Police and Drake's Seat vendors lined up Thursday morning at the scenic overlook in what might be called a Virgin Islands standoff. As vendors made moves to set up their wares, police officers told them they were not allowed to do so.
One officer confirmed that he had been sent to the scene to stop the vendors from setting up. One vendor, who refused to give her name, said she "didn't get anything in writing" and added, "Show me the papers" that say she could not set up shop at the overlook.
Attorney General Iver Stridiron said Wednesday that if vendors were selling at Drake's Seat, they were there illegally.
District Court Judge Thomas K. Moore on Friday suspended a 1985 preliminary injunction issued by the District Court that barred the V.I. government from evicting vendors from Drake's Seat. Moore said that unless attorneys for the two vendors who filed the suit against the government present additional compelling arguments in the next two weeks, he will dismiss their motions to make the preliminary injunction permanent.
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Deputy Police Chief Theodore Carty told the Source on Thursday morning, "We are going to enforce the court order. We don't have any choice. If the court says they (the vendors) can't set up, then we are going to stop them."
Carty said the police are prepared to be there every day if need be. "And if they try to set up, we have no choice but to arrest them."
Despite Moore's latest ruling, two or more vendors have continued to conduct business at the site all week.
Stridiron said Wednesday that the governor was very concerned about the vendors' fate and was working diligently to find them another venue. One place being considered, he said, was an unoccupied house next to the recently completed overlook on Valdemar Hill Drive.
The vendors, who had been paying $75 a month to Housing, Parks and Recreation for the space at Drake's Seat, have already rejected offers to move to Long Bay and to Vendor's Plaza.
In his decision Moore suggested that Housing, Parks and Recreation has had no legal authority to issue location permits. That function still belongs to the Police Department.
Attorneys for the vendors said in court documents that some Drake's Seat vendors were making as much as $1,000 a week at the site.
