Riot breaks out in POS as city tries to remove vendors from Charlotte Street

Armed police confronted angry vendors on Charlotte street Port of Spain Monday as the vendors vented their anger against a decision by the city's new mayor, Louis Lee Sing, to stop them from selling on the busy street during the pre-Christmas season.

Police moved in late in the afternoon to break up a protest after vendors refused to obey police orders to move. The vendors blocked traffic as they chanted, “We want the streets”.

A riot erupted when police called in reinforcements and tried to clear the area. The vendors reacted angrily when a member of the Guard and Emergency Branch fired two rounds of warning shots into the air.

The mayor said he is sticking to his plan to keep the street clear. "We are not going to be bullied into any new positions...There is already an arrangement in place for the vendors to vend on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and that is going to remain that way until we develop the Vendors' Mall, when they will have to move," Lee Sing told the Trinidad Express newspaper.
 
The vice president of the Charlotte Street Vendors Association, Junior Lewis is not amused. "But this Mayor come and just so decide to move us and even tell us that we will not be allowed to sell here," he said, noting that all they want is "six extra days" of selling for Christmas.