Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Chaos could rock South Florida this weekend with protests, ATV riders.
FORT LAUDERDALE — Police in South Florida are bracing for trouble on two fronts this weekend at a time when the entire nation is on heightened alert after the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Possible armed protests from right-wing groups opposed to President-elect Joseph Biden are looming on the same weekend when hundreds of daredevils on dirt bikes and ATVs traditionally swarm the streets and highways of South Florida.
The bikers ride in the name of Martin Luther King Jr. ahead of the national holiday, cruising in packs on highways, driving against traffic, popping wheelies and running red lights in a loosely organized event promoted on social media as “Wheels Up, Guns Down” and “MLKRide.”
This year’s ride, expected to get underway Saturday, is taking place amid a volatile social climate described by some as a political tinderbox, with the country divided over how to handle everything from presidential politics to race relations, the coronavirus pandemic,andthefragileand failing economy.
A screaming mob attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6. A week later, President Donald Trump was impeached for the second time, accused of inciting the bloody riot at the U.S. Capitol. The FBI has warned of armed protests planned for Washington, D.C., and all 50 state capitals leading up to Biden’s inauguration.
“What happened last week was an embarrassment,” said Alex Piquero, a University of Miami professor and criminology expert. “Police have no choice but to plan for the worst-case scenario because there’s just no way to predict the future, Piquero said.
“You don’t know what you don’t know,” he said. “In this case I think you need to be overprotective instead of underprotective, especially considering what happened last week,”
Rallies in South Florida
Rallies supporting President Donald Trump are planned around South Florida on Saturday, from Palm Beach County to Freedom Tower in Miami.
Willy Guardiola of Palm Beach Gardens has been organizing Trump rallies since 2016. He says one of the largest this weekend will be at what he calls “TrumpCorner” — the intersection of PGA Boulevard and Military Trail in Palm Beach Gardens.
He said he does not anticipate, nor does he condone, violence at his rallies. He called the rioting at the Capitol on Jan. 6 “despicable and sickening,” the work of extremists, he said, rather than rank-and-file Trump supporters.
The goal Saturday, he said, will be to demonstrate that Trump’s supporters are not going to “roll over and say, ‘OK, well that’s it and we’re going to accept this.’ ”
Guardiola predicted that divine intervention will stop Biden from taking office Wednesday — “a miracle, literally. A miracle from God. A supernatural something that is going to happen within the next six days.”
If not that, it will take a military coup, he said.
On high alert
Police aren’t waiting for the supernatural, although they will not divulge their strategy.
“The Broward Sheriff’s Office’s standing practice is to not disclose any security operations that we may or may not be conducting,” the office said in statement. “We are constantly receiving and reviewing intelligence information and remain in contact with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners.”
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said it has received no intelligence indicating that violence is planned in South Florida.
Mainstream social media sites have gone silent about plans for disruptions this weekend. Some conservatives have warned their faithful to stay away from protests, which they call a trap set by the government.
Piquero said police are certainly monitoring the so-called dark web for chatter on hard-to-access channels.
“People who are going to act in a hostile way are not going to blast it out on Twitter and Facebook,” he said. “They’re not going to be overt about it. They don’t want to tip their hand.”
“You’re going to see a huge public safety deterrent in terms of undercover agents,” he said. “You’re going to see police that are undercover, pretending to be part of the crowd, marching in protests.”
In contrast, the troops on the lookout for outlaw riders taking over the highways will be quite visible.
Police from departments in both Broward and Miami-Dade counties say they’ll be watching for the wheelie-popping riders just as they do every year.
“You can outrun us, but you’re not going to outrun our aircraft,” Florida Highway Patrol Maj. Robert Chandler said, referring to a multiagency effort to crack down on riders who break the rules of the road. “We’re going to catch you.”
Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina said his 1,400-member agency has to be ready for both right-wing extremists and reckless riders celebrating MLK Day.
“We have no choice,” he said. “It makes it especially difficult for us because we need additional staffing. You’d really rather be laser focused on one task. We’d rather focus all our attention on one event, planning for potential unrest. Now we have to have extra resources to deal with that nonsense, the biker thing.”
The riders, both locals and out-of-staters, gather in different groups of varying sizes. Some start out in Miami or Miami Gardens and head all over, sometimes heading into Broward and all the way to Palm Beach County.
In previous years, bikers have died or were hurt during the weekend rides.
“People come down here for the event,” Colina said. “We’ve arrested people who told us they thought it was a sanctioned event that happens here in South Florida. A gentleman from Dallas was completely sincere. He said, ‘I saw this online and it seemed like a lot of fun, almost like a spring break.’ ”
Colina said he plans to have more officers on the streets through the weekend and leading up to Inauguration Day.
Strange times
“We’ll have our bike response platoon working trained in civil unrest,” he said. “We’ll activate our police command center. We’ll have partners embedded with us from Miami-Dade Police, the U.S. Marshals Office, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office. We’ll be ready.”
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony has been briefed by the FBI about potential threats, County Commissioner Dale Holness said.
“They are preparing to meet any challenges that might come out,” Holness said. “It’s so unfortunate for us as a nation to be in this place. But this shows what kinds of things have been covered up and now they are being exposed. And hopefully good people will not sit by but will take the necessary action to confront these groups that are so hateful.”
In Fort Lauderdale, police will keep a close watch on city-owned buildings, said Mayor Dean Trantalis.
“These are strange times we live in,” Trantalis said. “We’re telling people, if you see something, say something. We are going to step up law enforcement this weekend and through the week.”
Fort Lauderdale police officials declined to say whether they’d have all hands on deck in the coming days, but they did say they plan to ramp up staffing.
“We can tell you that we are increasing what we would normally have,” said Sgt. DeAnna Greenlaw, a spokeswoman for the agency. “We know there’s a lot of things in play. There’s no way to compare what’s going on this year compared to prior years. All of it is completely out of the ordinary.”
The turmoil has left some residents anxious, wondering whether local agencies have a plan in place in case something goes awry, Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Ben Sorensen said.
“People seem most concerned about the inauguration,” he said. “We’re seeing these threats of protests at state capitols. They’re asking if it’s going to happen here in Fort Lauderdale. And that’s a fair question.”