Law Enforcement Agencies Explain Plan For Future MLK Ride Outs
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Law enforcement agencies are coming under fire for what appeared to be a lack of presence during Monday's "Bike Up, Guns Down" rally.
The lawless two county Martin Luther King Jr. Day biker dash did not sit well with the top cops in Broward and Miami-Dade County.
"Honestly, I'm ashamed as a citizen of Miami-Dade County. Forget about my job and profession. I'm ashamed that Miami-Dade and Broward, and South Florida in general, we have to be discussing this again," said Deputy Director of the Miami-Dade Police Department Juan Perez. "We are going to minimize it more than we did this year."
Broward Sheriff Scott Israel shared the sentiment, saying, "We are not happy with that traffic lawlessness and we have plans in place to address next year."
But people aren't just asking what the future plans are. They want to know why nothing was done to curb it this year – especially considering this was the event's second year.
"Our efforts by ourselves were not enough," explained Perez. "We have to evolve just like they evolved to us this year."
That means Miami-Dade cops, who now patrol the unincorporated portions of the county, will join with all the city police forces to choke off this type of activity.
And in Broward, Israel says, "Hopefully we can prevent these rides from beginning, you know, disperse the riders. We have to isolate, we have to contain, our third choice is to disperse, and our fourth choice is to arrest."
Israel's plan sounds very similar to what Miami-Dade police actually accomplished.
Of the 30 arrests, 10 citations and 74 vehicles impounded, Miami-Dade police did the heavy lifting.
They grabbed 59 ATV's and bikes, arrested 29 – including one man on murder charges and another on grand theft auto – and confiscated five firearms.
However, those numbers haven't scared some riders – many from out of town – from promising they'll be back to pop wheelies again.
"We'll be back. Catch y'all next year, same time, same place," said one rider.
