UPDATE: Cabbies protest over alleged police harassment, reiterate call for taxi park in Christiana
MANCHESTER, Jamaica — Scores of taxi operators Thursday morning blocked a section of the Succeed main road in north east Manchester over what they claim is harassment by the police in Christiana.
READ: Christiana taxi operators threaten to protest over alleged police harassment
The operators downed trees and used debris to block the main road in support of their colleague, Jermaine Cunningham, who was captured on video engaged in a tussle with cops after resisting arrest over an alleged traffic breach.
In the near two-minute video, which has gone viral on social media, one of two police officers used a baton to hit Cunningham.
Cunningham is accusing the police of physically assaulting him while he was in their custody at the Christiana police station on Wednesday.
“The police dem beat me yesterday… and dem handcuff me and carry mi guh uppa station and handcuff me pon the bench. The police box me inna me face,” he told journalists Thursday morning.
Firefighters and the police were called in to clear the blocked road.
This is the second protest in six months over the same parking issue – taxi operators blocked a section of the Succeed main road in March.
The taxis previously used a private property as a parking area, but it is now under construction for a commercial building.
The taxi operators say the parking arrangement on Wildman Street, commonly referred to as Market Street, is dangerous.
– Kasey Williams