But the use of force to clear out people of color from South Beach alarmed some Black leaders. And if Miami Beach has openly recoiled at the behavior of at-times chaotic crowds filling the city’s entertainment district every weekend, some in South Florida are having a similar reaction to the way the city and its police have handled the presence of thousands of people of color.
“I was very disappointed,” Stephen Hunter Johnson, chairman of Miami-Dade’s Black Affairs Advisory Committee, said Sunday morning. “I think when they’re young Black people [on South Beach], the response is, ‘Oh my God, we have to do something.’”
Videos on social media showed Miami Beach police arriving on Ocean Drive Saturday evening to find a massive crowd still on the street after the curfew kicked in. Videos also showed officers turning on their sirens and, at one point, firing pepper balls into a crowd, sending people scrambling.
‘IF YOU CAN’T KEEP STREETS SAFE, YOU’RE NOT DOING YOUR JOB’
Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements told the Miami Herald on Sunday that Saturday night’s incident would be reviewed internally. He said his officers only fired tear gas as the crowd began to surge toward them. He said police wouldn’t fire the pepper balls simply to break up a crowd of people.
“I think officers felt threatened at the time,” the chief said. “There has to be an element there of either the crowd fighting or coming at officers.”
Clements said police have been “tolerant” of peaceful partying in the streets, but he said some people have no intentions of following the law. And when officers try to make arrests, crowds circle them, he said.
In recent weeks, people have thrown bottles at police and put their hands on officers, police said. During spring break alone, police say at least five officers have been hurt.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said the curfew and causeway closings announced at 4 p.m. Saturday were aimed to prevent more violence and disorder. He described the city as a powder keg ready to blow. Residents cheered the crackdown, some saying they’re afraid to leave their homes.
“We’re not targeting a group of people, we’re targeting conduct,” he told WPLG-Local 10. “If you can’t keep streets safe, then you’re not doing your job.”
https://twitter.com/thefrankness/status/1373443594850340866
Pepper balls used on Spring Break partygoers along South Beach after new curfew passes with little cooperation. https://t.co/iuInzDbpEq pic.twitter.com/owwLeNDYEA
— Parker Branton (@ParkerWPLG) March 21, 2021
Gelber, who rejected the notion that City Hall was singling out a particular race, said he is opposed to spring break programming in a city that is “severely and sometimes chaotically overcrowded.”
“I’m actively trying to tell people almost not to come here,” said Gelber, who believes a small number of problems has made it appear as if a majority of spring breakers are causing problems.
“There are a lot of Black vacationers there that don’t do anything,” Williams said. “It’s the bad apples that ruin it for all of us.”