Ignore Mayor McKenzie

It is good that yesterday's first day of the initiative by the police to remove higglers from no-vending areas of downtown Kingston went reasonably peacefully.

We are disappointed, though, at what appeared to have been an attempt, passive though it might have been, by Mr Desmond McKenzie, the head of the city's local government, to frustrate the effort.

Of course, Mr McKenzie will assure us that that was not the intent of his waffling remarks about people's rights and the authority of the local government.

What we say is that the police must not allow populist diatribe to dissuade them from doing what is right and imposing order in public spaces.

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