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Like last year, Miami Beach will impose a curfew between midnight and 6 a.m. starting Thursday. Objective: to fight against the violence of holidaymakers who have come to take advantage of the spring break.
Partygoers in Miami Beach on March 18, 2022.
AFP
The American city of Miami Beach, popular with revelers who came to enjoy the spring university break, is preparing to impose a curfew on Thursday 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. Last year, 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.
‘Not good for business’
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. .
The curfew, which affects the busiest part of the city, including the mythical Ocean Drive, will last from midnight to 6 a.m., Thursday to Monday.
Raul, a 49-year-old bartender who did not wish to give his surname, supports the measure, even if it is “not good for business”. “Something has to be done to ensure public safety,” he told AFP.
On Ocean Drive, a street famous for its Art Deco buildings, 27-year-old tourist Ebony McFarland isn’t looking forward to spending a second “Spring break” under curfew, but isn’t surprised. “It is 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 1000 km to the north.
No alcohol after 6 p.m.
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.
(AFP)