Marigot:--- First vice president Daniel Gibbs whose portfolios have been taken away by the president of the Collectivity Frantz Gumbs has written a letter to the French Minister of Interior and Overseas Affaibrs Brice Hortefeux. The first vice president highlighted the crime situation on St. Martin shortly after the First Deco employee Pascal Delalosa (44) was murdered.Gibbs said St. Martin is entering the 2010- 2011 tourist season and the people of St. Martin deeply regret the murder of one of its citizens which is added to a list that is already too long.
He said he took the initiative to write to you today (as I have committed myself in the local press) it is because Saint-Martin is dying and that none of the aspects of the modest collective existence does not reassure him. The notorious absence of security and the no less troubling increase of delinquency and crime appear in the forefront; criminal acts follow each other at a particularly disquieting pace. Aggressions on persons and (sometimes armed) burglaries are skyrocketing.
The first vice president said he is more concerned about the situation as they are confronted with a sleeping Collectivity who is leaving the State with the entire responsibility of maintaining order in Saint-Martin. He made clear that he does not subscribe to that theory and he already made requested that the numbers and the intervention areas of the Territorial Police be increased.
Gibbs said if I do not contest the responsibility of the Collectivity in its denial of reality, even though he believes that the State has its share in this matter. Saint-Martin is part of the Republic and must, in that respect, be treated like any other national territory in matter of security and public order.
Since the beginning of 2009, Frantz Gumbs has promised a video surveillance in the sensitive spots of the island. Nearly two years later, we still do not dispose of this device which, in his viewpoint, is one of the elements of a true political will in matter of security.
Gibbs said on the economic side St Martin cannot not overlook the crime situation since the island only source of income is tourism. Despite the silly remarks made by Senator FLEMING and President GUMBs. He further explained that St. Martin cannot afford to be blacklisted on the American blogs and forums.
Actually, if the death or injury of a tourist is not more important than that of a resident, each being absolutely as respectable as the other in times of misfortune, to these human tragedies is added an economic dimension on account of the negative impact they generate.
Finally, and correlatively to the direct and real damages caused to persons and property, the palpable atmosphere of anxiety and fear emerging from this situation, the media repercussions on the markets are truly a disaster for St. Martin's economy.
"You know it, the socio professionals have drawn the attention of State authorities for years, they took initiatives, proposed directions of action, participated in all the work sessions which took place on that topic, without the successive State authorities in Saint-Martin seriously considering the true measure of this question. It is true that we only had a sub-prefect when we were a commune and today as a Collectivity only a delegate prefet who does not enjoy the full authority of the prefet of a region. Yet, we are repeatedly told that those means are amply sufficient; it seems obvious that they are not! A denial of reality, I have already said, shared by the territorial authorities
Mister Minister, this letter is truly a cry of distress! I am appealing to your sense of Statesmanship and order, and I solemnly request that you give a special attention to the "state" of Saint-Martin in order to prevent the insecurity on the island to pull us down into a permanent economic and institutional collapse." The letter concluded.