12 April 1919 · Haitian
Four women are arrested twice in one day for selling without a licence
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On the morning of 12 April 1919 the gendarme Bernadel arrested four young women at Petit Goâve, Louise Ismael, Marilia Lindor, Claircia Delva and Claircilia Telisma, for obstructing traffic and peddling without a licence. They were released a few hours later without paying anything. Before sundown the same four were arrested again on the same charge. The American officer who reviewed the case concluded that the peddlers had worked out they could avoid punishment, which made the Gendarmerie's job impossible. The file was then opened as a charge of negligence against Bernadel. He had sent the women to the Bureau Communal to buy a licence and imposed no penalty of his own. His commander wrote that a fine or some other punishment was necessary so that other peddlers would obey the law. What the record wanted from him was a larger tax or a beating. The women's own conduct became the evidence used against the Haitian who declined to supply either one.
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