Crime in Our Community

A. Davis - you are either paranoid or nieve, I never suggested anybody was doing wrong, I just asked the question who watches the gatekeeper. You only have to open any paper in this country to see numerous examples of abuses of power from people who are supposedly in authority or supposedly watching over those in authority. Just look at our current banking crisis. Don't get "starstruck" by newspaper clippings, everybody is human, everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time.

i stand by my statement.

Just heard that today is the hearing to see if the ATF Agent will be tried in Superior Court.

I guess today we see if the AG's Office really wants to curb the flow of guns into the Territory or be smart and move the trial to the District Court system.

A. Davis - no harm intended

What's this an ATF agent may be tried in Superior Court. Aren't ATF agents supposed to be pillars of society, like I said before we are all human beings subject to flaws in characher (hopefully we learn from our mistakes).

Don't believe the hype.

Unlike all states, the VI government has not given peace officer status to the Feds.
Many are required to carry their firearms at all times but here they may be in limbo if they tried to stop a crime when off duty or if is not a federal crime.
The Feds should take over like T&C just did.

We are moving back to St. Croix in the next few weeks and are no stranger to crime on that island. One night, we parked our boat right outside of Styx and at about 0300, some kid boarded our vessel (unaware that we were asleep in the cabin or even on board) in an obvious attempt to rob us. We immediately chased after him but never caught up to him.

I have a 9 millimeter I want to bring with me and wanted to know if I needed a permit in order to possess said firearm there. In reading your post, am I correct in my understanding that no permit is required to have a firearm in your possession?

Bringing in a gun is not easy at all. Do a seach on the threads to get the details.

You must have a permit to have one at home.

And you must have a special permit to be able to carry it on your person whichi is much harder to get.

Best to Contact St Croix Marksman Asso--340-773-8555

Mr. VanBeverhoudt's work continues...

http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=17639661

Audit prompted by theft finds problems at bureau
V.I. Inspector General's report questions $47,985 in deals awarded to Bureau of Economic Research director's spouse
By ALDETH LEWIN
Friday, September 25th 2009

I have been checking this forum for a while now, but this is my first post in the general boards.

This is a topic of great interest to me as I have firearms and enjoy going to the range. I will be moving to STX in early October and would like to eventually bring my firearms down to be able to take to a range.

To go back to Poodle's original post, "an armed society is a polite society". While that is very true, those who don't understand the purpose(s) of firearms cannot be swayed by any amount of logic on the issue. I have a very intelligent friend who thinks all firearms should be confiscated and only held/used by police because he "doesn't believe in violence". No matter how much I explain that violence will be there regardless of whether or not you believe in it, he wont budge on his position.

I have lived in New Orleans (post K) and currently live in Memphis. Search the crime stats for those two cities and I'm sure you'll find it's a lot like the V.I.

Safety has a lot to do with awareness, regardless of whether or not you are armed. I have never had an issue Memphis and never had one in NOLA, but that's because I knew the areas I was in and how aware I needed to be. However, a friend in NOLA had a (illegal) firearm pulled on him in broad daylight and was robbed. I throw the "(illegal)" in there because the guy who had it didn't have a permit for it because as a criminal he obviously has no regard for law. I guess that's why I think laws are unnecessary; the consciences 'good people' don't need laws to guide them and the consciences of 'bad people' refuse to be guided by law.

Stateside, if you call the police for your safety, you could end up waiting hours before anyone shows up (or dead for hours, for that matter). From what I've read here, it seems it's the same in the V.I. Why not protect yourself? If someone is a serious threat to your life, it is best to be able to respond in kind. Call the police, retreat to the safest area of your house, and have your firearm ready if the intruder threatens your life. Beyond that, if you have a license to carry, you can protect yourself in that instance where your situational awareness slips. I read a story here about some guys coming into a restaurant with (illegal) firearms and shooting indiscriminately; if the manager, or even some of the patrons, were armed, that situation could have been stopped quickly.

Clearly some guidelines are needed for law abiding citizens to own and carry firearms. It is good sense to keep your firearms in a safe at home to prevent them from being stolen and used for nefarious purposes. If concealed carry is allowed (or even encouraged...but I'm dreaming), those who are carrying cannot consume alcohol. Those are just two common sense guidelines that will make anywhere safer.

tl;dr, Allow concealed carry for responsible adults and crime rates will drop.

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.”
-Gandhi

JohnOTD,
I was at one of the restaurants when it was being robbed by 3 gunmen. I do know there were a couple of people in the bar that were carrying legal weapons. The thing is you can't just start shooting back at these robbers when there are 100 people including small children in the way. Fortunately no one was hurt but they did rob a few tourists of wallets and purses.
I do believe in protecting yourself but in some circumstances you can't put other people's lives in danger.
I do feel when it comes to your home you need to protect yourself because the police won't get there for at least 1 hour.
We do have a nice gun range here, I do recommend to anyone to take a gun safety course.

margaritagirl,
I appreciate your input and thank you for giving me a chance to clarify. I do not mean that a legally armed person would just start shooting at the criminals with no regard for the safety of the other innocent people in the restaurant, or wherever it may be. In order to carry concealed, you are required to go through at least some training that deals with A) how to diffuse situations to avoid having to resort to a firearm, B) when you are legally allowed to resort to the use of your firearm and C) how to use your firearm safely and effectively when necessary.
Beyond that, if a person with a CCL violated the laws behind that license, it would be revoked, which adds to the amount of care they exercise in carrying and using that tool.

The incident I was referring to was where someone alluded to criminals coming into a restaurant for the purpose of shooting people, not robbing them. I don't know how credible the story is, but if lives are threatened, it's best to have someone of stopping that threat.

One example I can think of comes from stateside. I don't remember what state it was in, but I recall an article about an elderly man in a McDonald's restaurant who was in the bathroom when a criminal came in to rob the McDonald's (with a gun). The elderly man had a belt buckle that had a hidden derringer. When he exited the bathroom and recognized what was going on, he pulled his firearm and ended the threat. No innocent people were harmed by his actions because this man understood how to use a firearm effectively and safely.

Stateside, if you call the police for your safety, you could end up waiting hours before anyone shows up (or dead for hours, for that matter).

I don't know where you live John but that is a HUGE blanket statement for the entire US. I lived all over the US and have never waited more then 30 minutes for the cops. The 30 minute time was a noise complaint.

Betty,

My apologies for generalizing. I have lived in cities with high crime rates (Memphis, New Orleans, Miami, Orlando) and police in those places tend to have a mentality of showing up after the fact to write a report, rather than preventing crime. Of course, I don't mean ALL police in these cities, but enough of them to make an impact.

The friend I mentioned who was robbed at gun point in New Orleans called the police immediately after as the robber walked down the street and no cops showed up for 2 hours. The worst part is that cops routinely patrolled his neighborhood.

To be fair, I don't know how it is in places like Paducah, KY or Meridian, MS. However, in the cities I have lived in and cities where I have family, I have either experienced or heard stories of unresponsive police. Through my reading of these forums, I have come to expect that it is the same in the V.I.

I want to make clear that I am not an "anti-cop" person. I just understand that a cops first duty is to ensure his/her safety as best they can (because it is a dangerous job) and then to protect and serve. However, lately it seems that the main job of police is to enforce traffic laws and respond to crime scenes to write a report.

you all did see that the killer cop was convicted

It appears to me to be the pattern in more populated areas with higher crime. I lived in Washington, DC for many years - back in the days before it turned "upscale" 🙂 the way it is now. From time to time someone I knew got mugged and police either came hours later or not at all (in one case a friend of mine had to go to a police station on his own to write a report). I had my car broken into a few times and police *never* came (not that I was too surprised). It just comes with the territory.

This is not a universal rule, of course. During approximately the same period in New York City police actually did come out when called. They had a curious pattern whereby for any call an unmarked car would be sent first with a few tougher looking cops to check the situation over - that would take less than 30 minutes, sometimes as little as 5. They'd drive by, assess the situation and, usually, leave. Then a "beat cop" would come out, sometimes an hour or two later depending on the situation.

As an aside, DC is now quite a bit safer than it was 20 years ago (people go out for dinner to nice restaurants and live in "upscale" condos in places which I would not have gone to even for a short visit past 6pm back in the day). Police presence is much higher and they, presumably, respond more quickly to calls - not in the least, I think, because there are a lot less of those calls. It is, however, not the "police work" that changed the situation so much as economic and demographic situation. Crime essentially moved out of the city proper and into a few of neighboring counties.

I was having a discussion with locals on another Caribbean nation, and the topic of rising crime came up. They do not allow gun ownership and someone mentioned training and arming the people as a means of deterring criminals, but it was overwhelmingly rejected by popular opinion as it is felt it would escalate the level of violence as follows; There will always be crime, right now a criminal can pull a gun as a threat to rob you, but if they know you have a gun and may shoot back, they will likely just shoot you in the back first and rob you after. Criminals will adapt, you get a bigger gun they will get something more powerful. Sometimes fighting fire with fire just burns everything down. This is reactionary thinking; the true solution is to figure out the root of why people turn to crime and solve them. Of course this is much much more complicated.

That said these were the views of others, I have no strong feelings to either side of this argument as both can offer valid points; but it is food for thought.

criminals look for the easy mark. Just like the red tail hawks in the other thread, criminals are not likely to attempt an attack on an armed person when there are so many wannabe victims around. One reason people become criminals is because it is easier than studying and getting a good job. For a while it pays better and is more thrilling.

My favorite westerns are the ones in which the towns people, living in fear of the wild gang of outlaws, sees the lone sheriff, doing his duty, ready to stand against evil at the shootout at dawn. At the last minute the shopkeepers and other townsfolk pick up their rifles and handguns and stand with the lawman to put the gang in their place. Only then does peace return to the town. As long as the townsfolk are willing to let the gang walk all over them, that is exactly what the evil ones do.

I am visiting St Thomas next week. What should I watch out for?

Don't hang out in iffy areas late at night. Don't go looking for drugs in scary neighborhoods 🙂 & don't hitchhike or get roaring drunk in public.

Thanks again ~Trade~ That's just good common sense. I'm planning on being at my hotel at dark. I don't have a need to look for drugs (I'm a pharmacist). I have never hitchhiked or been roaring drunk (unless I'm at home).

Don't go flashing wads of cash, don't wear really expensive jewelry, don't leave valued items in the car. Don't leave valued items on the beach while you swim and don't be at a beach alone......just think like a city woman and you'll probably to just fine.8-)

You'd be surprised how many do come here for that but I figured you weren't one of them. Good luck!

Thanks for replying antiqueone! I won't have wads of cash 🙁 I don't own expensive jewelry 🙁 The only item of value I will have on me is an inexpensive camera I will always be carrying. Don't be at a beach alone? Do you mean don't go alone into a crowd or don't be the only one on the beach. Although I won't get in too much beach time on this trip I was planning on going to the beach at the hotel by myself.

~Trade~ although I have never been to VI, I have been to Jamaica and Bahamas and I'm not surprised by drug activity. I am tolerant and I see it from a pharmacists perspective.

Don't be the only one on the beach! Usually not a problem, but...