Spring breakers in Miami Beach made the most of their last few nights of raucous late-night revelry Tuesday night before a curfew imposed by city officials to quell the violence and disorder of the past few days kicks in on Thursday.
A woman was seen twerking on the back of a golf cart on Tuesday, typically a relatively quiet night for the tourist-heavy area of South Beach.
A beachgoer with sandy feet napped along a sidewalk on Washington Avenue. Visitors on vacation from Detroit also posed for group shots before they headed out for the night.
The evening was a muted affair compared to the past few days of violence. Five people were injured in shootings on Ocean Drive during the early morning hours of Sunday and Monday. The city’s police chief said nine officers have been injured since the Spring Break season began at the end of February.
City leaders have imposed a state of emergency and a midnight curfew through Monday morning, but some are calling it an ‘overreaction’ to the largely black crowds that populate the area this time of year.
‘The only emergency is that black people are on the beach,’ Stephen Hunter Johnson, a member of Miami-Dade’s Black Advisory Board, told the Miami Herald.
‘I don’t understand how this town has been doing spring break for at least 25 years and can’t figure it out.’
A woman twerks on the back of a golf cart in Miami Beach on Tuesday, two nights before a 12 am curfew is set to kick in
The curfew will last from Thursday to Monday morning. Officers will direct everyone back home or to their hotel rooms from 12am to 6am
Tuesday proved to be a relatively quiet night compared to the last few days of violence, which have seen two shootings and nine officers injured. Above, a man sleeps alongside Washington Avenue in Miami Beach
A group from Detroit, Michigan made the most of their last couple nights of unrestricted partying in the 90,000-person beach town. Alcohol sales in Miami Beach currently end at 5am
Some activists say the curfew and emergency rules are an overreaction targeted at a mostly black Spring Break crowd
Some frustrated residents have called for the crowds to go back home as Miami Beach faces yet another year of Spring Break curfews. Above, a woman throws a football on Miami Beach on Sunday
Back in November, city residents voted in favor of rolling back last call from 5am to 2am to prevent rowdiness in the beach town. City leaders voted to do so, but the rule was struck down by a judge after a hotel sued. Above, spring breakers on Sunday
A young woman fainted on the beach on Sunday afternoon. Police put up barriers to the beach entrances, but beachgoers were seen simply jumping over the barricades
Women walk toward the beach on Sunday, during a weekend that saw two shootings that left five people injured
A group of friends plays in the surf during the quiet before the storm. There have been at least six shootings in Miami Beach since the start of Spring Break 2022
Police officers in Miami Beach are exhausted, their union leader says, after weeks of trying to keep the peace in Miami Beach with an increased number of Spring Breakers, seen here Tuesday
Melba Pearson, a civil rights attorney, said: ‘Everything I’ve observed has been peaceful, just kids trying to have a good time, that’s all I’ve been seeing.’
Despite the sporadic violence, she doesn’t see a need for a curfew.
‘It’s an absolute overreaction,’ she told the Miami Herald. ‘Not to trivialize people being harmed or shot, but you have to have a balanced approach to issues of criminal justice and law enforcement.’
State Rep. Michael Grieco, a Democrat, also sees the curfew as an overreach.
It was implemented after the city’s mayor declared a state of emergency, which allowed the South Beach city manager to impose a 12am to 6am curfew for three days: Thursday, Friday and Saturday. City commissioners extended the order to four days to include Sunday night on Tuesday, with the possibility for more restrictions next weekend.
Back in November, city residents voted in favor of rolling back last call from 5am to 2am to prevent rowdiness in the beach town, according to WSVN.
Miami-Dade Judge Beatrice Butchko has struck down a temporary ban twice after the Clevelander Hotel took the city to court.
Democratic state Rep. Michael Grieco (left), a Democrat, sees the curfew as an overreach and says it ‘scares the crap’ out of him – a sentiment that local attorney Stephen Hunter Johnson (right), a member of Miami-Dade’s Black Advisory Board, agreed with. ‘The only emergency is that black people are on the beach,’ he said
The chaos has left frustrated residents and city leaders hoping for an early end to the spring bacchanalia. Above, Miami Beach during the daytime on Tuesday before the partying started
Spring Break revelers gathered on Miami Beach Tuesday for a calmer afternoon, compared with the weekend
An estimated 570,000 students are expected to flock to Florida for Spring Break this year, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Above, people at the beach on Sunday
‘The state of emergency is an abuse of governmental power, and it scares the crap out of me,’ Rep. Grieco said. ‘It can be interpreted as a way to do an end-around on the recent order by Judge Butchko.’
But the chaos has left many hoping for an early end to the spring bacchanalia. On Twitter, frustrated Miami residents just want partygoers to leave.
‘Spring Break and Memorial Day are the two worst times to be on Miami Beach. People from other states flocks down there and starts problems,’ said user @SonnySaneus.
Frustrated residents have taken to Twitter to vent about the crowds of tourists that sometimes turn violent, leading to a curfew for the second year in a row
‘I thought spring break was only one week,’ said user @Rauuuul__. ‘Y’all been in Miami since the beginning of March.’
One person harked back to a bygone era of partying with less violence.
‘They just put Miami in a state of emergency bc of all the shootings at Spring Break…that’s sad smh. I’m glad I got to experience Spring Break will shit was still SANE!’
A 41-second video appears to show three separate fights taking place on 10th Street, a mostly residential strip that intersects with busier thoroughfares like Collins Avenue and Ocean Drive, on Saturday night.
A woman in a blue mini dress punches another woman repeatedly while a third woman holds her down. A few feet away, in a different fight, one woman takes several blows to the arm and torso while another woman pulls her hair.
A shooting near Kantina Restaurant on Ocean Drive early Sunday morning left three people injured, CNN reports. On Monday morning at around 1am, another shooting on Ocean Drive left two women injured. No deaths were reported in either incident.
A woman’s hair is pulled as she’s repeatedly punched in a fight that allegedly took place on 10th Street in Miami Beach on Saturday night
A shooting near Kantina Restaurant on Ocean Drive, above, left three people injured early Sunday morning
Mitch Novick, owner of the Sherbrooke Hotel, recorded the crowd reacting to the gunfire on Sunday.
‘You could see many officers heroically running towards the what was the sound of the gunfire,’ Novick told CNN. ‘And then they came back and surrounded, I don’t know if it was a person or a vehicle, but you can see their guns drawn.’
Mayor Dan Gelber said Monday: ‘Over the last two nights, five innocent people were shot in our streets.’
Regarding Spring Break crowds, he stressed, ‘We don’t ask for it, promote it, or encourage it. We just endure it.’
City Manager Alina Hudak declared a state of emergency, which allowed her to impose the curfew for 72 hours. The curfew was extended on Tuesday to include Sunday night.
A DailyMail.com review of commissioners’ social media pages shows that most appear to be on board with the new restrictions.
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