Miami Beach Commission Revokes "Diddy Day" Proclamation

Last Wednesday, June 26, without discussion the Miami Beach Commission rescinded its proclamation of October 13, 2016, as "Sean 'Diddy' Combs Day." The erasure of the local holiday follows the three-month anniversary of the hip-hop star's Miami Beach mansion raid amid an ongoing federal sex-trafficking investigation.

Record executive, producer, and rapper Combs faces multiple lawsuits accusing him of sexual assault and racketeering in addition to the federal investigation.

Though the allegations date as far back as 30 years, the recent legal scrutiny took shape in November 2023 when ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura filed a civil lawsuit accusing the rapper of years of sexual misconduct, harassment, sex trafficking, and rape. Despite his vehement denial of the claims, Combs and Ventura reached an undisclosed settlement the day after the suit's public filing. Six months later, a CNN-released surveillance video from 2016 showed the rapper physically assaulting Ventura in a hotel hallway.

Combs' current legal battle largely surrounds producer Rodney Jones' February 2024 lawsuit, in which Jones claims Diddy "groped him, coerced him into soliciting prostitutes, and forced him into drug-fueled sex parties where bottles of booze were spiked with ecstasy." The nearly 100-page complaint also details a 2022 shooting coverup at LA's Chalice Recording Studios and the heavy circulation of high-powered psychoactive drugs within Combs' circle.

In light of these allegations, coupled with five additional lawsuits Diddy has been served since, the Miami Beach resolution stated that "'Sean Diddy Combs Day' is no longer in harmony with the City's values of safety, community well-being, and respect."

Commissioner David Suarez, the resolution's sponsor, subsequently issued a statement regarding the decision to revoke the proclamation, declaring, "As long as I am a City Commissioner of Miami Beach, women beaters, sexual predators, and pedophiles will have no place in our city."

Combs' ties to Miami Beach date back to multiple appearances at high-profile nightclubs and parties across town in the early 2000s. The relationship was further cemented in 2014 when his inaugural Revolt Music Conference, a two-day seminar that stemmed from his cable music network of the same name, had 800 attendees and dozens of industry executives and producers flocking to the Fontainebleau Miami Beach resort. Then-Miami Beach mayor Phillip Levine presented Diddy with a key to the city at the second Revolt Music Conference in 2015 and declared "Sean 'Diddy' Combs Day" at the conference in 2016.

Diddy has lived on Miami Beach's Star Island since 2003, neighboring celebrities Enrique Iglesias, Shaquille O'Neal, and Rick Ross.