The 'dons' set the stage - Top ranking area leaders overseeing vendor removals downtown

By Lloyd Williams, Senior Associate Editor

Some street vendors in position at the Oxford Mall, downtown Kingston, to which other vendors are to be relocated on Sunday. - Dennis Coke

SOME PEOPLE have been marvelling at the silence and docility of the usually vociferous vendors in Downtown Kingston, whose stalls were smashed, reportedly by MPM workers on Monday night, in preparation for the Government-ordered removal of sidewalk vendors by Sunday, November 4.

Investigations by The Gleaner revealed that the removal of the street vendors is actually being overseen by the two ranking "dons" of downtown Kingston, hence the dutiful compliance of the normally aggressive and hostile vendors.

A source said he would bet, too, that the services of the "dons" would be retained to "keep the peace during the removal of the vendors on Sunday".

During a demonstration by vendors who were attempting to block the intersection of West Queen and Princess streets in Downtown Kingston on May 20, 1994 to protest against the actions of MPM in ousting them from the sidewalks and the streets, men from Matthews Lane slapped up the demonstrators, took away their placards and sent them packing. They advised a heavily-armed squad of police from the Mobile Reserve to go and they would "take care of things."

The Gleaner understands that the vendors have been warned that if they do not comply with the orders to quit the streets, there could be scenes like the above, and worse.

But law enforcement sources and other observers are shaking their heads in disgust. "It's a bad precedent," a source said of the apparent alliance between the "dons" of disparate persuasion and the Government, to move the vendors. "The Government cannot surrender the job of the law enforcement agencies to other forces. What is going to happen when these people (the "dons") take it on themselves to exercise authority in other spheres and elsewhere? The precedent is bad. Civil society can't operate in that way."

Another source said the vendors were aware of the forces behind the smashing of their stalls and the move to ensure their compliance with the removal orders, and that that accounted for their apparent compliance and silence.

Otherwise, he said , their normal reaction would have been to block the streets of Downtown Kingston in protest. "But they know if they breathe a word in protest, they would have to face the consequences. It's not good", he said.

Another source pointed to what she said was the hypocrisy of using the "dons" to enforce law and order. "If you use them in that fashion today, what will you have them do tomorrow?", she asked.

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