More Than 200 Arrested During Miami Hip Hop Fest

CBS MIAMI ^ | 5/28/12

[SoFloFreeper]

About 250,000 people are in South Beach for Memorial Day weekend and the hip hop festival known as Urban Beach Week.

The festival is known for its over the top parties and fashions. Seventy-nine people were arrested Saturday, bringing the total number to 228. That’s compared to 107 people arrested the same Saturday last year.

[kcvl]

MIAMI (CBS4) – Although he was one of the early pioneers of Miami Beach’s Memorial Day hip hop extravaganza, even Luther Campbell says he no longer makes his way to South Beach during that weekend because it’s become too rowdy.

“Just walk the streets, get drunk, be rowdy, go to jail,” Campbell told CBS4’s Jim DeFede in describing what the event has become. “Me personally I wouldn’t even go over there. I haven’t been there probably in the last two or three years. “

Campbell has a long history with the affair. Initially the weekend started in the Nineties as a fashion event for designers geared toward the African-American community. It continued to build over the years, with as many as 250,000 people descending on Miami Beach for the long weekend.

Snip

“It should not be on our streets, it’s just devastating,” Tapia said of the street party. “There’s looting. I took pictures of dozens of cars windows that have been bashed in. There have been sexual acts in the street. I’ve seen women get groped and they just keep walking; there is nothing they can do.

“We have to be serious,” Tapia continued. “Due to the violence and the hoodlumness to this event, it tarnishes the city’s image. I’ve seen tourists say they will never come back.”

[Harold Shea]

We got caught in the first Freaknik while going

to Commerce for the drag races.

We considered ourselves lucky getting out alive

Then going back to Nashville after the races being

passed by car loads of the thugs all the way home

They acted like wild animals on the hunt

[Thunder90]

Any more zombies???