The hair braiders who work at the Tourism Village are once again up in arms. Their beef this time is with tourism police officers who they claim have been harassing and depriving them of, literally, their daily bread. But the braiders say that today a female police officer crossed the line when she cuffed and allegedly roughly hauled away a pregnant braider because she went inside the flea market to buy lunch. That hair braider is Linda Gillett who is 7 months pregnant. Simeona Bacab and Carol Wade recounted to us what happened and three other braiders vented about the continued harassment from police.
Simona Bacab, Hair Braider
"She (the policewoman) was telling her to move from there and she said she can't move because she was going for her food and she was hungry and she shoved the walkie talkie in her back. So on the way coming back now, she shoved the braider and the braider shoved back and then she shoved the thing in the braider's eye."
Carol Wade, Hair Braider
"She took the handcuff and bent her hand, a pregnant woman with a big belly. She is to have baby at anytime and the girl was crying and she locked her up and put handcuff on her and pushed her. We are sick and tired of this, this is the only way how we make our money."
Hair Braider #3,
"Everyday these girls take their jobs seriously, they come out here to come and braid hairs. If the police they don't feel like sending you in to go and get a job, you won't get a job. They have all the girls sitting here right now because of that incident which happened. I think it is abuse. I think all the girls get abused by the police out here, even me."
Hair Braider #4,
"We know we give trouble but it is not everyday we give trouble and I think we are all women, all single mothers and they have to treat me with respect and we will do the same thing to them. They can't come harassing us and the grabbing us. We are out here from the morning and the majority of us out here are single mothers."
Hair Braider #5,
"They have no right to call us dogs and yell at us because we are females. They don't treat anybody else out here like this. This is what we have to deal with every single day. We don't have no bathroom, we don't have no running water, we don't have nothing and we have to pay and I don't think that is fair us."
Police say that the detained hair braider Linda Gillett will be charged for insulting a police officer. Under an agreement with the Tourism Village, 2 hair braiders are allowed to solicit inside the village at half hour intervals. As for the flea market, police say the owners do not want the braiders inside.
