Dear Editor,
What percentage of gossip is true? I heard a young person telling another one, “You can stick on tint on your car because the boss of the police does tell them not to worry about that.” My police instincts told me to listen further, but I believe that one of the persons in the area pinched him that I was there.
I do not have any details, but I believe where there is smoke there is fire. What I know is that when the police permit wrongdoing it becomes contagious and, as we can see, we do not only have tint, we also have green, blue, yellow and even red lights anywhere on the cars and nobody does a thing about it. Because of the proximity of almost everything on St. Maarten I am indeed inclined to believe that the boss of the police also have noticed that.
But then again, what happened to higher supervision? Should not the prosecutors and/or the Minister of Justice pull up the head of the police sox? Hallo mensen does not the Algemene Politie Verordening (General police ordinance) exist anymore?
Many years ago when my parents migrated back to St. Maarten, my father, who was always interested in my work, told me that there are only but so many roads on St. Maarten With three shifts per day, the police should be able to have patrolled the whole of St. Maarten at least once every two days. When I asked him what was on his mind he said to me, “Not only people who drive should get fines, what about those who keep around their homes dirty? They too should be held accountable for, for instance, dirtying the environment, etc.”
I have heard that the Minister of Justice has plans for surveillance. I applaud that. I will also reiterate, our recruits should go to school on Aruba or Curaçao. After graduation they should work there for about three years and then accordingly return to St. Maarten. It works better that way.
Russell A. Simmons
