Cops chase newspaper, lottery vendors

The Mayor’s Office and the City Police, in connection with the Port-of-Spain Corporation, yesterday denied that a clean-up exercise, in which newspapers vendors were being chased off the streets, was in place.

Upset newspaper vendors are saying they have no other source of income.

Newspapers and lottery vendors from Queen Street down to Independence Square complained that police told them they would be charged for vending.

"We are out here in the rain and hot sun selling the newspapers, and we can’t put it on the ground," vendor Bernadette John, at Queen and Frederick Streets, told Newsday.

Last week, clothing vendors at the the People’s Mall, which was destroyed by fire earlier this year, were warned to get off the streets.

Those vendors had disclosed that they were selling the clothing after hours when the malls and stores were closed for the day. However, Mayor Murchison Brown told Newsday that the police were only doing their work.

"That is the law. The mayor doesn’t have to tell the police how to do that," he said.

In response to the vendors’ claim — that vending is their only source of income — Brown said, "Everyone cries out that they are poor."

"I went out of my way to help a situation. I met with the vendors," he stated.

Brown said that he assisted the vendors with ID cards and told them the size of tables to get for their goods.

He said they were told to vend from Thursdays to Saturdays.

"I told them that I will offer them Woodford Square as a flea market for Christmas — they told me it was too far!"

He claimed that the vending was encouraging criminal activities as the sidewalks were becoming crowded.

"We have robberies of pensioners, and the perpetrators escape in the crowd of people," he disclosed.

A senior police officer confirmed that a campaign was on the way and the laws are currently being enforced. Police Commissioner Trevor Paul, said to be out of the country, was unavailable for comment.