Westmoreland Vendors Knock Police’s Anti-vending Stance

SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Westmoreland ven­dors, who ply their wares in sev­er­al town cen­tres in the parish, are up in arms with the recent­ly assigned offi­cer in charge of the parish, Deputy Superintendent of Police David White, over new guide­lines imple­ment­ed by the police aimed at assist­ing with crime reduc­tion in the parish. DSP White, who took over com­mand of the Westmoreland Police Division ear­li­er this year, has said that one of his pri­or­i­ties is to rid the town cen­tres, includ­ing Savanna-la-Mar, of ille­gal vend­ing. Adamant that there exists a link between crim­i­nal activ­i­ty and street vend­ing, DSP White, in January, spear­head­ed an anti-street vend­ing cam­paign in the Savanna-la-Mar, Grange Hill and Negril areas of Westmoreland. “We know that a num­ber of the ven­dors are there as a result of the pro­ceeds from crime. We also know that some of them have been strate­gi­cal­ly placed by some crim­i­nal ele­ments with­in the town,” he told the Jamaica Observer West, short­ly after the launch of the initiative.

“There is a very strong link of crime in Westmoreland and vend­ing in the dif­fer­ent town­ships. And, there­fore, our activ­i­ty is to remove many of them to cre­ate that pub­lic safe­ty with­in.” But dur­ing the ques­tion and answer seg­ment of the recent town hall meet­ing held in Westmoreland’s cap­i­tal, Savanna-la-Mar — where National Security Minister Robert Montague, Commissioner of Police Dr Carl Williams, per­ma­nent sec­re­tary in the Ministry of National Security Major General Stewart Saunders, Assistant Commissioner of Police Winchroy Budhoo and DSP White were in atten­dance — sev­er­al ven­dors urged the police to revis­it the anti-vend­ing ini­tia­tive. “I am beg­ging on my bend­ing knees, Sir. Please, please, Sir. I have a loan with Access Finance for $50-odd thou­sand and from the ninth of January [this year] until now, I haven’t made $9,000. I had to beg some mon­ey just to clear some of my loan so that my place don’t put up [for sale],” a female ven­dor told the com­mis­sion­er. The ven­dors were sup­port­ed by coun­cil­lor for the North Savanna-la-Mar Division Devon Thomas, who argued that the anti-vend­ing ini­tia­tive has impact­ed neg­a­tive­ly on the lives of the ven­dors. “… Superintendent White came into the area with some strate­gies to fight crime, and I am say­ing that this has affect­ed vend­ing on the street side, we are say­ing that peo­ple like the jerk man…we need to revise the sit­u­a­tion, so we can have organ­ised vend­ing,” Thomas argued.

“Mr Minister [Montague], there are some grey areas in this sit­u­a­tion. Vending uptown (Savanna-la-Mar) has been the bread­win­ner for many peo­ple. It has been going on for years, and they have got per­mis­sion from busi­ness peo­ple to vend at night-time. It has cre­at­ed oppor­tu­ni­ties for peo­ple, even those com­ing in at night on the hotel bus­es can get some­thing to eat from the ven­dors.” Montague lat­er encour­aged peo­ple in the gath­er­ing who had issues with the no-vend­ing order to attend the parish council’s com­mer­cial com­mit­tee meet­ing, which is held on the sec­ond Monday of each month. He also asked DSP White to be present at the next meet­ing, sched­uled for April 11. However, Councillor Milton Miles told the Observer West that the com­mer­cial com­mit­tee meet­ing would be “too small”, adding that as soon as may­or of Savanna-la-Mar Bertel Moore returns to the island after the Easter hol­i­days, he would be seek­ing to have a date set for a spe­cial meet­ing with the ven­dors and DSP White. Last year, a record 110 mur­ders were record­ed in the parish of Westmoreland. Westmoreland ven­dors knock police’s anti-vend­ing stance