Blame Gov. DeSantis for Florida’s COVID super-spreader spring break beach madness | Opinion

Florida’s spring break debacle — rowdy COVID super-spreader crowds at beaches around the state, at some spots with violence thrown in for special effect — is the perfect showcase for what ails the state’s governor: recurring poor judgment.

On March 5, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ State of the State Address was a self-back-patting ode to the virtues of having an open state during a deadly, worldwide pandemic.

“We have long been known as the Sunshine State — but, given the unprecedented lockdowns we have witnessed in other states, I think the Florida sun now serves as a beacon of light to those who yearn for freedom,” DeSantis said, just in time for the annual ritual of sexed-up boozing and partying on beaches from Panama City to Miami.

Super-spreader party

The governor might as well have stood at the Florida-Georgia-Alabama borders waving a sign that said, “Y’all come down and have your COVID super-spreader party here!”

Young, unmasked and unvaccinated?

No problem.

A high-risk behavior crowd?

No problem.

Panama City Beach, yeah!

The tally there so far: Three people from Georgia arrested in the shooting of a hotel clerk. A Kentucky teen shot dead and his stepbrother injured, 12- and 16-year-olds vacationing with their parents and hanging out alone on the beach at 1:30 a.m., shot by a local man they encountered.

Daytona Beach, yeah!

Some 300,000 in town for Bike Week alone — and more expected!

Clearwater Beach, yeah!

Watch the spectacle of a teenager busting out of a cop car and running down the beach in handcuffs!

Miami Beach, yeah, yeah, yeah, sí, sí, sí, the mother of all parties!

The crowds became so large and unruly here that city officials had to declare a state of emergency over the weekend, impose curfews and close bridges to everyone except residents, hotel guests and workers.

Violence & COVID

Beach police said they’ve seized more than 100 firearms and arrested at least 1,000 people since spring break began in early February. Forty percent of the arrests were for felonies, and most of those were committed by people from out of town, according to the police chief. The city has enlisted the help of five law enforcement agencies to try to control crowds.

At least one young woman, a 24-year-old from Pennsylvania, has lost her life. Police say two spring breakers from North Carolina drugged, raped her, stole her cellphone and left her to die in her hotel room. The young men, 21 and 24, went on to party with her credit cards, their trajectory captured on video cameras at the hotel and around town.

2 spring breakers drugged, raped woman, then partied, cops say. She died in South Beach hotel

Add to all the violence, the potential for spreading COVID-19 while the spring breakers are here — and afterward, when they return home to elders or to college campuses.

By flaunting that Florida is a free-for-all state for the sake of businesses gains and people who make a living off tourism, DeSantis created a mess for local leaders, whom he left without any power to enforce mask mandates, never mind social distancing.

Sure, people are personally responsible for their behavior. But the governor set the table for the chaos.

Given the history of debauchery before COVID, it’s a joke to beg the flood of unmasked, hormonal, rowdy teenagers — and the drug dealers, gang-bangers and opportunists who follow the college crowds — to behave.

If anything, after being deprived of gatherings and entertainment since last March, it would have been only common sense to expect the crowds to be bigger and more exuberant this year. Thanks, also, to the airlines for flying spring breakers to Miami for fares reported to be as little as $46.

DeSantis should have foreseen all this. It’s his job to do so.

Last year, people could claim ignorance, but data collected through cellphone records of spring breakers in Florida established that young people who came for spring break in 2020, returned home to all points on the U.S. map to infect older relatives, some of whom died from COVID.

The consequences of hosting massive numbers of spring breakers while there are highly contagious variations of COVID around were easy to foreshadow. A rise in cases among people under 50 is driving up the number of tests coming back positive in metro areas seeing a tourism surge, especially in Miami.

But this is Florida and, according to the governor, you’re free to be as dumb, drunk and unmasked, as you wanna be.