Memorial Day weekend in Miami Beach is wild. In the last eight years, cops have made thousands of arrests. The craziness included: A double homicide outside David's Café II, a mini riot on Washington Avenue, and smatterings of pro sports players who enjoy drinking too much and manhandling officers. (Not much has changed on that front.)
This year was calm in comparison. No murders. No pepper spray. The number of arrests over the weekend were about the same as last year, but a couple big things are different: 1) Violent crime went down and drug busts went up. 2) Cops are receiving more calls and making less arrests.
A few stats:
-Last year police arrested 24 people on drug related charges. This year it increased to 39.
-Last year police got 3,265 calls for service. This year it increased to 3,438.
-Last year cops arrested 570 people. This year it shrunk to 548.
-This year there were four robberies - same as last year.
Overall, 250,000 people showed up and 104 of the arrests were felonies. Cops also took 35 guns off the street, and "had no high profile arrests besides [Dolphin football player Randy Starks]," according to Miami Beach Police Spokesperson Det. Juan Sanchez. Eleven of the violent crimes were batteries on a police officer.
Moral of the story? If you're gonna get stoned in SoBe over Memorial Day, better stay in your hotel. Oh, and don't bring your gun. Or hit cops while you're high. Word on the street: They don't like that much.
