Today’s story about five youngsters ages 17 to 20 years standing trial on robbery charges is symptomatic of the current situation in St. Maarten. Youth delinquency with all its consequences has become one of the island’s most pressing problems.
Many reasons are often given, such as poor parenting, an inadequate education system, lack of recreational possibilities, few job opportunities and no real prospects for the future, but also gangster rap and violent video-games. Still, the highly aggressive manner in which these robberies were allegedly committed makes one wonder how things could have come to this in a relatively peaceful community.
And it’s not incidental either. Members of the group in question are said to be responsible for a string of armed robberies and other serious offences, while there have been several similar cases in the recent past.
More undoubtedly needs to be done about the circumstances mentioned that contribute to so many youths ending up on the wrong path. Prevention in this sense is very important, but those involved must also be punished severely regardless of their age, to teach them a hard lesson that such antisocial behaviour doesn’t pay and, in the process, send a loud and clear message to others who might want to follow in their footsteps.
It’s probably tough for families, relatives and friends of the suspects to read the latter. However, the general interest must ultimately prevail and certainly a tourist destination with a one-pillar economy can ill afford to allow the kind of lawlessness in the streets that undermines the feeling of public safety on which the hospitality industry largely depends.
In other words: Do the crime, do the time.
