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Miami Beach Forced to Declare State Of Emergency Amid Spring Break Chaos

When the Miami Beach City Commission decided against imposing a curfew in reaction to the mayhem that broke out during spring break festivities in the well-liked tourist destination over the weekend, a gap has developed between the commission and the mayor.

The commission decided 4-3 against imposing a curfew for the upcoming weekend following the introduction of an emergency curfew Sunday in response to two deadly shootings because of concern that it would conflict with the well-liked Ultra Music Festival.

The vote occurred one day after Mayor Dan Gelber’s administration imposed an emergency curfew and related state of emergency, marking the fourth consecutive year the city had to use such a move to control spring break activity.

Although a measure requiring liquor stores to close early this weekend received a six-vote majority, several commission members pointed out that the third week of spring break season, which just ended, was typically the rowdiest and that the two shootings over the weekend were not out of the ordinary for the time.

“Ultra weekend is not the problem. The problem is weekend number three,” Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez said.

A state of emergency was declared and a weekend curfew was imposed after the city saw large crowds and many gunshots on the final weekend of spring break in March of the previous year.

Furthermore, despite the fact that there has been a significant police presence in the city over the past few weeks to dissuade the masses, the violence has continued unabated. The weekend gunshots resulted in two deaths, stampedes that injured numerous others, and the seizure of more than 70 firearms by law police, according to municipal officials, in addition to the two deaths related with the shootings.

The Democratic mayor announced his intention to use his power to impose an extra curfew before Monday’s vote, claiming that his community was one of only a handful in Florida that “didn’t ask” to be connected with the wild, college-student-dominated atmosphere of spring break on the beach.

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