Higglers !!

[Kold Ass Mofo]

The harassment of people trying to simply walk the beach has changed over the past 30 years. It seems like there are way less 'higglers' than there was 15 years ago but the ones that are left are behaving more like pests and beggars.

I am not talking about the licensed vendors or dudes who have their regular beat, their regular customers, and know not to make a negative impression on the tourists. You know, the tourists, the people who bring all the damn money to the beach.

In my opinion, the new breed of overly aggressive pest-like vendors are just one bad situation away from harming the Negril tourist scene. Welcome to the new world where a bad trip-advisor or facebook post can cost a hotel a season. A firm "no thank you" was all that most of these cats needed to back off. Unfortunately , in the past 12 months I have witnessed some problematic encounters, screaming matches, and begging.

A group of us were walking the beach to breakfast early one morning and an attractive young lady jogged past us. One of these unlicensed vendors of nothing (but crappy dope) ran in front of her blocking her way past while reaching out for a hug. She was clearly not interested. She spun herself around and started back in the other direction. The dude runs after her and grabs her arm from behind nearly taking her to the ground. A bunch of people started yelling for the guy to backoff and he starts verbally abusing everyone.

Great morning, welcome to Negril. Clean this $hit up Negril or suffer the consequences of less and less tourists every year.

The new breed of beggars go something like this:

wanna buy some smoke? NO
come on look at my stuff man. NO
dont you like me mon? NO
how about some money for food mon? NO
what have you done for the Jamaican people, you voted for Bush!

[original spanky]

i agree with the cold ass mofo post. for a while we saw a group patrolling the beach. i thought it was silly at the time but think they need to bring them back. i am guessing the new group are not local but come to Negril from Mo Bay or Kingston.

[MikeyNYC]

Was there for five days at the beginning of this month and thought it wasn't too bad but I also didn't do much night time walking, which I've done a lot of in the past. I only had two annoying run ins. One dude just wouldn't take no for an answer. After telling him no four or five times progressively louder with his replies "listen" "listen LISTEN" "LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN" I stopped acknowledging him as he cursed me and finally stopped trying to walk with me.

The other was some guy that started following me down the beach and was basically just trying to beg a beer. I'll get a beer for my taxi guy if he wants to hang out for a bit or for some people i've become familiar with over the years, but I'm done buying beer for randoms for no reason. After telling him no a few times, he sucks his teeth and says "you just gonna bring all that Jamaican money back to America?" I told him not to worry about what i do with my money.

[brownsd54]

The best thing Jamaica did to curb the negative higglers was the Jamaica Tourist Board Security Police. Those people with the white uniforms and the white pit hat. That's what they did, was to stop aggressive and annoying higglers and beggars on the beach. They watched out for the tourists. If they came across an unlicensed seller or an aggressive higgle on the beach, they would ban that person for a period of time like a week or so. The higglers paid attention to these people because they want or need to higgle, so banning them was a big deal. Where are they now and what can we do to bring them back. Perhaps a work or two to the Negril Chamber of Commerce.

[Captain Oil]

We did not see any of the Jamaica Tourist Board Security Police while on the beach in Negril for 9 days earlier this month. WTF ? ?

[Highlander]

Negril needs to address this Chronic Problem !! I spoke with several of my Jamaican Friends and a Beach Hotel Owner I've known for years and they all agreed.. It's Really Bad !!
And it is not simply trying to sell Smoke... They just seem to want to harass the Tourist. I saw this all the time on the Beach they were relentless... Coming up to your Beach spot also trying to stop everyone that strolls down the Beach !! No one needs that... BTW.. Folks that want Smoke . Are going to Get it anyway !! No Problem with supply and demand . I have no issue with that... So why they need to Bother Everyone.... Aww ! well just venting ... Till the next Reach. Love Ja... P.S. Bring back the Beach Police !!!! Haha..

[original spanky]

as i mentioned in an earlier post i at first thought the beach police was a silly idea. not anymore though. do not recall seeing them in a few years.

[Caferacer59]

90% seem cool to me, the 10% you just need to handle, but it is a drag when folks get aggressive with women who are alone, not cool.

[fargoman]

My experience has been the licensed vendors are pretty respectable..it is the non licensed husslers that are the pain the the buttocks...

[billndonna]

We had a very fun but uneventful week for Easter week with no problems from the Higglers!!