MIAMI, Fla. – A fireworks display in Miami went on despite Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez asking that they be postponed because “today is not the right day.”
The fireworks had been planned in the city of Miami on Saturday night in honor of hospital workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Gimenez reached out to Mayor Francis Suarez, in light of the protests happening in and around Miami, related to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Gimenez said they agreed that “today is not the right day.”
However, a spokeswoman from the Bayfront Park Management Trust told Local 10 News that there were no plans to postpone the fireworks despite that request.
Despite Miami-Dade mayor's order, the firework display went off as police officers and protesters clashed in downtown https://t.co/xpYMhad5RH pic.twitter.com/WJo9Bdvn8i
— WPLG Local 10 News (@WPLGLocal10) May 31, 2020
Gimenez said in a statement that he feared “the sound of fireworks could easily be mistaken for explosions, and we want to make sure that all of our residents are safe and able to exercise their First Amendment right to protest without any fear of violence.”
Local 10 reporters on the ground covering the protests said that those fireworks indeed sounded like a loud explosion.
Gimenez also stated that he was concerned that protesters had moved their demonstration onto I-95, creating a “dangerous situation for themselves and others.”
“This is not the place or way to protest,” Gimenez said. “The death of George Floyd was clearly an assault on the dignity of human life. We must all stand up against this sort of injustice, but we must be do it peacefully.”
Gimenez has ordered a countywide curfew of 10 p.m. effective Saturday.