Miami Beach Is Trying To Kick Out Spring Breakers After Unruly Crowds Destroy Businesses, Clash With Police

Spring Break is pretty much over at South Beach.

On Saturday, the city of Miami Beach is imposing an 8 pm curfew and will block most people from coming into the beach area after 10 pm due to the large crowds and increased violence from tourists in the past two weeks.

Via Miami Herald

Due to overwhelming spring break crowds, the city of Miami Beach will impose an 8 p.m. curfew in the South Beach entertainment district and block most eastbound traffic entering the city after 10 p.m., beginning Saturday.

Interim City Manager Raul Aguila, who will authorize the emergency measures, told the Miami Herald that he recommends keeping them in place through April 12, or the end of spring break. A countywide midnight curfew is already in place due to COVID-19.

“These crowds are in the thousands,” Aguila said. “We’re at capacity.”

The measures, which will be announced at a 4 p.m. press conference Saturday, follow weeks of confrontations between police and large crowds, fights, and occasional bouts of violence, including a deadly shooting. Mayor Dan Gelber and public health officials have also warned about the risks of spreading COVID-19 among the throngs of visitors crowding the city.

Before the city’s latest ordinance, iconic South Beach nightclub The Clevelander had announced they were shutting down due to the unruly crowds.

One local South Beach restaurant claims they lost an exorbitant amount of money in back-to-back nights after patrons left without paying when fights broke out in the middle of dinner service.

Here’s how packed South Beach was on Friday night.

The current emergency measures in Miami Beach will last at least 72 hours until city commissioners decide to extend the order or cancel it when they meet in a few days.