Every year in the spring, a crowd of young people, especially students, take over the seafront for alcoholic parties that can quickly degenerate.
The American city of Miami Beach, popular with revelers who came to enjoy the spring university holidays, is preparing Thursday, March 24 to impose a curfew after a wave of violence linked to the “Spring break”. The measure was voted on Tuesday evening, after two shootings that left five injured in the previous days in this city in the south-east of the United States.
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Last year, in the midst of the Covid pandemic, the police also imposed a curfew and arrested more than a thousand revelers for disturbing public order. Every spring, a crowd of young vacationers, especially students, take over the Miami Beach waterfront for alcoholic parties that last until the end of the night and can quickly degenerate. The “Spring Break” in Miami is part of the collective imagination of generations of students, but, in recent years, the inhabitants seem increasingly disturbed by the situation, despite the undeniable contribution to the local economy. .
“It’s getting out of control”
The curfew, which concerns the busiest part of the city, including the mythical Ocean Drive, will last from midnight to 6 a.m., from Thursday to Monday. Raul, a 49-year-old bartender who did not wish to give his last name, supports the measure, even if it is not “not good for business”. “Something must be done to ensure public safety”, he said. On Ocean Drive, a street famous for its art deco buildings, Ebony McFarland, a 27-year-old tourist, is not happy about the idea of spending a second “Spring break” under curfew, but is not surprised. “It’s getting out of control. There are young people who come here and do not know how to behave.explains the resident of Atlanta, more than 1,000 km to the north.
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On Wednesday, the town hall announced a ban on alcohol sales in specialty stores and supermarkets – but not in restaurants and bars – in certain parts of the city between 6 p.m. and the next day when they reopen. Stephen Hunter Johnson, a member of a local advisory council on African-American issues, criticized such a decision, saying that the curfew is aimed at Miami Beach because the city attracts many black vacationers. “The only emergency is that black people are on the beach”he told the Miami Herald.