Almost a year ago I wrote a letter in this publication about the stellar help my wife and I received when our motorcycle crashed on Beach Road.
The cops responded immediately and we received excellent care. The officers are also quick to the scene when reports of domestic violence are reported; they arrest the suspect and take him, or her, away. As one online reader observed, “That’s their job.” True.
But the police cannot be everywhere, and expecting the limited resources of the DPS to put an officer at tourist sites may be too much to ask in the CNMI.
In responding to Variety about the attack on Ms. Vyshikeeva, Perry Tenorio said, “We call on the general public to assist the authorities in putting an end to these criminal acts.”
That is where Charles Bronson comes in, sort of. We all remember the Death Wish films where Bronson single-handedly takes on the bad guys who had killed his wife, or terrorized a neighbor. He was cunning, patient, and would wait for the thugs to show up. Then he’d just shoot them.
It would be terrific if some Bronson-minded citizens, maybe even posing as tourists, staked out the local tourist spots, with cameras in hand. That way they could shoot the bad guys and turn the info over to Crimestoppers. It could be an adventure for a few people who have a free afternoon.
My family and I did something like this last year, and we weren’t disappointed.
We had gone to Wing Beach for swimming and snorkeling. The parking area is small, and can only accommodate a few cars. When we arrived, there was already one car there, a rental. The tourists were Russians, because we heard them talking on the beach. Other than the Russian tourists, it was just me and my 3 family members.
Knowing of the likelihood of bad guys showing up, we took turns sitting near the car, but out of obvious view. During the time we were on stake-out, no car arrived. However, when we were packing up to go home that we saw a blue Dodge pickup with black windows coming slowly down the road. It entered the parking area and did a slow turn. The driver obviously saw us watching him. Then the pickup moved back down the road, toward the highway, and stopped — about 100 yards from the parking area.
We all saw the truck stop, but nobody got out of it. There was no reason to stop; there isn’t anything there — just bushes. We came to the conclusion that whoever was driving was waiting for us to leave. We were a little concerned about the tourists who were in the water, their car unattended, but none of us spoke Russian to warn them. Nevertheless, as we drove past the blue truck I memorized the license number. When I got home I called Crimestoppers about a suspicious vehicle. I also mentioned this vehicle to my friend in law enforcement and he knew the truck; he didn’t say if he knew the owner.
The person on the phone at Crimestoppers was quite interested in the information I passed on, and asked me about the driver, whom I briefly saw. He was a middle-aged man with a small mustache; I didn’t see the passenger clearly. But it was clear to me that they were not visiting Wing Beach to go swimming.
So, to echo Perry Tenorio’s suggestion, I encourage all citizens who have a free afternoon to visit one of the popular tourist spots, play Charles Bronson, and see if you can get a photo of the bad guys. If you get lucky, it could be quite an adventure, and Crimestoppers offers a cash reward if your info leads to the arrest and conviction of a thug.
Another thing.
My family and I got pulled over into a DPS checkpoint one evening. Turned out that the kids, who were in the back seat, were not wearing seatbelts. I got fined $50. I didn’t know that people in the back seat were required by law to wear seatbelts. Especially since every day I see pickup trucks with a lot of people riding in the back, and they aren’t wearing any seatbelts either. This strikes me as crazy. Obviously, the people in the back of a pickup are putting themselves in greater danger than those in the back seat of a car. And yet, the DPS is OK with this. So is, apparently, the U.S. Department of Transportation. I know this because I sent them an email asking about passengers in the back of a truck.
Yes, the DoT is OK with it, but not seatbelt-less passengers in the back seat of a car. But, as we know, a month ago a young man died when he tumbled out of the back of a pickup. No good.
Another risk, and a bad one.
We have all been in our cars at a traffic light and notice that the license plate of the car in front of us does not have a current registration sticker.
Sometimes the vehicle is a junker and the last year of inspection and registration was 2006. This is of concern.
If the vehicle does not have a current registration, that mean that the car does not have any insurance. So if I get hit, or injured, by one of these unregistered cars or trucks, then I won’t receive any compensation from the other guy’s insurance company. I can always sue the other driver, but chances are he hasn’t any money, so that will be a merry waste of time.
At a party a couple of weeks ago I was discussing this with a friend. I said that if I had to guess, it would be that 30% of the vehicles on Saipan are unregistered. My friend replied, “Probably more.”
Of course the DPS is perfectly aware of this, but does not seem inclined to do anything about it. It would be easy to hold checkpoints — as they do for seatbelts and alcohol — and check the sticker on each car’s license plate. In truth, no unregistered vehicle should be allowed on the road, but our Saipan roads have thousands of such vehicles.
About all one can do about the lack of Public Safety is to make some noise about it. Perhaps if enough people complained loudly enough, something good may actually happen.
An educator, the author resides in Oleai, Saipan.
