E-mail this page1995 — Public Service
You Said It: Get Tough On Crime
|
More than 100 readers called Tuesday and Wednesday with suggestions for solving the territory's crime problem. The calls came from all three islands, from young and old, from male and female. Every caller sounded angry about crime and much of what's to blame: inefficient and corrupt police, lax laws, out-of-control juveniles, incompetent and negligent prosecutors and an ineffective prison, probation and parole system. Callers were asked to give their name and island, and the following are the remarks of those who did. Anonymous callers' remarks are not printed. None offered ideas that weren't also expressed by people willing to give their names, with one exception: A woman said that since "real life cop" shows on TV routinely show police being careful with evidence and signing it in and out of the evidence room, the V.I. cops should be forced to watch those shows every week. "I have a serious problem with the attorney general's incompetency. These attorneys just plea-bargain too many cases, and I think it's up to her to call the shots. We need a stronger AG's Office. We don't need this weak thing we have now." -- Shirley Swan, St. Croix "Hire an experienced attorney general, probably a graduate from Harvard or Yale school on the mainland. We probably need to hire a new chief of police. I don't see any problem with hiring experienced people. Juveniles should be tried like an adult from age 15 and older." -- George Walcott, St. Thomas "Create a rotating police force from off-island." -- Judy Smith, St. Thomas "When it comes to juveniles, we cannot publish their names, but I do not believe there is a law that says we cannot publish their mother's, their father's or both of their names." -- Ann Eaton "Capital punishment will do a great deal to solve problems." -- George Paul, St. Croix "We need to put a much greater emphasis on our home life and instill within our children a great sense of respect and honor for each other. We must learn to respect life and property." -- Pastor Kenrick Bukle, St. Thomas "Curtail plea bargains. Get some kind of computer system to keep track of information prosecutors may need for their cases." -- Anita Berhardi, St. Thomas "Youths need some place to go when they drop out of school, some place to go and learn a trade. Don't leave the kids to plan their futures -- you have got to make a future for them." -- Gideon, St. Thomas "The crime series makes the case that crime and malperformance so permeate the Virgin Islands that everything should be changed simultaneously. "But this would be impossible: There are not enough resources. "Instead, we need to do the best we can with what we have, and that is a mathematical programming problem. "We have budgetary constraints and skill constraints and time constraints. Dollars spent on police have different benefits from those spent on drugs or guns or juveniles or the judicial system. And the societal distaste differs for thieves as opposed to murderers as opposed to rapists. "Mathematical programming not only can select the best crime relief program -- that is, the most effective overall combination of departments and how they should be funded and staffed -- but also will show how additional resources could best be employed as well as what would happen if resources were taken from one department and given to another. "Such a model would be illuminating and vastly improve crime control. It is time we stopped horsing around and studied the organizational problem from an overall perspective." -- Wayne Corcoran, Ph.D., St. Thomas "We ought to hire the police from Chicago or New York because they have cleaned up those cities. That's the kind of policemen we have to get down here." -- Julie, St. Thomas "Police officers should be rotated periodically off-island. The Strike Force is an abomination and should be completely disbanded, especially if you're unable to fire the bad eggs. Promote or expand the special operations forces, which seem to be a lot more effective and less embroiled in controversy." -- Ellen Stewart, St. Thomas "The government should change the police officers. Send the St. Croix police here and the St. Thomas police there -- shift them around. Change some of the people high in the departments. Their families are committing these crimes, and they do not want to prosecute them." -- Janet Baptiste, St. Thomas "Instead of probation, put them to work -- clean up these buildings and the streets." -- Tina Baker, St. Thomas "Eliminate the idea of shielding the identities of our juvenile offenders. If they can pick up a gun and shoot it, we should print their names and pictures on the front page in big red letters." -- Andy Young, St. Thomas "All these prosecutors and Rosalie Simmonds Ballentine should be disbarred for negligence. The judges and lawyers are not doing the job. Let's bring in the federal government and clean this mess up." -- Richard Blum, St. Croix "Get politics out of crime, out of the criminal justice system by electing judges as you would elect the governor and the senators. That would keep them from having to be partial. Raise the standards for prosecuting attorneys and raise their pay. Clean up the Police Department and raise the standards to qualify. Also raise the salary. Improve community involvement." -- Enim, St. Thomas "Please keep reporting these things that are happening and please name names and show pictures of people. This keeps the whole thing on the forefront and in the public's mind. "We need capital punishment. As a fifth-generation Virgin Islander, I believe this will make a difference." -- John Canegata, St. Croix "It's going to involve the concerted effort of the general public, working along with the police. The first place that must be looked at is the police organization. The public has got to demand the kind of police force it wants." - Police Lt. Alberto Donastorg, St. Thomas "The Police Department should be totally replaced -- every single police officer from the commissioner all the way down to the patrolman. We should bring in outside officers like they do in the French islands for one-year terms. They can't have any relatives here. We need capital punishment. They should put a prison on French Cap Cay. Put them way out there." -- Bruce Short, St. John "If you do the crime you do the time. I don't think the millions of dollars we have saved by plea bargaining is worth having all these criminals on the streets. Hand slaps do not work." -- David Charles, St. Thomas "The senators and the law bodies need to reintroduce worship into our public schools. When a child has a sense of religion they seem to grow up in a more prosperous frame of mind." -- Victor Brown, St. Croix "Stop letting criminals off so easy." -- Ashawn Lindquist "Teach our children the fear of God and respect for life. We as adults need to be role models they can pattern themselves after in speech and action. Juveniles should not be protected and should serve some time for their crimes." -- Joy Daniel, St. Thomas "Get at-risk youth involved in a boat-building and sail training program to get youth the skills they need to live a disciplined life. Act 5664 established a V.I. Maritime Academy in December 1990, but nothing has been done. The maritime industry is a labor-intensive industry, and we could really help the youths." -- Capt. Mike Phelps, St. Croix "Put the truth of the Bible and prayer back in school. Churches must come out from the pews and pulpits and into the community. We need more street ministry, more outreach. We need more honesty in government spending. The leaders of our community, they are setting a bad example." -- Jacqueline Reese, St. Thomas "To solve the crime problem you need to cut off the source: teen pregnancy. They have no idea how to raise their children." -- Linda Martin, St. Croix "Flogging is an action that can help prevent crime. Some parents can't take care of their kids and could bring them into the police to be flogged. The person who is doing the flogging would not be identified." -- Janville Andrew, St. Croix "We have a number of roadside cleaning contracts that should be eliminated because prisoners should be keeping the roadside clean. They can be paid from the contract money, which they can then use to support themselves and families while incarcerated. Additional guards can also be hired from the moneys we now give to the contractors. "We can't really alleviate the crime problem until we have people competent enough to help us with it. I was shocked at the stories about the prosecutors. I am in the 20-25 age bracket, and I can't see myself staying here and going to school when things are like this. This is such a small place, yet we have so many departments, committees, police -- it's beyond me why we have this crime problem." -- Athena Page, St. Thomas |
