(NewsNation) — A Miami Beach liquor store manager says the city’s curfew, which mandates stores like his have to stop selling liquor at 6 p.m., are unfair, especially as restaurants are able to stay open.
This citywide curfew, which took effect at midnight Thursday in Miami Beach, is in response to violent spring break incidents that saw five people wounded in two separate shootings. It goes until Monday at 6 a.m.
During this time, stores, bars and restaurants serving alcohol to anyone who drinks off-premises won’t be allowed to sell any past 6 p.m. The curfew is only for Miami Beach, not the city of Miami.
As Wilson Arevalo, who’s worked for 22 years at Gulf Liquors pointed out, this means people can still go to restaurants, sit down and have a drink there. Some, he said, go across the bridge to downtown Miami to get booze.
“I went out last night to a restaurant and had my dinner and a couple drinks,” Arevalo said on NewsNation’s “Morning in America.”
Arevalo, on the other hand, had to close his store, which is South Beach’s oldest, at 6 p.m.
“It’s really unfair for local businesses like mine,” Arevalo said. “We are really sad about this and worry because honestly, this is how we make our living. This is how we work.”
Closing earlier can mean losing out on “thousands and thousands of dollars,” Arevalo said.
But more than that, Arevalo has concern for Gulf Liquors’ customers.
“We have clients that count on us,” he said.
City Commissioner Ricky Arriola, of Miami Beach, called the curfew a “draconian” emergency measure, according to the New York Times.
He said they’re needed, though, despite the effects on businesses, because of the crime that comes to Miami Beach from spring break, the Times reported. Residents have also said they’re fed up with the chaos that comes during this time.
“It’s a particular crowd that comes here, particularly this time of year, and doesn’t behave with normal civil rules of conduct,” Arriola said, according to the newspaper.
A South Beach native, Arevalo said he is also bothered by negative influences coming to town and ruining a good time for those who just want to have fun and enjoy the “beautiful sunshine, the sand and the beaches.”
“Who says you gotta bring guns?” Arevalo, who said he hears shots when he’s inside his own home, added. “I can’t even enjoy my own neighborhood because I’m afraid of being shot, I’m afraid of being robbed.”
Police, after the first night of the curfew, called it a success and said it made for a quiet night.