http://themoderatevoice.com/192083/where-journalists-dare-to-tread-the-grim-reaper-soon-follows-2/
Drugs
and Crime Make For A Nasty Hangover:
The
View From The Virgin Islands
By
John McCarthy
Moderate
Voice Columnist
Did you ever notice how some of the most
dangerous places in the world for journalists – are also the most dangerous for
civilians?
When it bleeds it leads, as the old
newspaper adage goes, but that also means that a lot of journalists get caught
up in the fray.
The mystique of the foreign correspondent overseas doesn’t extend to places like Honduras, Colombia and Venezuela.
Honduras holds the dubious distinction of being the world’s murder capital. But only five journalists have been killed there since 1992. In Mexico, journalists are self-censoring to save their own lives. Forty-five journalists have died in Colombia over the same period.
Not to say that I’m disappointed, but it does almost skew the stax enough to destroy the premise of this piece -- because Venezuela's murder rate is roughly half that of Honduras at 45.1 per 100,000 people.
The mystique of the foreign correspondent overseas doesn’t extend to places like Honduras, Colombia and Venezuela.
Honduras holds the dubious distinction of being the world’s murder capital. But only five journalists have been killed there since 1992. In Mexico, journalists are self-censoring to save their own lives. Forty-five journalists have died in Colombia over the same period.
Not to say that I’m disappointed, but it does almost skew the stax enough to destroy the premise of this piece -- because Venezuela's murder rate is roughly half that of Honduras at 45.1 per 100,000 people.
Experts say that 42 percent of all
cocaine headed to the United States and 90 percent of all cocaine flights
transit through Honduras. The drug trade, which also involves illegal gun
running, is harder on civilians than journalists.
Most of the murders of journalists are by native-born people on native-born people. So a reporter who is blown to bits by a roadside IED in Kabul is different than a journalist hung from a bridge in Nuevo Laredo – same result, just different ways to get there – and statistically more “foreign correspondents” die in the war-torn areas of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
According to the United Nations, Afghanistan had just 2.4 killings per 100,000 people last year. Honduras, at the top of the charts, had 91.6 killings per 100,000. Despite knowing those facts, I don’t believe Americans would chose to vacation in Kandahar over Tegucigalpa.
It might be counterintuitive – but the region I live in – where white sand beaches, tropical breezes and turquoise ocean waters prevail – is a hotbed for murders. In fact, the U.S. Virgin Islands has a higher murder rate than Uganda in East Africa. According to the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) -- St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John have a murder rate of 39.2 per 100,000 people while Kampala’s is 36.3.
In fact, in these places where “corruption is rampant,” the same percentage of violent offenders – two percent – are jailed in Honduras as are jailed in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands Daily News on St. Thomas won a Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for pointing out that fact.
“The attorney general was recently suspended amid charges of corruption and incompetence,” National Public Radio reported on Tegucigalpa’s murder rate. “And the current police chief has been linked to extra-judicial murders and disappearances.”
I once asked the local police chief in St. Croix about a murder of an American expat that took place in the Gallows Bay area in the 1990's and was told: “Well, John, that guy wasn’t well liked.” The wheels of justice turn slowly – or not at all – for murder victims who have no roots in the place they are killed.
“My constituents also repeatedly called the local police for updates into the investigation, but were rebuffed and told that if they continue to call their case will be moved to the ‘bottom of the pile,’” United States Senator Robert “Bob” Menendez (D-NJ) wrote about the murder of 41-year-old expat James Malfetti III in St. John last month. “Even after over two weeks, the police have told the parents that they have not begun to trace the stolen cell phone.”
Sen. Menendez also alleged that the Virgin Islands Police Department “discarded forensic evidence” and failed to do Detective 101 stuff like dusting for fingerprints at the crime scene. From my experience, Senator Menendez’s call from New Jersey is right – and unfortunately for us who live here – this one case is representative of them all. Most violent crime prosecutions are botched and bungled in a way that is disrespectful to the murder victims themselves. Menendez asked the FBI to help.
Places you wouldn’t think to be dangerous on vacation – often are. Destinations like the Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago and St. Kitts-Nevis have murder rates of 36.6, 35.2 and 38.2 respectively per 100,000 people. Jamaica is No. 2 in the Caribbean for murders – it ranks in at 40.9 per 100,000 people. Belize, though technically the northeastern coast of Central America – is culturally considered to be part of the Caribbean (where computer wiz John McAfee ran amuck in 2012) – it has the rare distinction of being the region’s murder capital at 41.4 killings per 100,000 people.
The two tourist hotspots of the Caribbean – Cuba and the Dominican Republic – are a tale of two political systems when it comes to murders. In Havana you are "safe, mon;" but, off the north coast of the Dominican Republic they literally beat and hung a French tourist on his own yacht last year. Still, Santo Domingo's rate is more like Puerto Rico's at 25.0 per 100,000 people. (Cuba’s murder rate is roughly twice that of Afghanistan’s.)
Honduras has eight million people and had 7,172 murders in 2013 – by comparison, Puerto Rico, an American Commonwealth about 120 miles north of here – had about four million people (before the economic exodus) and 1,136 murders in 2011. In one Honduran city alone, San Pedro Sula, 1,200 people were killed. New York City – with 22 million people had "only" 417 murders last year.
One blog site, “The Canal” claims that one of the islands that make up the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico – Vieques (which was written about in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and “The Rum Diary”) is the per capita murder capital of the world at 160 per 100,000 people with just 17 murders per year. People in the nearby British Virgin Islands tell me when I go to play tennis in Road Town, Tortola – that I must be “suicidal” to live in its United States namesake.
But even in our worst year (2010) St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John "only" had 66 murders with a population of roughly 100,000 people. The whole territory could fit into the University of Michigan's football stadium -- so what would the reaction be if all 66 people were murdered in the stands during one game? Sounds like a Hunger Games sequel. Somehow when murders are spaced out over different days, they are more palatable to the public.
I guess Virgin Islanders should be grateful that only one person was killed every six days here in 2012 – when at least 20 people are murdered per day in Honduras. In our worst crime years, this unincorporated territory of the United States is closer to the Ivory Coast’s murder rate of 56.9 per 100,000 people.
I have a statistically small sample – but my best guess is – that people here are not “well pleased” by that news.
The Virgin Islands is the only part of the United States never to have had an incidence of terrorism -- or the death of a journalist -- at this writing.
Kind of ruins the premise of this piece - but I count those two facts as good things in my book.
Most of the murders of journalists are by native-born people on native-born people. So a reporter who is blown to bits by a roadside IED in Kabul is different than a journalist hung from a bridge in Nuevo Laredo – same result, just different ways to get there – and statistically more “foreign correspondents” die in the war-torn areas of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
According to the United Nations, Afghanistan had just 2.4 killings per 100,000 people last year. Honduras, at the top of the charts, had 91.6 killings per 100,000. Despite knowing those facts, I don’t believe Americans would chose to vacation in Kandahar over Tegucigalpa.
It might be counterintuitive – but the region I live in – where white sand beaches, tropical breezes and turquoise ocean waters prevail – is a hotbed for murders. In fact, the U.S. Virgin Islands has a higher murder rate than Uganda in East Africa. According to the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) -- St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John have a murder rate of 39.2 per 100,000 people while Kampala’s is 36.3.
In fact, in these places where “corruption is rampant,” the same percentage of violent offenders – two percent – are jailed in Honduras as are jailed in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands Daily News on St. Thomas won a Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for pointing out that fact.
“The attorney general was recently suspended amid charges of corruption and incompetence,” National Public Radio reported on Tegucigalpa’s murder rate. “And the current police chief has been linked to extra-judicial murders and disappearances.”
I once asked the local police chief in St. Croix about a murder of an American expat that took place in the Gallows Bay area in the 1990's and was told: “Well, John, that guy wasn’t well liked.” The wheels of justice turn slowly – or not at all – for murder victims who have no roots in the place they are killed.
“My constituents also repeatedly called the local police for updates into the investigation, but were rebuffed and told that if they continue to call their case will be moved to the ‘bottom of the pile,’” United States Senator Robert “Bob” Menendez (D-NJ) wrote about the murder of 41-year-old expat James Malfetti III in St. John last month. “Even after over two weeks, the police have told the parents that they have not begun to trace the stolen cell phone.”
Sen. Menendez also alleged that the Virgin Islands Police Department “discarded forensic evidence” and failed to do Detective 101 stuff like dusting for fingerprints at the crime scene. From my experience, Senator Menendez’s call from New Jersey is right – and unfortunately for us who live here – this one case is representative of them all. Most violent crime prosecutions are botched and bungled in a way that is disrespectful to the murder victims themselves. Menendez asked the FBI to help.
Places you wouldn’t think to be dangerous on vacation – often are. Destinations like the Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago and St. Kitts-Nevis have murder rates of 36.6, 35.2 and 38.2 respectively per 100,000 people. Jamaica is No. 2 in the Caribbean for murders – it ranks in at 40.9 per 100,000 people. Belize, though technically the northeastern coast of Central America – is culturally considered to be part of the Caribbean (where computer wiz John McAfee ran amuck in 2012) – it has the rare distinction of being the region’s murder capital at 41.4 killings per 100,000 people.
The two tourist hotspots of the Caribbean – Cuba and the Dominican Republic – are a tale of two political systems when it comes to murders. In Havana you are "safe, mon;" but, off the north coast of the Dominican Republic they literally beat and hung a French tourist on his own yacht last year. Still, Santo Domingo's rate is more like Puerto Rico's at 25.0 per 100,000 people. (Cuba’s murder rate is roughly twice that of Afghanistan’s.)
Honduras has eight million people and had 7,172 murders in 2013 – by comparison, Puerto Rico, an American Commonwealth about 120 miles north of here – had about four million people (before the economic exodus) and 1,136 murders in 2011. In one Honduran city alone, San Pedro Sula, 1,200 people were killed. New York City – with 22 million people had "only" 417 murders last year.
One blog site, “The Canal” claims that one of the islands that make up the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico – Vieques (which was written about in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and “The Rum Diary”) is the per capita murder capital of the world at 160 per 100,000 people with just 17 murders per year. People in the nearby British Virgin Islands tell me when I go to play tennis in Road Town, Tortola – that I must be “suicidal” to live in its United States namesake.
But even in our worst year (2010) St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John "only" had 66 murders with a population of roughly 100,000 people. The whole territory could fit into the University of Michigan's football stadium -- so what would the reaction be if all 66 people were murdered in the stands during one game? Sounds like a Hunger Games sequel. Somehow when murders are spaced out over different days, they are more palatable to the public.
I guess Virgin Islanders should be grateful that only one person was killed every six days here in 2012 – when at least 20 people are murdered per day in Honduras. In our worst crime years, this unincorporated territory of the United States is closer to the Ivory Coast’s murder rate of 56.9 per 100,000 people.
I have a statistically small sample – but my best guess is – that people here are not “well pleased” by that news.
The Virgin Islands is the only part of the United States never to have had an incidence of terrorism -- or the death of a journalist -- at this writing.
Kind of ruins the premise of this piece - but I count those two facts as good things in my book.
©
2014 John Francis McCarthy/Secret Goldfish Publishing House
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