Dear Editor,
An article published on the front page of The Daily Herald on Tuesday, October 27, 2015, stated that four youths (R.L.G (15), K.R (17), D. de B (15), and M v.d.s. (15)) were arrested on St. Eustatius. What ever happened to these four Statia youth?
On July 6, 2016, three of the four boys graduated from the Gwendolyn van Putten School and will continue their education in the Netherlands and the United States. One boy will remain in Statia to complete one more year of HAVO. Two of the boys settled out of court, while the other two carried their case to court, ultimately receiving no more punishment!
The arrest of these children occurred on October 26, 2015, between 5:45 and 6:30am when five to seven police officers from Bonaire forcefully entered their homes and screamed “police,” violently pulled the children out of their beds, slammed them on the floor, pushed their faces to the floor, handcuffed and blindfolded them, and brought the children to the police station in their boxer draws. The children were screaming.
Within hours, two of the boys were sent to Bonaire where they spent ten days incarcerated in the correctional facility. The other two boys spent five days remanded in the Statia’s police holding cells. The accusation was multiple robberies and embezzlement.
Why were these children arrested so violently? Could this become a normal practice in the Caribbean Netherlands? The children and the parents asked these questions throughout the entire legal battle that ended July 5, when the two boys who went to trial received their sentence, a conditional US $500 fine and two years’ probation.
The boys vandalized a police car. Their reasoning was that the police violated their rights when they came to their school and violently arrested some of their friends on school grounds (who were released the same day). They wanted justice for something they observed as unjust police brutality.
Taking the law into their hands and vandalizing a police car was definitely not a wise decision. But, did this teenage indiscretion deserve their being arrested like terrorists or drug lords?
In the Wretched of the Earth (first published in 1961), Franz Fanon states that in a colony, the police “are the official, instituted go-betweeners, the spokesmen of the settler and his rule of oppression.” Is Statia still a colony where those that challenge the status quo face persecution, prosecution and police brutality?
Throughout the entire legal process the Prosecutor was unapologetic for how the children were violently arrested (and remains so). The general attitude was that these children deserved what was coming to them. Is anyone in the Caribbean Netherlands concerned about the violation of human and children’s rights? At any time, could another child be arrested in a similar manner and incarcerated?
Another illustration of a human rights violation is the difficulty experienced when trying to find proper legal counsel. Proper legal counsel is part of what encompasses a civilized society. However, when entangled in the web of the legal system in the Caribbean Netherlands, you have to fight to get through.
For example, without ever meeting any of the children, or simply speaking to them on the phone, when one parent and son decided not to accept the harsh plea that was offered by the Prosecutor (80 hours community service and 3 years probation), the defence attorney told them: “With all due respect, but you try to picture your son as a saint, which in fact he is not … your son should be really ashamed of himself and take his community service as the tough guy he apparently wants to be. There is absolutely no reason for him to be angry! If he would have behaved himself, he would not have been arrested and not been detained in Bonaire.”
This attorney’s statement is tinged with racist undertones and stereotypes. The child in question is of African descent. Mr. defence attorney, not all black children are or think they are tough guys and/or are criminals in the making! Also, where did you get the idea that the child was mad? Another racialized assumption – black anger and aggression.
The child in question is a serious and intelligent young man who recognizes that his rights were violated. It is actually disturbing that these racial prejudices remain prominent in the Caribbean Netherlands. If a defence council can hold such prejudices toward their own clients, then anyone who enters the legal system in the Caribbean Netherlands is tenuous at best!
After this communication, new legal counsel was sought and all parents were satisfied with the legal paths that they choose for their children. However, to date, the manner in which these children were arrested has not been critiqued or analysed. Since the violent arrest has not been exposed and condemned, will it become normal practice in the Caribbean Netherlands? Whose human rights will be violated next?
The parents have done their best to teach their children that they must be held responsible for their actions. At the same time, the boys have learned how to legally defend themselves when they observe basic human rights violations. Similar to these four Statia youth, this should be a teaching and learning moment for the Caribbean Netherlands and represents an opportunity to frame these experiences within a human rights context. However, the opposite is happening. All that is heard is silence. Hey! It is time to wake up!
Dr. Teresa E. Leslie
Eastern Caribbean Public Health Foundation
