I was recently in the basement of a police station where confiscated goods were stored. These included boxes of bananas, peaches, pears, snack bars and sweets. It was a pathetic pile, taken from hawkers selling them illegally on pavements. Losing it must have been a giant blow for them. They probably had to pay a fine as well.
I am always in two minds about hawkers who trade in violation of by-laws on the curb or at busy intersections. They are often messy and a nuisance. Yet they are trying to make a living under adverse conditions.
It's a lot of effort for little return, with police often harassing them or asking for bribes even when trading legally.
Tunisia has just experienced a government overthrow sparked off by the treatment of an illegal hawker. An official slapped a young man, Mohamed Bouazizi, and tossed aside the fruits and vegetables he was selling on the street. It was the last straw - he set himself alight with gasoline outside a government building. This act set off protests by unemployed youth that brought down Tunisia's dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
Could something similar happen here?
We have seen some hawker protests, but small-scale and not joined by others.