Dear Editor,
It has never been my custom to request of you to publish any of my letters to you in the paper, but I feel obliged to request it of this one. On Tuesday morning I left home to get bottled water and at the same time pick up an item for my neighbor at the pharmacy.
I had just collected the water and was on my way to Over the Pond. As I turned off Sucker Garden Road into Arch Road I was obliged to stop because the driver of a small four-seat car had stopped to let three people without masks into his car while asking them where they were going. I heard this because I was obliged to stop owing to the fact that one of those people had opened the door on the street side to get in.
I travel the Sucker Garden area frequently and am familiar with the gypsy movement. I could not recognize the driver because he wore a mask. I was not able to take down the number of the car because in the meantime traffic had gathered behind me and I was not ready to block the traffic.
This is total disregard of the conditions for lifting the lockdown. I do not think that the legal buses which are now limited to a certain amount of passengers should suffer the consequences of those who demonstrate total disregard for the law.
Beside this, if through this kind of behavior, there is an increase in COVID-19 cases the innocent will again be paying for the guilty. Being on the road is not necessarily a cause for contracting the virus, but sitting with four people, three without masks, in a small car surely is.
By now the police should know that these are the types of cars commonly used by the gypsies. Short distances and quick maneuver.
Even if these people are here legally they are not working legally because “gypsy transportation” is not legal. And it should not be legalized either because this would be encouraging more people to be gypsying. The rules of the Transportation ordinance are already being trampled on with the blessings of every Minister who was in charge for the last nine going on ten years and even before that, so who really cares.
Are we really surprised that a J’Ouvert morning was illegally organized during curfew? What are we actually doing to maintain law and order in this country?
Sorry I got carried away. I’m drifting from the subject matter.
Being on the road already I decided to get some seeds for planting. When I reached where I bought the seeds and taking social-distance into consideration, I made sure and parked my car straight and between the lines.
On leaving that place of business I saw and heard four grown men, one with a mask and the other three without masks, high-fiving each other, while greeting each other. “Since this Corona thing we ain’ see each other,” etc. As I passed by I gave them a not so nice look and proceeded to my car. I noticed that someone had parked a pickup so close that it was difficult to open the driver’s door of my car and was maneuvering myself into the car.
While I was busy a man, whom I recognized to be one of the men without mask high-fiving each other just before, came to the pickup and was going to open the door of the pickup and in so doing getting close to me. So, I asked him to keep his distance. He looked at me surprised and I continued to tell him because he did not have on a mask and that he should adhere to the social distance rule.
While moving back he said to me, “You know how it is.” As I got into my car I answered him, “Yes I know how it is,” took off my mask and drove away. I avoided further conversation and getting to close to that person because winning the argument could never compensate for contracting the virus. I would be running the risk of getting to close to him.
I believe in “Know better, do better”. I left home 9:00am and was back home at 11:15am. Within that short span I encountered two what I consider blatant cases of disregard for the safety of others.
Yes, I know how it is.
Russell A. Simmons
