St. Maarten Private Eye

Come on, I can't believe we are still on that topic. I'm 21 years old, for the longest while I am hearing that we are corrupted in sxm but as soon as an outsider say that, Sxm people rebel, although, we know deep down that from the head to the tiny toe that our system is corrupted.
I mean the same people are robbing, lately you are hearing people in our governement hands are filthy for the love of money and power.
I say we cut of the head first than the body will break. What is sxm?
Dutch and french police are at it? We blaming all of the strangers for the problems whereas the strangers are not in power to take some decisions. Respected, honorable people in governement are corrupted.
Yes sxm we are close!! We are near to the end, we will become little Israel, Jamaica, Haiti, Darfur, we will soon bee known for the war but not the friendliness!

Lala 971

It's a slippery slope to beatings and stonings, cutting of hands, heads, etc etc. Really, learn about Sharia before making such an offhand statement about it, it's really quite backward and horrific. Our crime situation is caused by many things and stuffing prisioners into cells like sardines will do nothing to solve it.

It's social and economic, it's engrained in the societal zeitgiest that bending, breaking or just ignoring laws is the norm. Immigration, social care and education dysfuctionality and neglect are part of the problem too and they all need to be fixed.

Prisons should be correctional, the punishment is the loss of freedom, the aim is that when their time is up, the people coming out of them don't recommit crimes. Society has a responsibilty, ethically, morally and logically for it's own good to do this.

Social education and social care is also very important, many young criminals are created from the society we have, from poverty, poor or dysfuctional parenting, from tragedy and hardship. Like it or not, in an ever more crowded society like ours, govt does have to work harder in all these fields. But as we all know, thy haven't. Our crime rate and problems stem from these things, and others.

I'm sure Caribdude planned to put his in his next WWW post, but I'm going to beat him to it. There is a very interesting post and discussion over on the Agonist about the US prison system that you should go check out.

Prison Brutality - 11th October 2007

Also this one is worth a read

Police Raids in the US - 12th October 2007

And if you have time, and you should try to find it, you can find the documentary talked about in the first one at this next link. It's about 45-50 mins long.

Channel 4 Documentary - Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons

Hady

I know what Sharia Law is. And I'm fully aware that our Justice system would not allow such practices. "A little Sharia LAw goes a long way" was meant to indicate the drastic measures which needs to be implemented as a deterent to curb the idea that it is cool to rob, assualt and have no respect for other persons property, safety and security. I'm not asking for Sharia law to be implemented

'Social education and social care is also very important, many young criminals are created from the society we have, from poverty, poor or dysfuctional parenting, from tragedy and hardship"

While it is true that devialnt behavior can be the result of these things. This justification is a cop out. It does not explain why muchof the crime is committed by the offspring of middle to upper class citizens. Of all the reason' stated above, negligent parents is in my opinion the only one that is legit.
It would be interesting to do a survey of the background of the inmates at Pt. Bl. My guess is that many would be surprised in that most of them no nothing about hardship or poverty.

St. Maarten has long been on that slippery slope to ruin, only we chose to ignore the obvious and instead profit from it. By we I mean all of us. We chose to ignore the flow of drugs because it only went through here and many became wealthy. Now it is on the street and killing our youth and the cause for breaking into our homes and businesses
We chose to ignore the corrupt civil servants and elected officials because we knew we could always go through the back door to get what we needed. Now the ones that have the power to grant favors will only deal with big money. We are useless to them.
We chose to allow our judicial and security system to become a joke because only foreigeners were the victims. Now OUR security and islands economy is at risk.
I see very bad times ahead before there is any hope of improvement. I see the gun shops in Marigot unable to stock enough weapons. I see people getting killed (victims and criminals) The powers that be have absolutely no idea how fed up we are with all the shit that has been going on. People are prepared to protect what they have. I see all that cash that has been pumped into St. Maarten in the last four years drying up. I see an economy on the verge of ruin and crime completely and totaly out of control.
Then I see quite a few politicians in jail and the Dutch essentially taking control of St. Maarten ( and they should) I see an economy being rebiult on honest money and hardwork. There is hope but it will take a dedication, committment and accountability that we are not used to. We will have to accept that we cannot do business as usual. If we want improvement it will come at a pirce.
The publication of these reports and all the follow up looks like a concerted effort to make Holland realize that we have been screwed by Curacao for way to long and it is time to point the fingers where they belong.
South, just a couple miles off the Venezuelan Coast.
When Curacao is taken out of the loop and Holland can deal with us seperately, then and only then will we begin to see improvements, BUT are we willing to accept the help and the conditions that go along with it????
This remains to be seen.
In the mean time some public lashings and maybe a hanging or two would make the criminals think twice.

I agree wholeheartedly with "Start Here." I cannot understand the mentality of SXM. This is a small island. When someone commits a crime (robs a store, steals a car, holds-up a tourist, etc), there must be any number of friends, family, neighbors and acquaintances that know exactly what's happened, especially when they read about it in the paper the next day. When an individual suddenly has money, a ride or possessions without having worked even one day, why does no one seem to care where these things came from? I am willing to bet that 95% of all thefts, robberies and hold-ups in SXM are committed by the same small group of thugs. By remaining silent, their friends, family and neighbors are just as guilty. I guess they feel that it's okay as long as the money, car or possessions came from a store, a stranger or a tourist. It's very sad that people here don't take crime seriously unless they are the victim. When thugs get away with their crimes - we're all victims. Get serious! These people need to be put away. On an island this small, we should not have to lock our doors or bar our windows to protect what we work hard to earn. J Swift

"I don't care if you put 10 of them in one cell" this is what was happening before and left unguarded for the longest time untill the prison guard unions decided it was not their members duty to guard so many persons in one cell.
Thats the reason that the justice officials are now having a hard time placing criminals at Point Blanche, it is not that there physically less space than before. After the Prison guard union took up this issue and the court agreed with them, the prosecutors cannot just chock them all in one cell anymore.
So, the problem was there for the longest time, no one cared to bring the shortage of space at the prison forward before.
We can also look into creating a jail on St.Eustatius for several islands, Statia can make money out of this. Statia has the land and it is an island with not much to do, prisoners would rather prefer to stay in then try to get out.

I agree. The Police ,as you said know who and where the" small criminals are ".
But that will not solve the problems. Others will the same day take their place.
What we need is to tackle the big time crime on SXM. The big druglords, the Money launderers, the tax cheaters, the corrupted officials.etc... and just like for the small criminals the Police know who and where they are.
Get rid of the big ones the small ones will disappear on their own. When the sharks are feeding there are hundred of small fish around to live from the scraps.Get rid of the sharks and the scraps eaters will go away.

Well, we got to stop talking and start doing something,,,,the thugs will be replaced, time and time again, the gang BS that is going on is ridiculous, it isn't even a part of St.Maarten OR Caribbean culture. These kids decided to COPY and paste another countries problems to HERE!
We who live here, residents, locals, every color and creed need to band together and do something,,, let's raise some money from an event for a juvenile detention center or something,,, let's make a start before it really IS too late here. The money isn't going to come from gov't right? We all know by now it's got to come from the community!
Is our community ready to take actions, positive actions for positive ways to curb the crime that is getting so out of hand here?

CP

Allow me to disagree with you. Gangs are ,or at the least ,were part of SXM culture. All the different districts had there gang . French or Dutch side. Ask any Sint Maartener in his 50/60's about the gangs . Two of the most infamous been the Middle Region and the Sucker Garden gangs. The difference with the so called today's gangs is that we carried no weapons , fight with our fists and sometimes when things really got out of hand with sticks and rocks. It help us forge character and friendship. Most of these gang members have became strong members of the civil service and the business community.

I am in my mid 40's and I have been on St.Maarten/St.Martin most of the years with a interlude in my 20's so I should remember gangs and gang fights but I don't.
So I ask the previous writer..... did I miss something? I remember sport teams young boys from the different districts having a small ti- tat on the ball fields but not in neighborhoods.
So I will disagree with you, I do not remember gangs in the sense of controlling neighborhoods by controlling youths who would kill or harm others belonging to other neighborhoods.
In my years they used to enjoy using the term but that is because it made them feel tough and super hero like. What we are experiencing today is a melt down of our youth culture where youths carry guns,knives and machetes and will harm others if others trespass on their turf.
This is dangerous and it seems no one is asking who these children belong to, as they were not just jucked up from somewhere right? someone or something animal like must account as their parents. No one wants to hear the truth but the truth is as real as anyone under the age of 18 is still under the supervision and guidance of their parents, parents are responsible.
Then another question is who is supplying the youth with weapons, why have the police not found as yet the importers of all the guns that are walking our streets in the children's pockets. So before we go on and on about how SXM always had gangs which is baloney, I do believe that the youth are listening to music that incites violence and disrespect and hatred, they play video games that have an adult rating yet the parents do nothing about that, infact many parents just go out and buy video games with violence for their small children.
Children will copy anyhting they see in pop culture and I am sad to see that pop culture glorifies gangs, violence, clothing not deemed appropaite outside of prison, and for chirst sake can someone please tell these little children that they look so damn stupid holding their crutch all the time.

Well maybe you missed it for the obvious reason of not being a grassroots Sint Martiner. I"ll add the downstreet gang , the head of town gang , the French Quarter gang and I can go on and on. Talk to Tall Boy, Jocelyn etc....
Now this said , I agree completely with you about the today so-called gangs.
Back in the days fighting was not our premier goal . We got together mostly during holidays to play , find something to do , because there wasn't even TV in those days . THe "fights" will happen when the other guys will go in another district to check out the girls or simply because one had a grudge with an enemy.
What's happening today has nothing to do with what we did back then.
I'll even go further , I've been saying for years that the worse thing that ever happen to SXM is BET and MTV.
About the crutch , back then when one was seen holding his crutch too often ,we knew he either had crabs or the claps. LOL.

You tellin me that Tall boy was in a "gang"? come on.... you mean a Domino kinda gang? FYI am very grass roots as rooty as they can come and I still do not remember gangs. What you are referring to is more like a group of boys who hung out together for fun and liming. As you said there was no tv so the boys would go look up their gang of boys to go look for a good limin spot. This is a far cry from what is reffered today as GANGS with gang members, block control, gang signs and gang tattooes and members pledging for life with their gangsta bitches. gang members touting pittbulls and graffitti marking their turf.
Has anyone seen Cole Bay recently? looks like the heart of gang infested Philadelphia or should i say Kiilladelphia. Anyways, you tried to make your case about gangs having always been on SXM but I think we can both agree that Tallboy and those boys were more the kind of limin frat boys compared to these
hooligans with no education, no morals, no respect, no respect for the human race,no respect for authority, obviosly no mother in the correct sense of the word. What worries me is that sxm is a breeding ground for women just having children without thinking of the consequenses of having responsibilty, how else to explain the 20 plus toddlers at the ICAN foundation? How else to explain teenagers getting pregant (not once- oh no twice as if they did not learn the first time) wearing a school uniform and going to regular school? How else to explain the macho gangsta's usage of the term "I BREED she" as if females are dogs. They have no sense of proper social upbringing and we society keeps saying it has to do with poverty. It has nothing to do with poverty and all to do with parents not teaching their children proper social behavior and allowing them to roam the streets at night hanging out at Greenhouse every Tuesday night during school week. And if I can also add this little tidbit in.... it has to do with the tourism hospitality sector and women working night shifts in Casino's and Hotels Front Desk among other night shifts. I have known women working in the Casino at night that cannot afford to pay someone to watch their children, so they leave the children with an older sibling. Many times older is still a child in elementary school.
I do agree about the MTV and BET as well but it goes deeper than that as parents who are in tune with their children can moniter what they watch and how much they watch.

I see that we are bickering really over the definition of " gang". You don't want to call it a gang, but for us it was. If you were from Middle Region you could not be in the Sucker garden gang. But I agree that it had nothing to do with the gangs of today.
In Marigot , there were 3 gangs or whatever you may call them. The St.James gang, the Sandy Ground, and the Galisbay 's.
If you remember, what they call Sandy Ground today, didn't exist then. Sandy Ground was everything between the Methodist Church and the cemetery. Because of the lagoon that existed between Sandy Ground and St.James, most of the fights were naval battles, that very often ended up with a swim in the pond (as we called it back then).
You don't recall hearing about those gangs, maybe because there was no media coverage of our antics in those days.
Next time you see Tall boy, ask him about this.