The 1980 Miami riots were race riots that occurred in Miami, Florida, starting in earnest on May 18, 1980, following the acquittal of four Miami-Dade Police officers in the death of Arthur McDuffie (December 3, 1946 – December 21, 1979). McDuffie, a black salesman and former Marine, died from injuries sustained at the hands of four white officers trying to arrest him after a high-speed chase. The officers were tried and acquitted for manslaughter and evidence tampering, among other charges. Subsequently, a race riot broke out in the black neighborhoods of Overtown and Liberty City in Miami. In 1981 Dade County paid McDuffie's family a settlement of $1.1 million after they filed a civil lawsuit against the officials. The 1980 Miami riots were the deadliest since the 1960s and remained such until the 1992 Los Angeles riots twelve years later.

In the early morning hours of December 17, 1979, police officers pursued thirty-three year-old McDuffie, who was riding a black-and-orange 1973 Kawasaki motorcycle. McDuffie had accumulated traffic citations and was riding with a suspended license. He led police on an eight-minute high-speed chase through residential streets at speeds of over eighty miles per hour.

The officers involved in the chase (Ira Diggs, William Hanlon, Michael Watts, and Alex Marrero) later filed a report claiming McDuffie had run a red light and led police on an eight-minute chase. They said that, after McDuffie had lost control of his motorcycle while making a left turn, he attempted to flee on foot. The officers caught him and a scuffle ensued in which McDuffie allegedly kicked Officer Diggs. By the end of the struggle, the officers had, in the words of the prosecutor at the trial, cracked McDuffie's skull "like an egg."

McDuffie was transported to a nearby hospital where he died four days later of his injuries. The coroner's report concluded that he had suffered multiple skull fractures.

The four officers were indicted for manslaughter, as well as tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. Acting director of the Dade County Public Safety Department, Bobby Jones, suspended the officers on December 27. He said that since 1973, the four had been cited in 47 citizen complaints and 13 internal affairs probes. Two other officers, Herbert Evans, Jr. and Ubaldo Del Toro, were charged with being accessories to the crime, as well as fabricating evidence. The six officers were fired less than a month later.

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