The incidents with window cleaner in the main streets and avenues of the Dominican Republic seem to be never ending problem. Violent and threatening actions on the part of these people are frequent in the country, despite the fact that authorities have tried to stop them on several occasions.
The disagreements of the drivers with the glass cleaner They have caused glass breakage, vehicle scratches, stone attacks, and even deaths.
The most recent case occurred on Tuesday, January 31, when a window cleaner he threw a block at the window of a young woman’s vehicle, who was injured on the forehead for allegedly refusing to give her money for a service she did not request.
The event occurred on Olof Palme street, corner of Núñez de Cáceres avenue in the National District, after the driver left her residence to look for her sister who was at the university, around 9:00 at night, according to explained a relative of the affected woman who did not want to reveal her name.
“The guy wanted me to give him forced money and, since she had no coins, she grabbed a block and slammed the glass of the door and cracked it, causing a deep wound on her forehead,” she recounted.
On this case the National Police identified the attacker this Friday as “Four fingers” and He called on the young woman’s relatives to file a formal complaint to proceed with the investigations of the place.
By July 2018, a window cleaner he was killed during an operation carried out by the Municipal Police of the National District, who was looking for an exit from Los Próceres avenue, John F. Kennedy corner, in this capital.
During the operation, one of the municipal police officers took a weapon from the soldier assigned to the unit, pointed it at the window cleanermanipulated it and fired at him.
He Council of Councilors of the National District approved in July 2017 the resolution 17-2017 which ordered the removal of the window cleaner of the streets and avenues of the city, a measure that was not met due to the lack of coordination between the related entities, such as the Office of the Defender of Public Spaces, the National Police and the Municipal.
The resolution instructed, on that occasion, to hire at least 30 of the 50 people registered in the streets and avenues in the Directorate of Public Service and Urban Cleaning, however, over time this practice was discontinued.
Back then, the window cleaner they confronted several municipal police officers in the National District who carried out the Zero program Window cleaner which prohibited the presence of people engaged in this activity at traffic lights on the streets and avenues of the city.
The same year, the Mayor’s Office of Santiago de los Caballeros decided to prohibit window cleaner at the main intersections of the city, an action that was carried out at that time, when it was observed that these characters disappeared from public spaces.
One of the reasons that led to the prohibition of these individuals in the streets of the National District and Santiago was the attack on a journalist at the hands of a glass cleaner on Abraham Lincoln Avenue with John F. Kennedy for refusing to accept his services.
“I had not been detained for thirty seconds when a window cleaner approaches me to whom I tell him that I did not accept his services and he leaves, but another very insistent one immediately arrives to whom I make signs that I do not want to. By saying no with my hands , on several occasions, punches my front window”Journalist
In April 2015, a war scenario was also experienced, after the measure taken by the General Directorate of Traffic Safety and Land Transportation (Digesett), at that time the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Amet). The window cleaners rebelled against the agents and made their position clear, not to withdraw from the streets and avenues of the city.
