“Don’t guard my car”…a tag spreading in Morocco after a murder

A group of Moroccan activists launched a campaign on social media against the harassment of car guards who work randomly in the streets and alleys of Moroccan cities.

What made matters worse, was a murder that shook the city of Fez (central country) during the first day of Eid al-Fitr, in which a young man in his twenties was killed, after a dispute broke out between him and a car guard, over a “monetary” for parking a motorcycle.

Local sources reported that the dispute was due to forcing the victim’s guard to pay the amount of parking his motorcycle in a parking lot guarded by the offender, which the victim refused, which led to a fight between them that ended in the death of the motorcycle owner.

The hashtag “Don’t Watch My Car” (“Don’t Watch My Car”)

This crime brought the demands of activists on social networking sites to rid the streets of Moroccan cities of “owners of yellow suits”, to the fore, as voices rose calling for not giving any “tipping” in exchange for parking, denouncing the failure of the relevant authorities to intervene to deter these self-appointed parking guards. Cars illegally and imposed themselves by force on the citizens.

Activists launched a campaign under the hashtag “Don’t hate my car”, meaning “don’t guard my car”, with thousands of Moroccan citizens participating, calling for an end to the blackmail of what some have called “whistle”, hepatitis in Moroccan colloquial, as a slanderous description of the owners of the yellow jackets.

This is not the first time that Moroccans have risen up on social media against the “cardinals” or “the Mall of the Jelly”, as previous campaigns have been launched under the hashtag “Aito”, meaning “you have exaggerated a lot” and “walk your nakedness on your shoulders” meaning “roll up your arms and work”, In protest against the greed of some guards who are no longer satisfied with the tips given to them, despite their lack of any license.

Contain the “guards” without displacing them

In this context, Adel Chikito, head of the Moroccan League for the Defense of Human Rights, said that the phenomenon of car guards who set themselves up as protectors of the streets has become disturbing and disturbing the mood of car owners. service, and asks you to pay for it.

And the civil actor continued, in a statement to “Sky News Arabia”: “There are also those who practice blackmail against car owners, by uttering dry words that carry a threat, or by suggesting that he has a criminal record, to incite fear in the hearts of some drivers, especially women.”

Chiquito, recorded in his speech, that “uprooting this phenomenon is very difficult, because it requires bold decisions, including integrating these guards by giving them jobs in cleaning or other professions, because it will not be possible to stop the phenomenon overnight, because most of them are families modest and finding an alternative for them is not easy.”

The first source of inconvenience to Moroccans

In the midst of the campaigns launched by citizens on the Internet, a recent study published by the Moroccan Center for Citizenship, regarding the most annoying practices of Moroccan citizens in the public space, revealed that “car guards” are what annoy Moroccans the most.

The results of the study concluded that harassment of car guards is the most annoying practice for citizens in public spaces with a percentage of 17.2 percent, followed by throwing rubbish in places not designated for it with a percentage of 16.5%, then occupation of public property by 9.14 percent, the use of profanity in public places and harassment of women, while harassment of beggars and smoking in public places come sixth and seventh.

debate in parliament

From social media platforms, the discussion moved to Parliament, where Parliamentarian Omar Al-Azraq revealed that many streets and alleys in Morocco are teeming with huge numbers of car guards, some of them randomly and without obtaining licenses to practice this profession.

The parliamentarian for the National Rally of Independents (a majority) said in a written question addressed to the Minister of the Interior, Abdel-Wafi Laftit, that many motorists stand on immoral behavior by these guards, which sometimes amount to blackmailing citizens and forcing them to perform using force.

The parliamentarian questioned the measures that the Ministry of Interior intends to take to combat the phenomenon of chaos in the spread of car guards without licenses.

And Noureddine Boutayeb, former Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Interior, in his answer to the question “the absence of a regulatory framework for the profession of car guarding,” during a session in the House of Representatives, made it clear that the responsibility for managing this issue belongs to the groups with legal jurisdiction, pointing to the movement of the regional authorities with different parties. Intervening parties from national security, royal gendarmerie, and local authorities to “take measures and intensify efforts to confront every act that would disrupt the regulation of traffic and the Golan in general.”