Habiba, Jacob and I are currently off island visiting relatives, but judging from the many telephone calls we’ve received about the murder of Juan Ayala yesterday on St. John, it seems that the sense of sadness and shock that has resulted from this incident has been shared by all residents of John, regardless of economic position, race, nationality or any other subset of St. John society. There seems to be a willingness to do all that is necessary to solve the crime and get to the root of a problem that everyone seems to recognize to be harmful to all the people on St. John.

I would like to emphasize at this point, that all in all, St. John is a safe and peaceful part of the world. We now have to recognize that on this island where crime was just about unknown, that this is no longer the case. Drugs, disaffected youth, economic disparities and other social problems now effect St. John, like just about anywhere else in the world.

However, by and large, crime on the island is still relatively rare. If you’re not obviously inebriated staggering down the street late at night, or involving yourself in a drug deal, regular people can still walk about Cruz Bay safely. The same goes for the trails and the beaches, although I wouldn’t suggest leaving your valuable articles unattended, either. The best bet is to use one’s good judgement as one would anywhere else in the world.

St. John locals are by and large, extremely friendly and very helpful. Hopefully, this horrible crime will not go unpunished and will galvanize positive action in the community to prevent an escalation of crime on this, for the most part, safe, friendly and beautiful part of the planet.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Life on St. John USVI. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.