If we want less crime in the territory, it is up to the community; it is up to us. That’s what V.I. Attorney General Vincent Frazer told Rotary Club of St. Thomas Sunrise members early Tuesday morning. It was more than a wakeup call.
Frazer backed his blunt statement with a barrage of ideas and facts. If the Virgin Islands is ever going to be a peaceful community, the attorney general said, it is up to each one of us to take part.
"I believe the time has come," Frazer said, "that we must band together as law-abiding, hard-working residents of this community to rise up and say, ‘Enough is enough. We will no longer tolerate the intrusion of violent crime into our neighborhoods and our schools.’"
Frazer is one of a series of speakers the club has invited to speak in its Practice Peace initiative. Peace and conflict resolution is one of Rotary International’s six areas of focus and will be the core focus for Rotary Sunrise during its 2013-14 Rotary year.
Frazer did say there has been a downward trend in the last three years in the number of criminal complaints and information that has been filed. Contrary to media reports, he said, evidence indicates crime totals have been reducing on St. Thomas since 2011.
Frazer spoke of successful crime initiatives in the past seven years but said there are still "unacceptable levels of violent crime in the community."
The absence of community peace is the most critical issue for the territory, according to a recent poll done by the Source, Rotary Sunrise President Shaun Pennington said. It is the goal of the Practice Peace initiative spawned by the club to reduce violence by 75 percent over the next 10 years.
Frazer said he applauded the club’s goal and offered his support.
Frazer lamented the fear of the criminal element which he said has "practically destroyed the nightlife in Charlotte Amalie, Christiansted and Frederiksted."
"Even churches have changed their schedules to avoid congregants being out after dark,” he said.
“I believe criminals are comfortable doing these things because they believe the citizens of the community will not come forward and tell the police what they know," he said. "Even juries have been intimidated, refusing to convict because they are afraid of the criminals."
Where do we start?
"We need to stop the criminal from holding us hostage," Frazer said. "If all adult members of this community will participate and give the police the information they need, regardless of who the defendant may be, we will be headed toward the goal. He said when we are able to do that, “75 percent reduction will be within our range."
But Frazer said there is much more. "If parents with young children, especially boys, will make an effort to ensure their sons don’t grow up to be gangsters, we will head off the next generation of juvenile offenders.”
"We need the community, the village, to gather around the next generation, currently toddlers and elementary school children who are still impressionable and need nurturing. We need the community, the village, to gather around these youngsters and speak positive words into their ears: speak hope and ambition, speak respect for fellow human beings, speak promises of love and support," Frazer said.
“If we smother these youngsters with words and action, we will not have a generation of youth who are growing up without hope, without a sense of God. The community must help before it is too late."
He applauded My Brother’s Workshop and the V.I. Housing Authority programs which help direct young people to positive futures. "The earlier we engage in that process, the greater impact it will have," he said.
Frazer also said neighborhood community leaders need to organize their members. Even if the criminals don’t go into the homes of their community, they will terrorize other neighborhoods. "The criminals are mostly kids that grow up in that community," Frazer said. "Why does the community that raised the young man allow him to go around instilling fear in the same people who watched him grow up?
"The police can’t chase him away because he lives in the community and has a legitimate reason for hanging out there," Frazer said. "But the community residents can say to him ‘Stop it and get out of our neighborhood.’ The neighborhoods can do this because they have the VIPD behind them as an enforcer, if the community invites the VIPD into the neighborhood."
“If the community makes it clear it wants crime to stop, it will have taken on the responsibility for bringing peace to its own environs," Frazer emphasized.
He said the community is the missing element in the territory’s battle against the rise of crime. "The Virgin Islands is a relatively small community in which everyone can know everyone, thus we should not have the level of violent crime that we do," he said.
Frazer concluded with this plea: "Let the community join with enforcement entities to put a halt to crime.”
In answer to questions afterward regarding federal agencies cooperating in preventing guns from coming into the islands, Frazer said the federal agencies are "not as cooperative as they need to be." He said, for instance, a person can bring a gun in a suitcase that he has filled out information for at his destination, but the V.I. has no means of obtaining that information.
Rotary’s 107th birthday is Feb 21, also known as World Understanding and Peace Day, which is being targeted as the kick-off date for a major peace summit.
These talks by local community leaders whose work is focused within those areas affected by violence, as well as individuals who hold the keys to solutions, pave the islands’ road toward that summit.
For more information on these speakers or how you can support this community effort, contact Pennington at 340-777-8144.
