MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — The police’s plan to crack down on problematic windscreen wipers in Montego Bay has been enthusiastically received by those among the group who blame out-of-towners for sullying their hustle.

“Them don’t come from here and them come a mash up the place,” one man who plies his trade on Howard Cooke Boulevard in the heart of the western city told the Jamaica Observer.

He did not wish to be identified by name.

“[They should] go back a town or the police take them and send them back to Kingston where them come from and see if the place don’t run better,” he asserted.

During the most recent monthly meeting of St James Municipal Corporation, operations officer for the parish, Deputy Superintendent Lynroy Edwards, signalled that they would be cracking down on windscreen wipers who have been committing a range of violations.

“We have the windscreen wipers who are operating at the various traffic lights becoming a nuisance to motorists, particularly the females,” Edwards told the meeting last Thursday.

“They are very elusive — from time to time we have to chase them — however we managed to arrest two and it’s ongoing,” he added.

Edwards said the police had noted that a number of the windscreen wipers are not from Montego Bay but have taken up residence in the town centre.

“Based on our intelligence and operations we conducted in recent weeks, the location at Fish Market, Orange Street and Williams Street is occupied by some of these unscrupulous persons,” Edwards said.

According to Observer sources, the group of windscreen wipers from out of town who are causing the problems are located at the intersection of Jimmy Cliff and Howard Cooke boulevards.

Windshield wipers from Montego Bay, like the one who spoke with the Observer on Howard Cooke Boulevard, are concerned that the police may crack down on them because of the actions of a few troublemakers. The windscreen wiper said he was recovering from surgery and needs to keep earning.

“Right now I can’t lose this because I go through all a surgery and right now all of my gut get cut up; so this mi haffi gwaan do,” he explained.

He said the out-of-towners have been snatching phones and bags from cars.

“I don’t need to be wiping a car and see a phone and take it away and then tomorrow I’m out here again; and is that them doing,” said the man.

“Why would I grab something and then tomorrow I’m out here again? They are making it bad for good people like we,” he added, obviously annoyed.

Another windscreen wiper is of the view that the police know out-of-towners are the root of the problem so he and other locals have no need to try and elude cops.

“In a real life, down here so don’t really give any trouble, from day one; a mostly up near the stoplight and a mostly some town boys, Half-Way Tree them come from,” he revealed.

Some of their disturbing behaviour, he said, includes hurling insults at motorists or spraying water on cars of those who refuse to pay for services forced upon them.

He said he has been a windscreen wiper for more than two decades and intends to do all he can to protect the hustle that has helped him take care of his family.

“No bwoy can’t come on my block come mash up my ting. A here so mi eat, my youth them eat, a more than 20 years I’ve been here. I have my shop up in the market but mi not telling any lie, anything I have in life a here so mi get it from,” he declared.

“The people them giving us them $10, $50, and $100, I have to respect them. I don’t know about a next man, but I won’t be the one to try and disrespect them,” he added.

A windscreen wiper at work on Montego Bay’s busy Howard Cooke Boulevard.