This is EXACTLY what commission after commission has recommended for 30 years that cops NOT DO:
SWAT, military-style vehicles, pepper spray balls used to enforce South Beach curfew
ONLY in DADE
@ONLYinDADE
Miami Beach Police meant business!
SWAT enforcing 8pm Curfew earlier!
0:38
12K views
1:17 AM · Mar 21, 2021 from Miami Beach, FL·Twitter for iPhone
“Enforcing a CURFEW”!
The mayor of Miami Beach—who I know—said “It’s not about policing.” IT IS ABOUT POLICING!
I watched four videos, only one of a particularly nasty bottle fight in a crowded club. I didn’t see a single kid commit a serious crime in the three other, all street, vids I watched. They covered every square inch of ground, including on public streets, they were maskless, they were violating the curfew that, overlningly, they knew nothing of. They were overwhelmingly Black. So the police are out enforcing a curfew, mask restrictions. and obstructing the highway ordinances, in riot gear, in armored vehicles, with SWAT officers, and firing pepper spray into peaceful, PARTYING crowds of Black kids. The most dangerous street scene I saw was a stampe of kids on a public street--after police had fired pepper spray at them!
Again, exactly what the reviews, internal and external, cited by the New York Times, found in the George Floyd protests: cops making the situation worse.
Miami Beach police have used pepper balls to break up crowds of tourists several times since the start of Spring Break about six weeks ago. (Miami Herald)
‘I THINK OFFICERS FELT THREATENED AT THE TIME’
Just copy and paste from the NYT article quoted yesterday.
In one instance that is making the rounds on social media, police used the chemical on Saturday night at about 9 p.m. after a large crowd gathered on 8th Street and Ocean Drive. Visuals of the smoke and visitors racing away in different directions and of police firing the irritant with long guns formed a particularly ugly picture for city leaders during a busy time at one of world’s top tourist meccas.
Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements, speaking to the Miami Herald specifically about the scenes Saturday night, said his officers fired the tear gas only as the crowd began to surge toward them. He said police wouldn’t fire the pepper balls simply to break up a crowd of people.
“I think officers felt threatened at the time,” the chief said. “There has to be an element there of either the crowd fighting or coming at officers.”
He said Saturday night’s incident would be reviewed internally.
Though this year’s crowds have been large, the mostly pale in comparison to the swell of visitors the city has received the past few decades during Memorial Day Weekend. To combat that surge, the city began implementing a Major Event Plan a few years back that included altering the direction of some streets, having corrections staffers on site to process arrests and having most officers work during the busiest hours.
But, Clements said, with Spring Break lasting closer to eight weeks than the three or four days the crowds visit during Memorial Day, implementing the plan isn’t feasible.
So, unprepared, just as "In City after City."
Chief Clements, what say ye about George Floyd?
Clements also said the crowds seem to be rowdier than in past years and more threatening to police. He said often when an officer makes an arrest, crowds of people will circle the police and challenge the detainment. Clements said an element of that may be related to the death of George Floyd and the sometimes violent protests nationwide that followed.
Clements also said the crowds seem to be rowdier than in past years and more threatening to police. He said often when an officer makes an arrest, crowds of people will circle the police and challenge the detainment. Clements said an element of that may be related to the death of George Floyd and the sometimes violent protests nationwide that followed.
The mayor declared a State of Emergency yesterday, instituted an 8 pm curfew that is now in effect until April 12. Know what time the city instituted the curfew? 4 p.m. FOUR hours earlier. Nice notice. Tons of Miami Beach residents couldn’t get back on the Beach. My son left the Beach about 7-7:30. Neither he nor I had any idea that there was a city curfew going into effect. He left his friend’s house to come back home at 11:30 p.m., normally a 30 minute drive. He didn’t get home until 2 a.m. Police were checking the id’s of every occupant of every vehicle at a checkpoint on the main causeway from the mainland.
Groundhog Day; Einstein's definition of insanity. Over and over and over again. They never learn. Policing in America is broken. Defund the police and start over.
Good grief.
