{"id":47955,"date":"2021-03-21T16:52:59","date_gmt":"2021-03-21T20:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=47955"},"modified":"2021-03-21T16:53:33","modified_gmt":"2021-03-21T20:53:33","slug":"miami-beach-declares-emergency-curfew-due-to-spring-break-crowds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2021\/03\/miami-beach-declares-emergency-curfew-due-to-spring-break-crowds\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Beach declares emergency curfew due to Spring Break crowds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber declared a state of emergency and set a curfew Saturday, saying the crowds that have descended on the city recently are \u201cmore than we can handle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"992\" height=\"558\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/benitez2.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"47956\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/benitez2.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?attachment_id=47956\" class=\"wp-image-47956\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/benitez2.jpg 992w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/benitez2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/benitez2-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 992px) 100vw, 992px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/MIAMI-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"47957\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/MIAMI.png\" data-link=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?attachment_id=47957\" class=\"wp-image-47957\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/MIAMI-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/MIAMI-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/MIAMI-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/MIAMI-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/MIAMI.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cToo many are coming, really, without the intention of following the rules, and the result has been a level of chaos and disorder that is just something more than we can endure,\u201d Gelber told&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/03\/20\/us\/miami-beach-crowds-clevelander-covid\/index.html\">CNN<\/a>\u2018s Ana Cabrera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An 8 p.m. curfew will be put in place in the city\u2019s entertainment district, and some roads will be closed, Gelber said at a news conference Saturday. The measures will be in effect for the next 72 hours, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The causeways to Miami Beach from the mainland will be closed to non-local traffic starting at 9 p.m. for the next few nights, Gelber said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At night, \u201cit feels like a rock concert, wall-to-wall people over blocks and blocks,\u201d Gelber told Cabrera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Friday night, someone shot a weapon into the air, and there was a riot, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOther things have happened that are similarly challenging, and so it feels like a tinder, it feels like just any match could set it off,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The situation has worsened with each day, Gelber said, and the pandemic \u201cmakes things even more challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Clevelander South Beach, one of Miami Beach\u2019s most iconic hotels, announced Friday that it will temporarily halt its food and beverage operations due to safety concerns for its employees and patrons, CNN reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRecently, we have grown increasingly concerned with the safety of our dedicated employees and valued customers and the ability of the City to maintain a safe environment in the surrounding area,\u201d the hotel said in a&nbsp;message on its website&nbsp;and on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTherefore, we have made the difficult decision to temporarily close the food and beverage operations\u201d until at least March 24, hotel management said in its message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Miami Beach police ramped up staffing on February 3 \u201cto cover Super Bowl weekend, President\u2019s Day weekend, and then we rolled straight into Spring Break staffing,\u201d Ernesto Rodriguez, spokesman for Miami Beach Police Department (MBPD), said in a summary this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since February 3, officers have made more than 900 arrests in the city, \u201cmore than 300 of which were for felony offenses,\u201d the summary said. \u201cAt least 50% off those arrested reside outside of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rodriguez told CNN on Saturday that \u201cat least two dozen arrests\u201d were made on Thursday, and on \u201cFriday, at least a dozen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Miami-Dade police have been assisting MBPD since Tuesday because of the crowds, Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber declared a state of emergency and set a curfew Saturday, saying the crowds that have descended on the city recently are \u201cmore than we can&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":47957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}