CURFEW? WHAT CURFEW?   Part II
Channel: Miami Beach Audits
Date: 2021-03-23

Filmed 3/22/2021
Washington Avenue 
Miami Beach FL 

link to Part I
https://youtu.be/Bfp9JbMQrPw

  Everybody who lives here knew the curfew was lifted in December, but the county government, police and news media were still saying it was still in effect, and that violators were subject to arrest. Most of the businesses were obeying because they either believed the media or were afraid of retaliation if they stayed open, but the people and G4S were behaving like it didn't exist. 

  The megalomaniac mayor of the city of Miami Beach, Daniel Gelber, on Saturday announced a new 'emergency order'-an 8:00pm curfew and closure of all causeways to the city, and that all businesses in the 'South Beach Entertainment District' (a phrase he coined-there was no such thing before 2017 when he took office, and which he defines as South of Lincoln Road and east of and including Washington Avenue) must abide by, and that anyone on the street in that area would be arrested, despite the court ruling in the county case. 

Link to Channel 10 report on it Saturday:
https://www.local10.com/news/local/2021/03/20/miami-beach-officials-expected-to-announce-curfew-causeway-closures-to-control-spring-break-crowd/

  Two of those causeways are interstate highways (Federal roads), and, if the Federal Court ruled the Federal government had no authority to close US 1 from the Keys to prevent illegal immigrants from getting to Miami in the 1980's, he certainly doesn't have the authority to close an interstate highway because too many people are here for our infrastructure to handle, and too many (of the wrong color) are exercising their Constitutional rights. 
  This now opens the city up to a similar lawsuit from every business owner in the city, and to Federal civil rights charges from anyone arrested for violating the new curfew order, and it will certainly bankrupt the city in the long run, if the police try to enforce it. That's a big if. 
  The chief has refused to enforce other draconian emergency orders by both the city and the county in the past. Also, there are many cops in the department who will do what the mayor says regardless of the law or department policy, and when called to task by the chief, they get away with the Neurenberg defense, "I was following the mayor's orders and he's the chief's boss."
  He's not, he's essentially the HR director, and he only holds that position because of an informal coup d' etat in city government. The city manager has that duty-he can hire and fire the chief, but cannot give him orders on enforcement policies, per the city charter-but there was no city manager in place because the old one resigned effective 12/31/20-he gave 2 months' advance notice-but they haven't hired a new one yet, interviewed anyone, nor even reviewed any applications to try to narrow the field. On Sunday, the commission held an unannounced emergency meeting (a violation of the city charter which requires all meetings to be publicly noticed at least 48 hours ahead) at which they installed the mayor as interim city manager, and passed an ordinance instituting the curfew and causeway closures. 
  The city charter doesn't address who should assume the city manager's duties should the office become vacant, only the procedure for filling the vacancy, which the mayor and his toadie commission have not followed but claim they cannot violate by not following because the charter doesn't attach a time frame to the process.
  So, the mayor has assumed the duties of the city manager without any legal basis for having done so, by refusing to appoint a replacement, and voting himself the interim manager. Coup d'etat. 

  This response is completely uncalled-for and illegal. There have been many fewer violent incidents than would usually occur with crowds of this size. They have bruised the mayor's huge ego (he announced last year that the US and state Constitutions and the city charter were suspended for Covid, leaving him the supreme authority in the city) and he is responding like a schoolteacher who, because (s)he cannot control 2 or 3 disruptive students, gives the entire class detention after hours, although the school board has forbidden after-hours detentions. 

Meanwhile, the county petitioned the court for, and on Monday received, another temporary injunction reinstating their midnight curfew on businesses. 

No link available for channel 10 story referenced  because they've removed the story from their web page and replaced it with this one:
https://www.local10.com/news/local/2021/03/22/miami-beach-chaos-isnt-all-college-spring-breakers/

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fair use attributions:

ocean waves and seagulls sound file from juskiddink via freesound.org