AN OMINOUS new tactic has crept into the rowdy habit of road-blocking as an act of popular protest. We refer to the use of JUTC buses to block traffic on several streets in downtown Kingston last weekend.
The protest which lasted some two hours may have been influenced by the prevailing anti-police sentiment deriving from the Flankers episode in Montego Bay. It appears that a confrontation between a plainclothes policeman and a bus driver escalated after a JUTC worker was among some persons who were detained.
The protest may also have been influenced by actions taken by the National Association of Taxi Operators (NATO) which claims membership of several thousands. In fact their militancy was sparked by the Flankers incident in which one of the victims was an elderly taxi operator.
But even before NATO began to claim national membership, taxi operators would tend to stage protests against police actions by using their cabs as mobile roadblocks from time to time.
Using motor cars in this indisciplined way is bad enough in that it increases the normal hazards on city streets; but even worse is the use of similar tactics with the big JUTC buses. This reprehensible act was obviously designed to provoke mayhem and disruption of normal commercial activity and thereby invite mob support in defiance of police authority.
We are reminded that the Trade Union Act makes provision for peaceful picketing by workers involved in a trade dispute. The protests that some taxis and buses have been involved in of late are not peaceful and certainly not picketing to prosecute any trade dispute as the law stipulates.
Blocking the streets with vehicles is an indefensible escalation of the already illegal roadblocks that people mount with tree branches, rocks and burning debris.
The police must move quickly to nip in the bud this new dimension of street protest. Even in the tumultuous days of frequent bus strikes which plagued the Corporate Area when the former JOS company ran the transport service the buses were properly parked even during strike action.
Buses and taxis must not be allowed to become lethal tools of dangerous indiscipline.
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