A vendor got a shock yesterday when several constables attached to the City Constabulary turned up to dismantle his mobile food cart.
The city police who were armed with guns, initially tried to place the glass cases that were filled with food into a tractor but were made to place them in their vehicle by residents.
“These people eyes pass that man stuff. Imagine the tractor that they does pick up garbage in they wanna put this man foodstuff in. They can’t be serious,” a furious resident said.
The owner of the structure which is located opposite Trans Pacific Motor Spares on the corner of Robb and Light streets was not there when Stabroek News arrived at the scene, and residents said that he had accompanied several constables to City Hall to query why his cart was being removed.
A resident in the area who requested anonymity said that it was unfair for the young man to be removed while another vendor who is in close proximity to the man wasn’t moved. “This boy deh here hustling a while and they come and just carry away he stuff. He has a removable structure that could have been rolled away. All they had to do was tell the guy that he can’t vend here and he would have moved. They didn’t have to do it like that. They gave him no warning.”
Other residents questioned why the men had to come with guns to remove the cart. “I thought was a raid or something. I see a set of them with guns and when I realize that is the man stuff they come to move I ask myself is what nonsense going on here. They gave him no warning. This man place clean and he got bin and everything here they didn’t have to carry away his stuff like that,” a resident stated.
A PNC councillor who happened to be passing at the time of the incident said she had to intervene because it was a very unfortunate situation. “I was passing and I saw these men trying to put the glass case into a tractor. I stopped and asked who was in charge and the superintendent refused to speak to me.”
When Stabroek News tried to solicit a comment from the superintendent from the City Police he said that he was not authorized to speak on the matter.
When contacted, Mayor Hamilton Green said that he heard about the incident and was told that the department said that they were acting on instructions to remove the structure since several persons nearby had complained that the man used to cook there and that this was dangerous.
