Spring ‘breakup’: What’s behind the US beach town crackdown
A year after Miami police lost control of spring break crowds on the city’s Ocean Drive, the annual fun-in-the-sun rite of college students has darkened into a new focus on law and order that stretches far beyond Magic City.
Miami’s advertisement-led campaign to “break up with spring break” has included $100 parking fees, curfews, bag checks, DUI checkpoints, and police officers on every corner.
The move comes after a chaotic 2023 spring break, which saw two deadly shootings and 488 arrests – half of them felony offenses, according to Miami Beach Police. More than 100 firearms were seized. Scenes of the Ocean Drive mayhem appeared on national news shows. The city called a state of emergency.
Beyond the disruption of rowdy outsiders that
