Black People Incoming! Miami Beach on Max Lockdown!
You may remember how last Memorial Day, Miami Beach police officers gunned down black tourists and seized the cellphones of anyone recording the cops in action. (Spoiler: the shot bystanders, ignored for a full year now, are suing!) Well, Urban Beach Weekend is back again this weekend, and the city is ready! They've installed a "one-time" DUI checkpoint, some watch towers, scanners that record everyone's license plates, some "light towers," some road blocks—and a whites-only bridge. Oops sorry, "residents-only" bridge. (Ahem: "tourists will be given the impression that they can’t get in.") Let's look at some notable quotables from the Herald today, which are likely causing strokes over at the ACLU!
• "'When you’re dealing with people dying and getting shot, it’s a different ball of wax,' said Jason Loeb, chairman of the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce." He totally forgot to say "dying and getting shot by police."
• "The president of Miami Beach’s police union also said the department’s brass called for a 2,000-arrest quota." So, that sets the stage quite nicely.
• "But the weekend crowds hurt other businesses by pushing local clientele out of the city." That is actually the newspaper speaking, not an individual. By "local" they mean "not-black tourists." The "but" refers to the fact that this weekend is a huge boon to hotels, which have struggled with vacancy rates, and to other high end businesses that clean up this weekend.
• "And homeonwers have complained bitterly that they are forced to leave for the weekend to avoid the chaos and gridlock." That is also the newspaper speaking. Whites forced from their homes!
I have friends who grew up in Miami and remember how, when they were kids, Miami Beach would raise the drawbridges at night after the last black people left for the mainland. That was not so long ago. It's going to feel a lot like that this weekend.
How is the community responding, you wondered? Glad you asked!
I loved this thought too: "They are a violent lot and should be avoided. Derbyshire is 100% right. I think every liberal should have to take a midnight stroll through a predominantly black area. That is a known cure for liberalism and white guilt." For background, John Derbyshire now writes for VDARE, a publication with the rare distinction of being classified as a hate group by the SPLC.
But good/bad news! Black people and their friends also might want to check the weather right now though. Which is about to go from "windy" to "tropical cyclone"… or even worse. Neat.
[IMAGE: Detail of a crazy map of weekend terror by the Herald!]
I am from south florida, and i still find this a little surprising. not that most people i grew up with weren't extremely racist in a way i didn't realize until many years later – like, you the color of someone's skin isn't necessarily germane to every story? – but, uh, this is insane.
Florida is just a weird scary place. It should get its own color on election night.
@FuriousNewYork That has been known to happen.
You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than a newspaper comment section.
@boyofdestiny For a second there I thought Choire had mistakenly screencapped a Gothamist comment thread.
@boyofdestiny Seriously, even the teenagers that talk about video games on the internet are somehow more tolerant. I guess the nice thing is that maybe all the local newspaper sites can form closed communities so the crazies can't get out into other forums.
@boyofdestiny It's the only place where the old, bigoted, and young and freshly deputized racists know where to go.
We have introduced a new commenting system called Disqus for our articles. This allows readers the option of signing in using their Facebook, Twitter, Disqus or existing MiamiHerald.com username and password.
Ahem.
I even moved to a predominantly black neighborhood trying to cure my liberalism and white guilt. The white guilt progressed into a distrust/fear of all cops and I'm still afflicted with this horrible liberalism. Help!
Thank you, Florida, for once again totally undercutting an argument with my girlfriend about whether France is more racist than America (because they decided not to release Think Like a Man in French cinemas).
Last year I went OMG when this story came out but this year, after what recently happened here in Savannah, (The black kids had a party on Tybee Island and right after, white people posted the pictures and said it was trashed, even though the students, including some of my well-meaning cousins were out there already cleaning it up.) So this year, I find myself glaring at all the white tourists/condo renting people aiming a camera anywhere near me when I go to the beach.
Anyway I had point about Miami but now I can't stop thinking about my local beach. At least no one was shot. The cops did taser a kid with Autism though…
"The cops did taser a kid with Autism though"
At least they did something to earn their pay! (calm down, i'm only being sarcastic)
…