Halloween Night marred by
extreme violence, one death
MARIGOT--Vice-Prosecutor Jacques Louvier has expressed concern that increasingly serious and violent crimes such as those that occurred on Halloween Night are testing the limits of law enforcement, which is not being helped by the fact the treaty on police cooperation between the two sides of the island has still not been validated.
“These recent events are very worrying and unfortunately illustrate the difficulties with regard to cooperation,” Louvier told Le Pélican newspaper in an interview. “The treaty on police cooperation has been validated by France, but it is still subject to a response from the Dutch (The Hague).”
Three separate incidents occurred on Friday, October 31, the first being a brawl between two groups of young people in Orient Bay during a Halloween party where some 60 children were present. One of those involved in the fight was stabbed in the chest with a knife, but fortunately survived and is still in hospital.
A young woman had claimed a little earlier that she had been raped twice in Galisbay in the car of the alleged rapist. An unconfirmed report suggested the two knew each other and the woman had entered the car willingly.
She managed to escape from the car and went to St. Maarten Medical Center on the Dutch side, where it was alleged she had been refused treatment because the incident had occurred on the French side.
Having taken herself to the French-side hospital, she was able to report the incident to the Gendarmes who subsequently located and detained her alleged attacker.
A group of young French persons were attacked by three assailants with knives at an ATM machine in Simpson Bay in the early hours of Saturday morning. One victim died on the way to the French-side hospital and three others were treated for cuts. An investigation is underway, although there are conflicting reports of what actually occurred.
Victims of the ATM incident were due to be interviewed by Dutch-side detectives on Tuesday.
Despite the presence of hundreds of Halloween party-goers in Orient Bay on Friday night, many persons expressed astonishment there was no organised police or Gendarmerie presence there.
Capitaine Stéphane Aurousseau explained that Orient Bay was private and therefore the organisers of Halloween events needed to provide their own security. However, two Gendarmerie patrols were on duty that night, one of which responded to the Orient Bay fight.
Préfet Délégué Dominique Lacroix’s viewpoint is consistent with that of the Gendarmerie, which claims that delinquency in general has gone down, but the incidents that occur have become more violent.
“There is an increase in violence, and it is the same situation in Guadeloupe,” he conceded. “Some of these violent crimes inevitably concern gang members settling scores with other gangs, but other crimes are connected to drug use. Substance abuse is one of the main reasons we see more violent crimes being committed, and it is all over the Caribbean.”
