ANGRY STREET confrontations, chaos and stony indifference marked the strike action in the Kingston Metropolitan area yesterday as taxi drivers made good on their threat to withdraw their services to protest a string of controversial police shootings.
Most of the 'robot' taxi operators in Portmore, especially those on the Portmore Mall to Greater Portmore, Gregory Park and Waterford routes, did not support the strike, for 'economic concerns'.
One taxi operator summed it up succinctly when he said: "We ah look some sugar right now, the police dem wicked, but we pickney haffi eat food."
Commuters in the western parishes of St. James and St. Elizabeth were inconvenienced but only briefly by the islandwide strike called by the National Association of Taxi Operators (NATO) to protest the alleged police shootings of David Bacchus, 63, and Andrew Wilson, 23, in separate incidents.
However, at about 1:00 p.m., members of the 200-strong Portmore Taxi Association,
who ply the Spanish Town to Portmore routes, decided to take matters into their own hands. Determined to enforce their 'strike', they began to congregate at a truck crossing on Dunbeholden Road.
EXPRESSED DISMAY
Mervin Murray, vice-president of the Portmore Taxi Association (PTA), expressed dismay at the recent police shootings of taxi operators.
"The police need to stop treating taxi men like criminals. The seven days off the front-line thing cannot work, we need to see that justice is done. The taxi association has been doing its best to weed out its bad eggs, I believe the police should do the same, get rid of the bad police officers," he said.
Minutes later, a small convoy of taxis from that location drove off and headed in the direction of Lakes Pen.
At the intersection of Lakes Pen Road, and Port Henderson Road, a bunch of militant taxi-men orchestrated a campaign of 'strike enforcement' by physically stopping cars, removing passengers and placing them on passing buses. The 'strike-marshalls' beat the bonnets of opportunistic 'robot' taxis who had sneaked onto the route, shouted 'empty the car' orders, and even switched off the ignition of cars who attempted to defy them.
The potentially explosive situation was further ignited when Aaron Mathis, vice-president of the PTA, got into a heated, in-your-face clash with one man which almost came to blows.
"We don't want to impede other commuters but other taxi men must comply with this strike. The police have gone too far, and I know my cause is just, those taxi men the police killed could have been you, me, anyone," Mr. Matthis explained.
While the situation percolated in Portmore, things remained normal in Kingston. Most operators, except for those who work in the vicinity of Price Lane in Central Kingston, ignored the strike.
"Egeton Newman (General Secretary of NATO) is just seeking cheap publicity, this strike caan work the way he wants it to work. It's much too early to have a strike, the police were wrong, but this cannot be the way to go," one hackney carriage operator said.
Meanwhile in Spanish Town, traffic was brought to a standstill for several hours in the vicinity of Barrett Street and Burke Road when 200 angry persons, mostly dressed in black, started a major ruckus when they used motor vehicles to block the road. The crowd refused to clear the blockage until the media arrived.
An eyewitness and resident of Fairfield Road, challenged the police's shoot-out version of how Wilson was killed on Sunday.
"The man came out with his hands raised and he was shot by the police," a visibly shaken man said.
Despite the unrest, the business community remained largely unaffected.
"We understand the concerns, and sympathise with the families of the taxi men slain, as well as condemn the alleged action of the police, but this is not the time to demonstrate and affect the citizens of this town," Mayor of Spanish Town Dr. Raymoth Notice said.
"Spanish Town needs time to build, problems need to be resolved through dialogue, without having to resort to illustrating dissatisfaction by inconveniencing the population of a town."
Staff reporters Claude Mills and Nagra Plunkett, and correspondent Rasbert Turner contributed to this story.
