Loud music outside Cito’s frustrating business owners
Julia Dawson of Maria's by the Sea bemoaned the fact that for the last three weekends, someone from her establishment “has had to call the police about the noise coming from the Cito’s Chinese establishment”.
She asked the acting Commissioner of Police David Morris, who spoke at the meeting, what could have been done to get the issue dealt with. Initially, Mr. Morris thought it was the establishment itself that was blasting the music but it was later clarified that the culprits were owners of cars using speakers to create “a nightclub” environment.
Personally, Morris admitted, he was not aware of the situation. However, he asked Mrs. Dawson if she approached Cito’s proprietor in an effort to iron out the problem. She replied no.
Against this backdrop, he asked if she wanted to handle it in a confrontational manner or as a business community. “…all of us are trying to make a buck in the community and as a business group you can all come to some sense of consensus with these issues without having to end up summoning people to court when it could have been dealt with through mediation and discussions,” Morris pointed out.
Weak legislation and weak law enforcement to be blamed for problem – Eugenia O’Neal
Meanwhile, President of the Anti-Crime group Eugenia O'Neal stated that Mr. Morris was losing the point because she was once threatened by a proprietor, who wanted to sue her because she was allegedly harassing him from making money.
“What people don’t seem to understand is that other countries deal with this, and you have legislation. You are starting up a night club, you have to have something. You can’t just park up anywhere and put up speakers. I mean other countries have rules, they have zoning, they have rules about nightclubs and how they are supposed to operate. Our country doesn’t and basically we are left on our own...I am now being told that I have to take this person to court, and if I find myself in court I have no protection from the Government. I have no protection really. The police come and next two weeks it happens again. I have no protection from the authorities. This is a Wild West situation where basically everybody is left to sort things out for themselves. That’s a country that is heading towards a decline and destruction. If I was a different kind of person I know I would have handled that noise. There is weak law enforcement and there is weak legislation, that is the problem we have here,” Mrs. O’Neal bluntly stated.
She also called for a general noise nuisance legislation to target scooter riders and persons who drag race late evenings on the Waterfront drive.
While accepting her sentiments on the topic, Morris said that “we can sit here and lament on the weakness of the laws” and asked the President if she has spoken to any elected officials.
According to her, she sent out email invitations to the Road Town representative, Hon. Mark Vanterpool and to several other Ministers of Government but they "are a no show".
“…they are not here, it’s not elections time .They were all here for elections, we saw them here before the elections when we had the Main Street meetings all of them including the At Large Representatives. They are not here, now the elections are over,” she disclosed.
Head of the Crime Prevention Department, Sergeant Tilda Henry-Lewis informed business owners that there was nothing in the law to punish bar owners and one law enforcement officer suggested that if there was one, the Trade Department could have declined a proprietor renewal license.
For now, all the Police can do is ensure the music is turned down, unless an individual is willing to go to court to address it once and for all.
She added, "some years ago efforts were made to introduce the Noise Abatement Act" but certain challenges were faced.
"They trained police officers but the equipment were never purchased. The equipment was for the officers to use it for persons who have those levels of music in their cars. So we are just sort of going around.”
Likewise, Morris pointed out that noise nuisance in countries is not a policing issue, "it´s an environmental health issue where the enforcers are the environmental health persons themselves.”
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