Dear Source,
There is no such thing as "senseless shooting" or "senseless violence." Except for domestic violence whose reasons are so personal and obscure as to seem senseless to non-participants, all violence and shootings involve money from illegal activities and witness intimidation.
Such violence has diminished across America where prostitution, drug sales and other activities that are the causes of territorial battles for control of segments of the public spaces have been forced off the street.
Instead, in the Virgin Islands, we see officials in flagrant non-feasance of local and immigration law. We all see an increasing flaunting of such activity in many well-known areas.
It may be senseless to criminalize by legislation behavior we are prepared to accept in reality. The fact of criminalization creates high profits worth the while of some to shoot and kill.
Where stands the Legislature? The administration? The police? The churches? The Chamber of Commerce?
We either must enforce the law and clean the streets of prostitution and illegal drugs, or decriminalize these public activities. It is we collectively acting senselessly and these contradictions that stain our streets in blood.
Michael Paiewonsky
St. Thomas
