May 27, 2006 7:11 pm US/Eastern
Unruly Holiday Behavior In Miami
MIAMI (CBS4/AP) ―
Almost 300 people have been arrested so far during this year's Memorial Day weekend in South Beach, according to police.
Police would not estimate the number of people jammed into South Beach for a celebration of hip-hop music and culture known as Urban Beach Week during the three-day weekend.
But police said they were ready for the flood of party-going tourists and entertainers,including rappers Busta Rhymes and P. Diddy.
"We are anticipating it's going to be the same types of problems we had last year," said Bobby Hernandez, Miami Beach police spokesman.
Hernandez said 293 arrests were made since Thursday night, mostly for disorderly conduct and disorderly intoxication.
Last year there were 164 arrests for the same period. In total 550 arrests were made last year, mostly for disorderly conduct, intoxication and trespassing.
About 600 undercover and officers in uniform were on patrol, Hernandez said.
Miami Beach police were being assisted by Miami-Dade County police, City of Miami police, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Miami-Dade school police.
In 2001, a massive yet unexpected crowd caught the city by surprise. Police struggled with crowd control, and unruly behavior was prevalent.
After that, the city developed a major events plan to deal withthe Memorial Day parties.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
