By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
The U.S. Virgin Islands offer some of the world’s best beaches, such as Magens Bay and Coki Beach, where you can swim with sea turtles if you’re lucky. There is parasailing, kayaking, shopping and gobs of tropical food and drink. For the most part, the tourist areas are relatively safe, at least during the day. The Virgin Islands Police Department tries to make sure of that.
Most Americans spend only a few hours in the Virgin Islands after their cruise ship docks near Havensight Mall and lets them off right next to cheap duty-free shops. Truth is, they’re lucky they can leave,
Residents and longtime visitors face an unbelievably high amount of violent crime. In fact, the USVI has consistently maintained one of the worst violent crime rates in the world.
Unfortunately, the Virgin Islands Police Department has done nothing to stop the hundreds of shootings and killings that occur each year, because the VIPD is busy shooting and killing folks themselves.
In March 2003, I was an investigative reporter at the Virgin Islands Daily News. I wrote “Deadly Force–A Special Investigative Report,” which was 44-pages long and examined the Virgin Islands Police Department’s officer-involved shootings from January 1985 to December 2003.
It found:
- In the 85 shooting incidents reviewed, 65 of the victims were unarmed.
- The 85 police shootings resulted in the deaths of 28 people.
- Only 17 of the people who were shot by police and survived were charged.
- VIPD records unit lacked information about involved officers, victims and the results of any investigation into the shootings.
- VIPD employed an outdated use of force policy that included illegal guidance indicating that deadly force could be used to protect property.
- In at least six cases VIPD officers shot at moving vehicles.
- One shooting occurred while the officer was off duty and drunk in a bar. He was cleared.
The Justice Department liked the special report, but it did not like the findings at all.
“The report included descriptions of 77 cases in which either officers had allegedly pointed or fired their weapons under questionable circumstances or the case files related to the shooting incidents contained little or no information reflecting that any investigation of the use of force was conducted. The report also summarized 20 cases in which VIPD officers, often off-duty at the times of the incidents, brandished or fired weapons during personal arguments or fights,” the DOJ said in a press release. “The disturbing and unflattering portrait presented by the ‘Deadly Force’ report was one of a police department whose officers were poorly trained, too quick to use firearms, and immune from serious consequences for improper and in some cases illegal uses of deadly force. The article called for various actions to be taken in response to its findings, including an investigation by the Special Litigation Section of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.”
The DOJ sent its Special Litigation Section to investigate. The Special Litigation Section, which has never lost a case, confirmed everything we had found, and more.
Ultimately, the DOJ and the VIPD signed a consent decree a few years after the special report was published. It blasted Virgin Islands police officers for their “use of force, vehicle pursuits, holding cells, misconduct investigations, discipline, supervisory oversight, and training.”
It takes most American police departments between five to seven years to fix everything found wrong by federal investigators.
However, today—more than 22 years after the first story was published—the VIPD still remains under close federal supervision, because they have not made adequate changes to a series of consent decrees that would end the civil case.
The case itself has thousands of court entries—it’s more than two decades old, after all.
Despite the VI’s incredible crime rates, personal firearms are against the law.
Unless you’re a gangster or one of the territory’s dozens of unicameral senators, or a senator’s spouse or child, getting caught with a firearm almost always leads to prison.
The U.S. Virgin Islands has the worst gun laws of any state or territory under the American flag.
“Possessing or carrying an unlicensed firearm is an offense subjecting an individual to a term of imprisonment of not less than ten years, and/or a fine not less than $10,000 nor more than $15,000,” the lawsuit states.
A new federal lawsuit
On Tuesday, Harmeet K. Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, announced a new lawsuit against the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, the VIPD and Mario Brooks, police commissioner of the territory.
The lawsuit is damning.
It alleges that the government caused “unreasonable delays and conditions on lawful gun owners’ rights create an unconstitutional permitting process in violation of the Second Amendment. Numerous applicants complained that VIPD is unreasonably delaying their gun permit application decisions and added unreasonable conditions, including bolted-in gun safes, prior to issuing gun licenses. Finally, VIPD continues to enforce a proper cause regulation nearly identical to the law that the U.S. Supreme Court previously struck down in another case years ago.”
“This Civil Rights Division will protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” Dhillon said in the press release. “The newly-established Second Amendment Section filed this lawsuit to bring the Virgin Islands Police Department back into legal compliance by ensuring that applicants receive timely decisions without unconstitutional obstruction.”
Adam Sleeper, U.S. Attorney for the District of the U.S. Virgin Islands, strongly agreed with her.
“The territory’s firearms licensing laws and practices are inconsistent with the Second Amendment,” Sleeper wrote. “This lawsuit seeks to uphold the rights of law-abiding citizens to bear arms in the U.S. Virgin Islands.”
The pair asked Virgin Islanders who were concerned that their Second Amendment right were violated to submit a complaint through justice.gov/crt/second-amendment-section
According to the complaint, the “Second and the Fourteenth Amendments protect the right of law-abiding citizens to possess a handgun at home and to carry one outside the home for lawful purposes such as self-defense.”
However, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s “unequivocal and repeated endorsement of an individual right to keep and bear arms,” the “VI Defendants have continued to obstruct and systematically deny law-abiding American citizens this fundamental right by systematically delaying the processing of applications and imposing unconstitutional conditions on the exercise of this constitutional right.”
At fault for nullifying the Second Amendment are the USVI, the VIPD and Police Commissioner Brooks, the lawsuit states.
The complaint describes the lengthy and expensive process used to obtain a permit to possess a firearm in the Virgin Islands that included multiple unannounced home visits by VIPD, which the complaint refers to as “intrusive and warrantless home searches.”
“They demand that applicants unnecessarily spend money to install a safe and further require the safe to be bolted either to the floor or wall of applicant’s home as a condition of granting a permit, even though in Heller, the Supreme Court held that a similar requirement is unconstitutional,” the complaint states.
The lawsuit points out that even those residents who were willing to comply with all of the unconstitutional demands complained of delays caused by all of the police visits and paperwork.
“This case concerns a coordinated effort by all three VI Defendants to nullify through unconstitutional, bureaucratic barriers a right that the Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly recognized,” the complaint states. “The United States brings this action under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 to restore the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.”
In addition to the home inspections, the VIPD required anyone seeking a firearm permit to submit “character vouchers,” which describe the applicant as “a fit and proper person to have a firearm.”
Further, the VIPD can deny additional firearm license applications if it determines the applicant has “too many” guns.
If an applicant wants to actually carry a concealed firearm, they must produce additional witnesses, but the police commissioner can still determine whether the applicant has a “good reason” or “proper reason” to carry a concealed weapon.
Guns galore
Bad guys in the U.S. Virgin Islands are a well-armed bunch, and their weapons come from all over the world.
I have personally seen full-auto AKs, M-16s, STENs, several types of Uzis, MAC-10s, M1 Carbines, handguns galore, shotguns with crudely sawed-off barrels, and even a live Mk 2 “Pineapple” grenade, which had to be at least 60 years old.
The bad guys carry their arms every day. They don’t fear the police. VIPD knows exactly who they are—it’s a small territory—and leaves them alone.
Organized crime in the territory is run by a group known as “The Commission,” which is headquartered on St. Croix, and their members are practically immune from prosecution.
However, if a non-gang member or a tourist is caught with a firearm, they’re looking at years in prison.
How will VIPD respond?
Officially, at least, Government House said they’re aware of the DOJ’s Second Amendment complaint and that it’s under review.
“Because this matter is pending litigation, we will not comment further at this time,” they said in a statement this week.
However, if you want to guess how VIPD will respond to the new DOJ complaint, look at how they responded to the old one. The VI government ignored it, for the most part, for more than two decades. They still are.
The Virgin Islands are one of the most beautiful places under the U.S. Flag, but violent crime has long been a massive problem and a serious concern.
The only big difference today is Assistant Attorney General Dhillon and her new Second Amendment team. This lawsuit is their first official action, so of course they want to win. They are under pressure, but the results will be worth the fight.
It’s high time for all VI residents and visitors to have real Second Amendment rights.
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