Miami Beach commissioners voted unanimously Sunday to empower the city manager to extend the curfew in the South Beach entertainment district until at least April 12, effectively shutting down a spring break hot spot
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more staff and wire stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A party-ending curfew imposed after fights, gunfire, property destruction and dangerous stampedes broke out among huge crowds of people could extend through the end of Spring Break in Miami Beach. Miami Beach commissioners voted unanimously Sunday to empower the city manager to extend the curfew in the South Beach entertainment district until at least April 12, effectively shutting down a spring break hot spot in one of the few states fully open during the pandemic. SWAT teams and law enforcement officers from at least four other agencies sought to contain the raucous crowds, but confrontations continued for days before Miami Beach officials enacted the curfew, which forces Ocean Drive restaurants to stop outdoor seating entirely. City Manager Raul Aguila said many people from other states were coming in „to engage in lawlessness and an ‚anything goes‘ party attitude.“ He said most weren’t patronizing the businesses that badly need tourism dollars, and instead merely congregating by the thousands in the street. Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements said the trouble began on Monday, when an unusually large crowd blocked Ocean Drive „and basically had an impromptu street party.
