Police: 2 Miami Beach Police Officers Injured; Several Detained, Pepper Balls Used To Disperse Crowd
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Miami Beach Police said two of their officers were injured Friday evening and had to be transported to a local hospital following a disturbance in South Beach.
Police said officers were dealing with very large crowds near 8th Street and Ocean Drive.
They say that officers were forced to utilize pepper balls to disperse people that had gathered while a subject was being taken into custody.
Police said the crowd was disorderly and that at some point had surrounded police officers.
Authorities said several people had been detained.
Video from the scene showed large crowds and police lights in the distance.
In February, Miami Beach police had said they are braced for this year's spring break, which actually started February 15th and runs through mid-April, and are reconfiguring the shifts of officers for an eight-week period.
Miami Beach Police Chief Rick Clements also had some strong words, saying, "If you are coming down here to be disruptive and break the rules we are going to stop you."
In January, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber had a message to unruly spring breakers:
"If people are coming here to go crazy please don't, go somewhere else. If you're coming here because you think we don't have rules with regard to COVID, go somewhere else as well," he said.
