‘We’re trying to have fun.’ Party rages on as police begin enforcing curfew on Ocean Drive
Police began enforcing the 8 p.m. curfew on tourists who were packing parts of South Beach on the first Thursday night since Miami Beach enacted the new city rules to curb the kind of mayhem that developed last week.
Crowds of people still wandered Ocean Drive when 8 p.m. hit. Some knew about the curfew while others didn’t.
“We’re trying to have fun,” said Brad Kopp, 21.
Kopp and his three friends had just arrived from Pittsburgh. The group had booked their trip well in advance but had found out about the curfew only a few days prior.
“We had no choice. The money was already spent,” said Owen Blank, 24.
Minutes later, several police squad cars began driving up and down Ocean Drive announcing the curfew.
The party, however, raged on. As the pungent smell of marijuana hung heavy in the air, vacationers traversed up and down Ocean, soaking up the scene before the impending shutdown.
“It makes it seem like they’re tough and that we don’t matter,” said Destinee Anderson, 24, of Nashville.
Just minutes before, a golf cart carrying four officers swerved around the corner of 14th and Collins, cutting off Anderson and her three friends.
“I didn’t see one Black officer,” she added.
After a rather raucous previous weekend, the officers themselves didn’t expect the night to be too bad. Despite it being the first Thursday since the recently enacted curfew, the crowds have been much tamer this week.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber has tried to discourage tourists from traveling to South Florida, characterizing travelers as older vacationers, some of them playing with guns and risking people’s safety. Police said this week they’ve made over 1,000 arrests and have seized at least 102 guns throughout Miami Beach. Most of the people arrested are outof-state residents who were in the city’s main entertainment corridor.
Still, a new wave of tourists began to arrive this week. Certain pockets of the city’s entertainment
district, particularly along Ocean Drive between 11th and Eighth streets, attracted heavy foot traffic.
Just before the curfew hit, a crowd of 20 formed outside of Palace just in time to see a drag show. In front of the Versace Mansion, the sounds of Juvenile’s “Back That Azz
Up,” courtesy of a passing graffiti-covered boom box, spurred a mini dance just before sunset.
“You got 20 minutes!” shouted one onlooker.
“We here to turn up!” said a 28-year-old upstate New York woman who gave her name as Ya in between twerk sessions.
She and her six friends were carrying the boom box. “Everybody else out here turning up. Why can’t we?”