The Miami-Dade County Sheriff blasted a proposal that may briefly remodel Miami right into a real-life model of Grand Theft Auto 6’s Vice Metropolis.
Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz, a self-described “tough-on-crime” Republican, slammed Miami-Dade’s Democratic Mayor Daniella Levine Cava for a possible advertising and marketing tie-in with the sport’s creator, Rockstar Video games.
The upcoming and extremely anticipated online game takes place in a fictional southern Florida metropolis, with gamers collaborating in murders and different depravity.
“Grand Theft Auto is a online game franchise constructed round legal exercise — we have to severely contemplate the message we ship when our personal authorities promotes a fictional id centered round lots of those self same crimes,” the sheriff mentioned.
“Its fictional world consists of homicide, theft, drug trafficking, carjacking, violence towards regulation enforcement, and different conduct that the women and men of the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Workplace work each single day to stop,” Cordero-Stutz added.
As a part of the plan, dubbed GTA VI × MDC, Miami — described as “the real-world inspiration for Vice Metropolis” — could be remodeled utilizing “accredited GTA VI characters or visible references,” if accredited, based on public data.
Among the concepts pitched by town to the gaming developer embrace renaming Miami Worldwide Airport to Vice Metropolis Worldwide and the Port of Miami to Port Gellhorn — which function the places’ in-game counterparts — and putting in Vice Metropolis-labeled sewer and stormwater manholes.
The town even went so far as proposing a Vice Metropolis Motor Fest occasion, which might “mix basic automobiles, custom-made automobiles, lowriders, bikes, tropical graphics, and native leisure inside a managed, family-appropriate setting,” based on the pitch.
Police Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez, a Republican weighing a 2028 problem to Levine Cava for her seat as mayor, additionally weighed in and attacked his political foe over the proposal, saying that he “can’t consider” town is “even contemplating briefly rebranding essential county belongings.
“We ought to be selling the Miami-Dade now we have labored so laborious to construct, not a fictional model of our group outlined by crime and violence,” Bermudez mentioned.
The advertising and marketing plan hasn’t been accredited, based on the mayor’s workplace.
“Nothing has been formally agreed to or accredited, and any thought must undergo the suitable evaluate and approval course of,” Carlos Suarez, a spokesperson for the mayor, advised PCGamer.
However discussions had been nonetheless ongoing.
“Given Miami-Dade’s clear affect on the sport, we predict there might be a singular alternative to generate income for the County whereas showcasing Miami-Dade to an enormous viewers,” Suarez added.
Followers of the collection have attacked the sheriff and commissioner on-line, calling them the “enjoyable police” and saying town might miss out on potential income by capturing down the deal.
