NAACP condemns ‘racist’ policing of spring breakers in Miami Beach

Police responded to a violent brawl outside a

South Beach bar on Wednesday with violence — against black spring breakers whom police said resisted arrest or otherwise ignored commands to leave the area.

In the midst of a chaotic scene described as “mayhem” by one officer, Miami Beach cops tackled one spring breaker, punched two others and grabbed a young woman by the throat when she had already fallen onto Ocean Drive following a collision with an officer.

Their alleged crimes? Resisting arrest, mostly.

Some police actions were filmed and uploaded to social media, where they were viewed nearly

150,000 times.

The videos sparked an outcry from black leaders across Miami-Dade who said it was reminiscent of discriminatory Miami Beach policies that date back to the 1960s when blacks weren’t even permitted to cross the causeway from the mainland without a work permit.

Ruban Roberts, president of the Miami-Dade chapter of the NAACP condemned the police actions as “racist” and laid the blame squarely on Police Chief Richard Clements and Mayor Dan Gelber.

Roberts spoke Friday surrounded by leaders from the ACLU and Miami’s Civilian Oversight Panel in an empty lot in Overtown.

Police were wearing “paramilitary gear with machine guns that shoot paint balls,” Roberts said. “I call for this issue to be investigated. ... They need to hire more black police officers and they need to have more black officers in the command staff.”

Jeanne Baker, who chairs the police practice committee of the ACLU of Florida, said Miami Beach “has a long and troubled history of racial discrimination.” She, too, called for a more diverse police department.

Going back to the 1930s, Miami Beach commissioners passed an ordinance that required 5,000 seasonal workers to register with police, get photographed and fingerprinted.

The city also made international headlines on Memorial Day Weekend in 2011, when police officers from several agencies opened fire on Raymond Herisse after he refused to pull over and his Hyundai careened slowly down Ocean Drive, striking bikers and cars. Herisse was killed and four innocent bystanders were shot and badly injured. More than 100 bullets struck the vehicle.

Former Florida state Sen. Dwight Bullard said Miami Beach police have shown a consistent pattern. “It’s either a reflection of leadership, or training, or both.”

Several who spoke Friday said Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements said there would be an internal investigation into the police actions.

However, asked by the Miami Herald to comment on his officers’ actions, Clements did not criticize their methods.

“If you come to Miami Beach to cause problems, we will intervene and take enforcement action,” Clements said in a statement.

The officers had been called to Fat Tuesday, at 901 Ocean Dr., after a large fight involving half a dozen people broke out near the bar. After they contained the fight, police tried clearing out a crowd that had gathered around the melee. They used pepper-ball guns to kick up pepper dust into the air.

“Upon arrival, there was a large unruly crowd gathering around officers as subjects were being taken into custody,” one officer wrote in an arrest report. “Officers on scene began telling the crowd to move backward for officer and scene safety.”

When some spring breakers refused to clear the area, officers arrested them. Seven men were arrested in connection with the brawl, but none was arrested for the fight itself. Six of them were charged with resisting arrest without violence. All but one of them were from outside Florida, most from Illinois.

The police, some dressed in military-like gear and carrying long weapons that held pepper spray, conjured images of past Memorial Day Weekends when Miami Beach police were criticized for being too aggressive, said the black leaders.

“There’s no need for that. They don’t do that on any other weekend,” Roberts said.

After containing the fight outside Fat Tuesday, police tried to close off Ocean Drive between Ninth and 10th streets to pedestrians and cars. A confrontation with spring breakers at Lummus Park, which was captured on cellphone video, became violent when the partyers, most of them black, ignored shouted commands to walk away.

“Get the f*** out of here,” one officer tells the crowd.

When one 23-year-old Illinois man slowed his walk to a crawl, and even stopped while an officer nudged his back, the officer grabbed his arm to arrest him. He pulled away, and another officer ran at him and tackled him to the ground, video shows.

Police also arrested his friend for coming to his defense.

“Hey, there’s a right way to do s*** and a proper way,” one spring breaker can be heard saying. “That was the wrong way.”

In a separate video taken minutes earlier, an officer running to the scene of the fight collides with a 19-yearold woman from Detroit. The collision appeared to be accidental, based on the video, but police said she interfered on purpose.

While on the ground, the woman kicked an officer, who responded by holding her neck down until backup arrived.

She was arrested for battery on an officer and resisting arrest without violence.

After viewing the video, Roberts said that the officer began to leave after colliding with the woman, then came back and choked her.

“She was not resisting,” he said. “There could have been a better way to handle the situation.”

Also Friday, Kevin Millan, president of the Miami Beach Fraternal Order of Police, released a statement saying the union was in full support of the officers’ actions.

“The videos, along with the police officer’s body camera footage, captured the hostile crowd, fights, and disorderly actions of numerous spring breakers,” Millan said.

In arrest reports for two other spring breakers — a pair of 24-year-old men from Rhode Island and Illinois — officers described punching the men in the ribs and the face to force compliance during arrests.

Footage of the arrests was not readily available.

“He tensed his body and would not let officers place him in handcuffs,” one officer wrote. “I then delivered several close fist strikes to the right side of his face to gain compliance in order to place him in handcuffs.”