1110 Fidler Lane
Silver Spring, MD 20910
U.S.A.
June 22, 2010
Ambassador of France to the United States Pierre Vimont
Mr. Romuald Muller, Police Attachè, Police Cooperation Department
Philippe Caillol, Senior Liaison Legal Adviser
Embassy of France
4101 Reservoir Road, NW
Washington, DC 20007
RE: French Gendarme Policies and Procedures in St. Martin, Guadeloupe
Dear Honorable Ambassador Vimont, Mr. Muller, and Mr. Caillol:
I am an American citizen who traveled to Orient Bay, St. Martin, between 20 May and 5 June 2010. I am nobody "special" or "important", just an American tourist. On or about May 22, 2010, I was assaulted on the Orient Bay public beach by an employee of Club Orient Resort while sitting on a beach chair I rented from an establishment known as "Pedro's". I paid George US$50 for ten days' use of a beach chair and umbrella. I was situated (facing toward the water) to the left of the sign on the beach stating "Please, No Cameras" and to the left of the sign posted on Club Orient Resort property announcing "Nude Beach". In short, I was on a public beach which is not the property of Club Orient and I had a reasonable expectation of safety in an area clearly not part of the Club Orient property.
At approximately 1030 hours I was approached by a man wearing a shirt that had "Security" written on it. He said he worked for Club Orient Resort, but he refused to give me his name. He told me "many people have complained" about my cameras, and I must give him my cameras so he can delete any photos he deems offensive. I told him I was not on the property of his employer and he has no right to touch my cameras regardless as I am not a customer of Club Orient Resort and he has no authority over my behavior. I told him George, the vendor from Pedro's who rented me the chair I was using, told me photos are not against the law as long as they did not have nude children in them, which they did not. In fact, there were no children in sight on that day while I was there. He said if I don't give him my cameras, he will take them from me. He was a black male approximately 30 years old weighing approximately 230 pounds and standing over six feet tall; I am 60 years old, disabled, and unable to defend myself from a person that size and strength. In an attempt to diffuse the situation, I placed my $2500 Nikon Digital SLR camera and lens in my camera bag along with my less expensive Canon digital camera.
When I did that, this Club Orient Resort security guard then literally ripped the bag out of my hand, resulting in a serious injury to my right index finger which remains painful today. I am unable to use this finger to type, hold my briefcase, fasten buttons, tie my ties, etc. My productivity at work has become limited. After my bag was forcefully taken from me, I followed this security guard to his employer's office on Club Orient Resort property. My property was handed over to the person behind the reception desk. She also refused to give me her name. She said I had a choice: I could agree to the deletion of all my photos, or they would call the French police. I told her to please call the police, as they had no right to destroy my photographic work, they have no authority to censor any photographs on my digital memory cards, and their security guard had assaulted me in stealing my property and I wanted to file a criminal report.
After calling the police, the Club Orient person reformatted both my camera memory cards effectively deleting all my photos taken since my arrival on St. Martin, including commercial photographs of businesses I intended to use in travel reviews. She then handed me back my bag and cameras and told me to leave the property and never return. (As a result of this warning to stay away from their property, I never returned to Pedro's beach chair and essentially lost the US$50 I paid George. I did not want to risk an arrest by your Gendarmes for "trespassing" even though it is a public beach and not the property of Club Orient. I feared I had become a target of the security officer and your Gendarmes because of the theft of my property and the injury I sustained. I limited myself to a small stretch of the public beach near the L'Hoste Hotel where I was staying for the remaining 12 days of my vacation. I was intimidated).
While walking to my car, I met three Gendarmes who had been called to the Club Orient Resort. I told them what happened. They instructed me to follow them to the Club Orient office, which I did. I was told to wait outside while they spoke with the people involved. Ten minutes later they came outside and told me I could file a report, but the Club Orient people were prepared to file a complaint against me stating four of their employees found child pornography on my camera.
I went to the Gendarmerie near Grande Case (number Seven) to file a report of theft and assault resulting in injury. They had been told by the three responding officers the information they had received from both myself and the Club Orient employees, including the security guard who had assaulted me. At the police station I spoke with a total of four of your officers. All of them refused to give me their names. A young officer roughly thirty years old with a pudgy face was openly hostile towards me, and pointed to his shirt saying his name was "Gendarme". He kept insisting, as though it was a fact, that I was a child pornographer, and under French law, I could be arrested, the record of my arrest would be public knowledge as a child predator, and I could be imprisoned for thirty years. He further told me since I had my camera bag in my possession, no theft had occurred. He then said before they would accept any charge of assault, I had to go to the hospital, be examined, and bring a certificate from the doctor. But he and his supervisor again warned me that if I filed any charge against any employee of Club Orient Resort, I would be arrested and charged with child pornography. I found this threat strange considering they demanded my two cameras and saw for themselves the memory cards had been erased and there was absolutely no evidence of this false allegation other than the willingness of the four employees to lie under oath to protect their employee from an arrest for assault and theft. In fact, there were no photographs at all.
I went to the Emergency Room of the hospital in Mairgot, was examined, and received a certificate of the injury. When I arrived home, I went to my doctor, who examined my finger and said I needed an x-ray to determine if the Club Orient security guard had broken my finger. It was not broken, but severely sprained (two weeks after the assault).
The reason I am writing with this history is to request a clarification from you or the proper French authority on St. Martin. In the United States, law enforcement protects victims, not criminals. In my many visits to France, law enforcement authority rests with sworn duly-appointed police officers, not private security guards.
1. Is it the policy of the French Gendarmes to refuse to identify themselves to the public when asked?
2. What authority do employees of a private business have on the public beach at Orient Bay to take the private property from tourists and citizens alike?
3. When tourists are assaulted on the public beach at Orient Bay, what should they do? Do the French police actively patrol this area of the beach, or do they intentionally avoid this area to give the security guards carte blanche to engage in aggressive and violent behavior against tourists?
4. Is it the policy of the French government to intentionally reduce reported crimes against tourists at Orient Bay and St. Martin to protect tourism-related businesses?
5. Is the taking of photographs at Orient Bay on the public beach illegal, or just the taking of photographs of children who are nude (which is illegal in the United States as well)?
6. Is it French law that if property is stolen and subsequently recovered, no crime has been committed, as stated by your pudgy Gendarme at the police station outside Grande Case, St. Martin?
7. Does French law prohibit witness intimidation, such as use of unfounded threats of prosecution and imprisonment against victims of crime to dissuade them from filing a criminal activity report?
8. Is it the policy of the Gendarmes on St. Martin, Guadeloupe, to actively discourage tourists from filing reports of crime to prevent a decrease in tourism-generated revenue on the island? Did these same law enforcement officers destroy the written documentation they produced on this incident? They had notes from the three investigating officers, my statements, and my personal information from my identification document (my Maryland driver's license).
9. Was the intent in establishing the Gendarme station outside Grande Case, St. Martin, to assist tourists who have been the victim of crime?
10. How many reports of assaults or thefts at Club Orient Resort or on the public beach adjacent to Club Orient Resort have been reported between January 1, 2010 and June 30, 2010? How many reports of cameras being thrown into the water on this section of Orient Beach have been received during the same time period? How many injuries have been reported on this same section of the public beach during this time period?
I have never been arrested in my sixty years, I am permanently disabled and have difficulty walking due to severe spinal injuries, and I work as a consultant supporting the United States government in national security with an active Top Secret clearance. As a result of the threat of the Gendarmes at the #7 Grande Case police station, I did not return with the certificate of injury I received from the local hospital in Marigot to file a criminal charge against the employee of Club Orient who stole my cameras, severely injured my finger, and forced me to go onto Club Orient property to retrieve my property after they permanently deleted my photographic work. I am not a bad person. I am the victim of criminal behavior by an employee of Club Orient Resort and intentional witness intimidation by your police officers at that police station.
In an editorial written on March 20, 2010, by the local newspaper in St. Maarten, The Daily Herald, reference was made to the unsafe conditions on the French side of the island: "... in a society where, as many contend, the Justice system is failing citizens, for it does not have the resources at its disposal to deal with the crime situation." Perhaps your Gendarmes have developed a solution of systematically not reporting crime to create the impression such criminals such as the Club Orient employee who assaulted and injured me do not exist? In another editorial in the same newspaper published February 9, 2010, it was stated "...crime is becoming a serious threat to the local tourism economy and if it gets out of hand things quickly could turn very sour..." Tourists from all countries need to know if the island has become unsafe due, in part, to police corruption and incompetence.
Your timely response to this letter is greatly appreciated. In it, I request that you provide me with the names of the four police officers on duty that specific Saturday (May 22nd) and Sunday (May 23rd) if it does not violate French privacy laws. I would also appreciate information on any resulting action the French Government will take as a result of this information. I cannot image this occurrence is so normal that your officers have no recollection of this incident as it involved a total of seven of your officers (three taking the information at Club Orient and four at the station).
I will refrain from going very public with the crime dangers in St. Martin from both criminals and your Gendarmes until I receive your response or September 1, 2010, whichever occur first. Hopefully your information will dissuade me from pursuing the matter any further.
Most respectfully,
Claude F. Bordelon
Cc: U. S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D, MD)
U. S. Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D, MD 8th District)
Prefet Jacques Simmonet, Prefet, St. Martin
Silviane John, Director, Tourist Office, St. Martin
Nancy Trejos, Travel Section, Washington Post
TripAdvisor.com
Roger F. Snow, President, The Caribbean Herald NV D.B.A The Daily Herald
Managing Director Mary Jane Snow-Hellmund, The Daily Herald
