Miami Beach to remain under curfew to limit huge influx of crowd

Florida authorities announced on Saturday that Miami Beach will be put under a curfew beginning Saturday amid rising footfall in the area, which is considered to be the city’s leading party hub. 

The curfew, which will be put in place in time brackets, will force visitors to vacate the streets and restaurants, which have been ordered to shut down by 8 pm, according to the authorities, reported AFP.

Workers, residents and hotel guests will be permitted to access the bridges connecting Miami with the island post 10 pm. 

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Raul Aguila, the acting City Manager said, “This is all about the public safety folks.”

While citing to pictures of an enormous crowd gathered in the area, he said, “It looked like a rock concert. You couldn’t see pavement and you couldn’t see grass.”

The announcement, made by the Miami Beach Police, came after a series of parties being conducted on the beach, making the area overwhelmed with huge crowds. The Mayor, Dan Gelber, highlighted the stark difference between the crowds in the ongoing and previous years, reported AFP.

“I think it is in part due to the fact that there are very few places open elsewhere in the country, or they’re too cold, or they’re not open and they’re too cold,” he said.

According to reports released by the local press, the last few weeks have been dense with fights in the restaurants and customers fleeing the restaurants without paying to settle their cheques. The excessive inflow of crowds is presumed to be the main reason for such events.  

Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements said he is concerned the situation will become unmanageable.

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On Thursday night “we had an issue where hundreds of people ran at one particular time. Tables and chairs were thrown and used as weapons,” he said.

He added that police had hoped it was a one-time event but “last night we had three of those situations and we had a young lady that got hurt as a result of trying to run away from a crowd”, reported AFP. 

“We can’t continue to be fortunate. We have to do some things that are going to mitigate those circumstances,” he said.