George,

You asked about witnessing an incident at the city market last Saturday.

My daughter and I were at the city market at about 9am last Saturday. We noticed Mr. Uriah J. Fields as he began to sing. Several of us turned to look. People seemed to be enjoying his singing, which to me added to the beautiful sunny morning. As we walked through the crowd we saw a city employee of some sort (maybe he had on a Dept of Recs shirt) calling to him to stop and come and talk to him. Mr. Fields replied that he did not have to; that it was his right to sing, talk, whatever at the market. He kept walking and singing.

The confrontation made us both uncomfortable. We wondered why the city employee would have a problem with the singing. Then we saw that Mr. Fields was talking with two city police officers across from the market on South Street. We thought the confrontation was unnecessary, and that the singing was a nice addition to our morning at the market. Maybe others saw the incident and have an opinion.

Jeanette Rosenberg and Julia Perry (electronic mail, June 4, 2004)