For the second year in a row, the City of Miami Beach declared a state of emergency, including a curfew, amid recent violence during spring break after two shootings over the weekend.
At a news conference on Monday afternoon, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber announced the curfew would begin at 12:01 a.m. Thursday and last until 6 a.m. Monday, reports CNN News.
The curfew covers 23rd Street to the north, down to South Pointe Drive to the south, the ocean to the east, and the bay to the west. Officials intend to impose the same curfew for the following weekend.
The curfew is an attempt to push back against the reputation that Miami Beach is a “24-hour party city,” Gelber said.
“I know this might be happening all over the country, as I’ve seen on some national reports, but frankly that doesn’t make anybody feel better right here,” Gelber said. “Because this is our city, and we cannot allow it to descend into this kind of chaos and disorder.”
Gelber was referring to the fact that five bystanders were hospitalized in two random shootings over the weekend, NBC Miami reported. Three people were injured Sunday morning in a shooting on Ocean Drive near 8th Street, while on Monday, police found two women with non-life-threatening injuries after they responded to reports of gunshots around 1 a.m.
Gelber emphasized his frustration with the violence despite the “massive deployment of police resources (the) city has ever seen.”
“We can’t endure this anymore,” he said. “We just simply cannot have people come to our city and have to worry about being shot. That’s not a way a city can operate.”
A Miami Beach Live concert set for Saturday evening will be rescheduled, City Manager Alina Hudek said.
Gelber also noted that 371 officers were tasked with patrolling the crowds over the weekend. Since the Spring Break season began in February, nine officers have been injured in some capacity, Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements said Monday.
