MARIANAS Variety’s April 21, 1972 issue featured the Mod Squad, a non-profit youth organization whose goal was to help keep Saipan clean. Specifically, they wanted a “happy, healthy and friendly place to live,” and they also wanted to help the people “in any way possible” while having fun. Community service and the pursuit of happiness. Groovy.
The club was named after the ABC TV Series, “The Mod Squad,” which aired from 1968 to 1973, and it was about the derring-do of three young undercover cops. For their part, the local Mod Squad members collected trash not only on Saipan but on Managaha as well — and this was before the existence of the local tourism industry. They also painted the houses of “the old, poor and incapacitated.” To finance their public services, they opened the Mod Squad Store. Sadly, it was burglarized and $300 of the club’s money was stolen. (Today, that amount is equivalent to about $2,000.)
In the same issue, MV reported that the 19-year-old local defendant in an arson-burglary case was found not guilty by an American trial court judge. The victim was the high commissioner or the HiCom as he was called back then. He was the Big Kahuna — the American chief executive of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands administered by the U.S. The TT had six districts — the Marshalls, the (Northern) Marianas, Palau, Ponape (Pohnpei), Truk (Chuuk) and Yap. Saipan was the capital of the TT. (Hence, the seat of the TT government on island was called Capital, and not Capitol, Hill.)
According to MV, the HiCom’s residence was burglarized and then set on fire on Nov. 30, 1971. The defendant’s trial began on April 17, 1972. The young man was an MHS student. “From the beginning,” MV reported, “a large gallery of high school students looked on.”
During the trial, the American public defender noted that three key witnesses of the prosecution had “long criminal records” — they were “convicts…who have something to gain by giving evidence. Their testimony is not credible.” One of them admitted in open court that a police officer told him that “if I don’t tell them who burned the HiCom’s house he will beat me up.”
In returning his verdict, the judge said the TT district attorneys failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused committed the crime. He said the link between the evidence presented and the defendant was not strong enough to prove guilt.
In an interview after the verdict was announced, the defendant said, “I am very happy because I was not the one who did it.” MV noted, however, that the defendant was also charged, in a separate case, with illegal possession of narcotics and tampering with a motor vehicle.
Over a month later, MV profiled the two candidates for Saipan mayor.
The challenger, who was also the MHS principal, said he sought the support of the Popular Party “but did not get the necessary vote for nomination.” So he ended up on the Territorial Party ticket. Why was he running for mayor? “He said the present municipal administration has been in office too long and has become somewhat stagnant. He said [it] has done very little to meet the needs of the people.” Asked to elaborate, he “pointed out the road conditions in the villages and farm areas as examples.”
The incumbent mayor, who was already serving his second term, was the Popular Party candidate. He said many private citizens wanted him to seek re-election. Asked about his platform, “the mayor said at the moment he cannot give detailed information regarding he subject.” He and the rest of the Popular Party candidates would win in a landslide. Besides the mayor’s office, the Popular candidates for district commissioners (all 11 of them), and municipal council (all 15 of them) defeated their Territorial opponents.
The following week, the Marianas District Planning Office of the TT government reminded Variety readers that in 1968, Hawaii Architects and Engineers Inc. prepared a Saipan master plan. “Many people, however, do not know what has happened since then and what effect the Master Plan has had upon their lives.”
Déjà vu all over again.
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