The city of Miami Beach, Florida has enacted a state of emergency and put on a curfew after two individuals were brutally shot and killed in separate incidents over the weekend. Local officials put the curfew into effect after one shooting occurred on Friday, the other on Saturday, leading to the deaths of one individual in each murder.
According to The Daily Wire, the curfew was imposed from a little before midnight on Sunday until 6 a.m. on Monday morning, and is expected to be enforced again later this week, Thursday through Monday.
“The slayings come during what is typically a busy time for Miami Beach when thousands of college students travel to the area for spring break. The curfew mostly impacted the area of South Beach, a popular spring break spot,” the report said.
The city officially put the curfew into effect on Sunday night, saying in a press release, “in response to the two shootings and the excessively large and unruly crowds, and to mitigate dangerous and illegal conduct.”
Democratic Mayor Dan Gelber blamed the violence on outsiders who came into the city on vacation.
“As I’ve said many times, we don’t ask for spring break in our city. We don’t want spring break in our city. It’s too rowdy, brings too much disorder and it’s simply too difficult to police,” Gelber went on to say to Miami Beach residents, according to a report in The Hill. “While most may come here to enjoy the amenities of Miami Beach, the overwhelming volume of visitors, a few that come with bad intentions in the presence of guns creates a wholly intolerable situation.”
This actually marks the third year in a row that the city has had to enact a curfew due to spring break rowdiness. Back in 2022, the city put a similar measure in place after five people were injured in shootings. The year before that, the city put restrictions on businesses due to the spread of the coronavirus.
“In the most recent shooting, Miami Beach police responded to gunfire around 11th Street and Ocean Drive at about 3:30 a.m. The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Another person was treated for minor injuries,” according to a story published by CBS News.
“Police arrested one suspect after a foot chase and recovered two weapons. Police said the shooting appeared to be targeted, though officials did not clarify beyond that point,” the Daily Wire said.
Video footage captured the aftermath of the shooting, featuring a victim lying out in the middle of the street while onlookers bolted from the scene.
While there is likely a connection to the Spring Break madness, that doesn’t mean that soft-on-crime policies aren’t playing a part in making all of this worse. We’ve seen the crime rate spike in many major cities and other areas in the United States as a result of the left’s failure to adequately deal with criminals who have become emboldened by the lack of consequences for their actions.
It’s time to return to a tough on crime stance, and you won’t find that in the Democratic Party.
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