KINGSTON, Jamaica – Protesting public transport operators in the Corporate Area have likened their plight to that of the late George Floyd in the United States.

“Right now di poor people in Jamaica coming like George Floyd right now. And Mr Holness yuh have yuh knee in our neck. We cya breathe! We are fed up. Yuh seh prosperity for di country, show us di prosperity. Listen to di people.”

Floyd was an unarmed black man who was killed by Minneapolis Police during an arrest in May 2020. His death sparked the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement in the United States.

Bus and taxi operators took strike action on Monday in protest against their ignored calls for traffic ticket amnesty from the Government. The operators are demanding the amnesty out of frustration over the more punitive road traffic ticketing system and the threat of being carted off to jail by cops because of unpaid tickets, many of which, the cabbies believe, were issued unfairly.

READ: WATCH: Bus and taxi operators vote to withdraw service on Monday

OBSERVER ONLINE took to the streets to speak with the protestors in the Corporate Area.