These next two weekends in March are the high point of the spring break season.
After the last two years, when police arrested more than 600 people in Miami Beach, the city says it’s ready to crack down on the annual throng of college students and visitors. It even created a slick, highly-produced video advertisement announcing it was “breaking up with spring break.”
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WATCH HERECute concept, but Miami-Dade County Commissioner Keon Hardemon called the city’s message “tone deaf” and implied at a county commission meeting Tuesday that Miami Beach was targeting Black visitors.
“I stand behind my comments just as much as Miami Beach stands behind the measures they put in place. I think the measures are onerous, I think it makes it very difficult to come visit Miami, Miami Beach," Hardemon said Wednesday. "This is the time in which many Black people do come to Miami Beach to experience things, but this is about what they’re doing, not necessarily who they’re doing it to, it could be a group of white individuals and if they were to put these same measures forward than it is equally wrong.”
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Spring break 2024
Hardemon says by discouraging spring break visitors to Miami Beach, the city’s message will have a ripple effect on the mainland as well.
“Well it’s important to listen to everybody to hear their concerns and their voices, and I do listen and I hear what he’s saying, but at the same time, we’ve have had a level of violence, we had two Black males shot and killed in our streets and that hurts, that hurts and we’re looking to protect everybody, every single resident, every visitor,” responded Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner.
The city’s plan includes curfews, bag checks, DUI checkpoints, parking rates for non-residents jacked up to $100, and increased police enforcement for drug possession and violence. The Florida Highway Patrol will send 45 troopers to roam Miami Beach each of the next two weekends, along with 80 Miami-Dade Police officers.
Hardemon wanted Miami Beach to pay the county for those officers’ time, but mutual aid agreements between police agencies do not allow for that type of reimbursement.
Meiner says the city is cracking down on crime, not against visitors.
“Everyone is invited to our city, at all times, any time, come and enjoy our city, and 99% of the people do come here and enjoy our city, unfortunately, it’s that small percentage of people who’ve come here looking for problems and we’re saying enough is enough,” the mayor said. “And I think this is the year we do end spring break, we’re gonna look back at 2024 as the year we kept it safe in Miami Beach.”
