Page 6 THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 1977
Crime wave
Juveniles burglarize
Virgin Island stores
United Press International
CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S.
Virgin Islands — Stuart Lawrence
has had his home broken into twice,
had two cars stolen and thieves tried
four times to break into his watch
repair shop. He is thinking of leav
ing.
Another businessman who oper
ates a chain of clothing stores in the
Virgin Islands has had all of his
stores, as well as his apartment,
burglarized. The youthful burglars
were apprehended. But he still
hasn’t recovered all the merchan
dise.
“I have to look at the kid going by
on his bike with my pants on every
day,” he says. He is thinking of sell
ing out.
“We’ve got to do something be
cause people are screaming for pro
tection,” says John Maduro, a
lawyer who represents the island of
St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands
territorial legislature. “We’ve got
people threatening to blow off the
heads of other people’s kids.”
Maduro wants to bring back capi
tal punishment.
Mrs. Edith Bornn, a local lawyer
who handles many juvenile cases in
family court, said the community
deserves protection from certain
16-year-olds who have already
committed 16 burglaries and are
still out on the street because of the
revolving-door type justice.
Just when the Virgin Islands
seemed to have overcome the fall
out from the shocking Fountain Val
ley golf course murders of 1972, a
new but different type of crime
wave is threatening this self-ruling
American territory of 100,000 per
sons, whose main livelihood is
tourism.
The new wave involves crimes
against property, principally
burglaries. Most are committed by
boys and girls under 18 who cannot
legally be jailed. They also cannot
be held in a juvenile detention
home because there is none at pres
ent.
While just about everyone agrees
that the problem is serious, there is
disagreement on its causes and how
to deal with it.
Troy Chapman, a Washington
D.C., native who runs the local Law
Enforcement Planning Commis
sion, said the juvenile crime wave
— more than 53 per cent of all
felonies are being committed by
persons under 17 — is due to two
factors.
“First, there is no facility to keep
people. They’re out on the streets
doing it again. And secondly,
others, who may be on the fringe of
the scene, see that the juvenile de
linquents are getting away with it
and then they start doing it too. It’s
contagious, in a way.”
But the police force is to blame,
according to one businessman who
asked not to be identified because
he says whites are already more
likely to get parking tickets than
blacks and he doesn’t need any
more trouble with the police.
“The cops are too close to the
scene. They don’t want to arrest the
kids of their own relatives,
neighbors or friends. I don’t think
they’re getting a rakeoff from these
burglaries — they’re not smart
enough for that. But they just don’t
want to bust anybody.”
it’s an attitude of who the heck gives
a damn.”
Gov. Cyril E. King proposed stif-
fer sentences for burglaries and a
drive to get federal funds to build
new detention facilities.
Another businessman blames a
“general laxity, a lack of dedication
to upholding the law.
“Nothing is being done about
some very serious matters,” he said.
“It’s the lifestyle of the West Indies;
But the legislature watered down
some of his proposals. King pro
posed a mandatory minimum five-
year prison sentence for a first-
degree burglary conviction —
breaking into a home or business
with a weapon and with intent to
steal. The legislature gave the judge
an option of a lesser term or sus
pended sentence on the first convic
tion. Only the second conviction
now carries the mandatory term.
King proposed making parents of
juveniles liable for twice the amount
of property loss or damage. The
legislature reduced it to the amount
of the loss or damage. It gave the
parents a chance to excuse them
selves of any culpability.
King has signed the watered-
down measures. But U.S. District
Court Judge Almeric Christian says
nothing will be achieved by them.
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