By Brad Brooks
(Reuters) – The city of Miami Beach curtailed alcohol sales through Monday morning after drunken revelers on spring break got tangled in multiple shootings, fights, assaults and stampedes that resulted in at least two deaths in the past week.
Miami Beach, a small barrier island just to the east of Miami, has long been a magnet for wild parties, as college students from around the country take advantage of an annual school vacation to descend on its white sand beaches for an alcohol-soaked rite of passage.
All alcohol sales, including by liquor stores, for off-premises consumption are banned from 6 p.m. Thursday until 6 a.m. Monday under an emergency declaration by city manager Alina Hudak on Wednesday. City-owned parking garages will be closed during that time to reduce crowds.
Businesses that sell alcohol oppose the measure, saying it will severely hurt their revenues.
The declaration cited “unruly crowds” and said many spring break visitors “are under the influence of alcoholic beverages and have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the rule of law.”
Some citizens have called for a weekend midnight curfew, like the one imposed last Sunday until 6 a.m. the following day.
But the Miami Beach city commission earlier this week voted 4-to-3 against a curfew, with those opposed saying it would hurt businesses during this peak tourist season.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Lubbock; editing by Donna Bryson and Richard Chang)
