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“It feels like our town is a tinder in some ways right now,” Gelber told CNN’s “New Day”. “It’s not just about not wearing masks and physically distancing yourself. It’s also some of the people who come with bad intentions, so there have been fights and even shootings.
“When you have these crowd levels you can’t really manage without having huge police departments, and all of that mix creates a lot of risk and worry.
Police fired pepperballs on Saturday night in an attempt to break through mostly unmasked crowds on the city’s main thoroughfares.
Bridges and roads will be closed on these days from 10 a.m. to 6 a.m. Local residents, hotel guests and employees are exempt from these rules.
City manager Raul Aguila will have the option to extend it by two more one-week increments until April 13.
“The goal here is to really contain the overwhelming crowd of visitors, and the potential for disturbance of violence and damage to property, intentional or unintentional,” Aguila said.
Gelber said he hoped an extension would not be necessary, but “it is necessary now because what we are seeing is unacceptable and we cannot allow our police, our residents and, frankly, our visitors to be in danger as well. “
The crowds grew so large that police from nearby agencies came to assist. Gelber said someone fired a shot in the air on Friday night.
When asked who he blamed for the influx of spring breakers, Gelber said the opening up of the state economy by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hadn’t helped.
The state has opened its doors to tourists after a year of lockdowns and coronavirus-related restrictions across the country.
“Right now we’re being asked to take all the people who come in,” Gelber said on “New Day”. “The governor said everything was open, get off.
“The problem is, we’re still in the middle of a pandemic. It’s definitely not in our rearview mirror yet and it’s definitely not in my riding, in my city. So that’s a challenge. … from a triple threat of too many crowds, too many people acting and a pandemic. And these three together create a very difficult time. “
CNN’s Melissa Alonso, Theresa Waldrop and Hollie Silverman contributed to this report.
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