Miami-Dade Law Enforcement Officials Oppose GTA 6 Promotion

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez:

I still cannot believe that we are even considering temporarily rebranding important County assets, including Miami International Airport, as Vice City Airport. Miami-Dade County has spent decades building a reputation as a world-class destination for tourism, business, investment, and opportunity. We should be promoting the Miami-Dade we have worked so hard to build, not a fictional version of our community defined by crime and violence.

I’m not against video games, but to go out and get a video game where — which glorifies not only our first responders getting shot, but also pedestrians and residents — it’s nonsensical.

For just some dollars? No, I don’t agree. I think our goal is to be paradise and not to be paradise lost.

Miami-Dade County is not a video game; it’s a community.

Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz:

Grand Theft Auto is a video game franchise built around criminal activity. Its fictional world includes murder, robbery, drug trafficking, carjacking, violence against law enforcement, and other conduct that the men and women of the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office work every single day to prevent.

At a time when law enforcement is working every day to reduce violent crime, prevent robberies and car thefts, combat drug trafficking, and build stronger relationships between our deputies and the communities we serve, I believe we need to seriously consider the message we send when our own government promotes a fictional identity centered around many of those same crimes.

That said, the issue of promoting GTA VI is hardly the key point here. This is more about a political confrontation. The county commissioner and sheriff represent the Republican Party, while the mayor, whose administration proposed the idea, is a Democrat.

Meanwhile, there has been no known reaction from Rockstar Games.