this incompetent government mismanaging the city into the sea. Remove every single one of these fuckups from office. They are all guilty of malpractice. #BecauseMiami pic.twitter.com/Nvg4P5IP5x
— Billy Corben (@BillyCorben) March 21, 2022
“The only emergency is that black people are on the beach,” said Stephen Hunter Johnson, according to the Herald.
Johnson, a member of Miami–Dade’s Black Advisory Board, added: “I don’t understand how this town has been doing spring break for at least 25 years and can’t figure it out.”
Democrat state Rep. Michael Grieco, a former Miami Beach commissioner, also condemned the move as authoritarian and heavy-handed.
“The state of emergency is an abuse of governmental power, and it scares the crap out of me,” Grieco told the Herald.
Apparently the heavy-handed approach taken by the government in regards to COVID didn’t scare the crap out of him. Grieco was on record as supporting mask mandates and the criminalization of falsifying private vaccine records, according to articles at FloridaPolitics.com.
Black community activists continued to pile on, without regard for the safety of the law-enforcement officers or the potential victims, who are oftentimes members of the black community themselves.
“The measures taken this year by Miami Beach and its officials wasn’t a very hospitable approach,” said Daniella Pierre, president of the Miami chapter of the NAACP, according to the Guardian.
“It was not welcoming and we didn’t appreciate it at all, especially when you have other events and you don’t use that tone,” Pierre added.
It was not clear specifically whose tone Pierre was referring to. Several city officials—, including Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, a Democrat—came forward to speak about the problem at a press conference announcing the curfew.
“No community, no police force, should have to suffer through this,” Gelber said, according to CBS Miami.
“You know I’m really tired of it,” he continued. “Frankly, I’d love to get rid of spring break. I wish the spring breakers would go somewhere else.”
Gelber imposed both a state of emergency and curfew in response to the increasing number of weapons the police are finding—and in response to the numbers of shootings that have happened right in front of police officers according to the New York Post.
“The number of weapons we have seized has been higher than typically,” he said. “We’ve seized about 100 weapons in the last month, and some of them were pretty serious automatic weapons and obviously many more people had guns than the ones we seized.”
Pierre claimed there were racial undertones implicit in the criticism.
“We don’t condone violence or lawlessness,” Pierre added in the Guardian. “But everyone has a right to be treated fairly and maintain their right to be on Miami Beach.”
However, one Miami Beach commissioner said it had nothing to do with race and that the city is just lucky that there hasn’t been a fatalities yet.
“It’s literally by the grace of God that we haven’t had a tragedy in our city,” Commissioner Steven Meiner told the Miami Herald. “I can’t think of a more fitting public safety emergency than this one.”
