WESTERN BUREAU:FORTY-EIGHT VENDORS were arrested by the Montego Bay police yesterday. One Nissan Sunny motor car and a large quantity of goods were also seized during a crackdown on illegal street vending in the city.
The operation was effected in conjunction with the Area One police and their Kingston-based counterparts attached to the Special Anti Crime Task Force and the Mobile Reserve.
Up to late evening, the majority of the senior officers and junior ranks were all out clearing the city's streets of illegal vending. The vendors arrested were granted bail and are to face the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court next Wednesday.
Yesterday's operation was mainly spurred from an incident last Saturday in which a pedestrian, Craig England, was fatally stabbed by a vendor, on whose feet he had accidentally stepped while walking along the piazza. Police say that the Kingston-based vendor, who is known only as "Strength," is believed to be hiding in that city. England was a 28-year-old mason of Green Pond in St. James.
In wake of the killing, the Montego Bay police have come under pressure from members of the public who feel that had they kept up the drive of ridding the streets of vending, such a ghastly act could have been prevented.
