Dear Editor,
Noise abuse is no picnic or joke; it is injurious to people’s health; it’s annoying and it inflicts so much misery on its victims. If fifty complaints come to you, please highlight them, no matter how often; you are one of the sources that have helped combat this evil curse that has plagued this country for way too long.
After years of torment with noise abuse which jeopardized my health, peace and calm finally returned for a brief period on Sheriff Street. But now two more noise nuisances have taken up the mantle and are making people’s lives a living hell. These people are not being disciplined by the authorities the way they ought to to be, despite numerous letters being written including copies being sent to the President as recently as last week.
I have written so many letters to this and the previous administration, as well as to the Environment Protection Agency. I am completely fed up and disappointed that those in charge continue to display an attitude of indifference when it comes to such a serious and damaging health issue.
On Sheriff Street one noise nuisance (name supplied) whom I had managed to put in the court but had to decline giving evidence against for valid reasons, continues to be ignored by the authorities whenever his son puts out a powerful piece of equipment and a big music box in the yard to entertain no less than eight to nine people for hours on any given Saturday; those people are a combination of relatives and friends, for it is not a budding business.
By highlighting my plight to the authorities with this liquor restaurant I also tried desperately to
highlight the plight of the man’s sick, speechless, handicapped son, who was bed-ridden and had to endure that cruelty for hours every Saturday from as early as 11 in the morning to nine at night. I wrote several letters the Public Security Minister, the then ‘A’ Division Commander, the Police Commissioner, etc, but nothing really serious was ever done. There are a few ranks who whenever a plea is made to stop this harassment would do so promptly, and one such rank I wish to commend is a woman rank by the name of Sergeant Ali plus a couple of others both male and female, but this inconsiderateness continues unabated.
The young man passed away earlier this year and nothing can convince me that he wasn’t affected by the loud music, but he couldn’t talk or plead for mercy from his tormentors. I tried to be his voice, but the Public Security Minister, EPA and others were deaf to my plea.
The next nuisance is the management of a grill (name supplied). It’s about two months since this establishment started stepping out of line; it was the most disciplined establishment on Sheriff Street with really soft music that could barely be heard from the road. Now every Friday there is a happy hour session and the patrol has to be summoned to get them to turn down the madness they call music, or turn it off. It seems as though they are now trying to compete with the offender mentioned above, by putting a small box outside every Friday afternoon. So it’s this grill every Friday afternoon into the night, and the other one on Saturdays from midday until night. It seems as though visits by the patrol to the grill has had no impact because it’s the same thing which keeps happening every Friday. I even wrote the management cautioning them about the noise abuse, and sent copies of the letter to various offices of the administration just last week, but the madness continues.
Editor, there aren’t enough words to describe the misery that is being inflicted on people whenever that music goes past a certain level; the deep heavy bass connects to the numerous zinc fences which can be found in most back yards, and this goes on for hours in the day and at night with your brain and ears being battered mercilessly.
I wish to advise this administration, people’s brain and ears cannot bear this stress without getting damaged eventually; something has to be done swiftly to stop this sickening, annoying noise abuse. The nation’s health is the nation’s wealth, not oil.
Yours faithfully,
Pearl Lewis
