Dear Editor,
We are Canadians who visit St. Maarten and read a recent article about a local youth threatening the police and subsequently arrested. As a former police officer I applaud the officers for immediately taking action.
What does concern me is why there appeared to be little police presence in St. Maarten immediately following Hurricane Irma. I have seen videos taken in the weeks after the hurricane and the videos not only showed widespread looting but, in one video, it showed a looter leaving Ace Hardware, arms full of stolen goods and sauntering past a police cruiser – roof light on – and it appeared nothing was done.
I still read reports of people looting building materials from heavily damaged businesses/buildings, but I'm not reading a lot of stories about arrests.
This is concerning for future tourism ... we need to know that SXM is not a high-crime area.
Jim and Judy Quai
Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
