The Miami Beach Police Department offered a swift reaction to videos that surfaced online after this weekend's on-the-beach melee between angry partygoers at Swedish House Mafia's Masquerade Motel event and cops, who claim they acted appropriately. The videos show officers struggling with various people surrounded by an unruly crowd. At one point, an officer body-slams a woman in a purple minidress while trying to subdue her.
"The Department has concluded that the officer acted appropriately while affecting the arrests and dealing with the volatile situation at hand," read the statement.
The videos focus on an officer's tussle with 25-year-old Maryland resident Sara Greenback. She was kicked out of the concert and runs afoul of police. They have difficulty calming her, and at one point an officer picks her up and then throws her to the sand.
The event's organizers probably contributed to the situation.
Swedish House Mafia held a previous edition of Masquerade Motel inside a tent in midtown Miami last Halloween. It went off without incident. The DJ trio decided to bring the party back for Ultra weekend, but this time staged the event in a tent on the sands of South Beach off Ninth Street.
Organizers, which included Funkshion Fashion Miami, oversold the event by about 2,000 tickets, and police temporarily would not let anyone else in. This of course led to hundreds of angry partiers standing outside the tent. So far, the event organizers have not released a statement defending their poor planning.
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