Again Carib continues to post with their diatribe about staying away from St John. They never answered my position on another thread, that they, Carib, are part of the problem. They only return to St John 3 times a week for business purposes. They take the monies out of St John that they make and than turn heir backs on St John saying to stay away. If it is so bad, why do you need it for business? They are part of the problem. I don't understand it.

RL

PS. In another news article I read where that gentleman left his hotel at 12:30AM quite drunk to continue drinking. At 1:30 he could only be worse. Having been a late night person many years ago, I can assure you people say things they never remember in the morning, when drunk the night before. He may have said something to spark those kids. There is more to the story. I do not condone someone being smashed in the head with a shovel for anything said or done. I am sorry it happened. But, it is only one side of the story and you know there are three sides. I also fault the bartender for not seeing to it his patron found a ride home. I am in the hospitalty business in St Thomas. I have gotten out of bed to rescue guests at 2AM in the morning. Things could have been done to avaid this.

Ron,
I totally agree with you.The bartender COULD have found him a ride home.

I agree also this whole things sounds fishy

David,
My family of 4 visited St. John last April and felt very comfortable. We have not travelled as much as others on this board but we had been to the Bahamas and Puerto Rico before St. John, had a great time on both vacations, but felt safest on St. John. We chose the island because of its beauty and it was known a a safe island for a family to travel to. The crime issues started after I booked my reservations. I was concerned before our trip, but as everyone has said, we used common sense and took all normal safety precautions that I would take at home and had a great time.

Compared to other islands that I researched recently for a 2007 trip(St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. Kitts) crime is much lower on St. John. We chose St. Kitts for 2007 because of Marriott points and it is supposed to be a safe and friendly island. However, they have had over 12 homicides compared to 1 in St. John (which is still too many). I read the local papers online fairly regularly before I visit an island.

We stayed at a villa at the Westin since I didn't know the island and the resort had the pool and opportunity for my children to meet other children. There are several sites where you can rent a villa independently from timeshare owners which is much less expensive than directly from the resort. This gives you space and resort amenities. There is also Gallows Point, in a nice area right in Cruz Bay, which are condos with some resort amenities. Personally, since I am a worrier, I would not rent an out of the way villa. I like to know others are near by. One villa I looked at was Splash, right near the Westin (probably already booked), which would allow the best of both worlds, nicer space and resort amenities near by. St. John is beautiful. Good luck with your plans.

Yes--they arrested aguy for tortola muder..

Conrary to Curt--There is nothing fishy about anything.

A crime is a crime...white on black or black on white.

The bigger crime is local leaders, poloiticians, real estate agents worried about their land values and others think they simply "it ain't so" will make it go away...it wont.

It's not the victim's fault nor the bartender's fault at all.

Bottom line is this:
St. John has changed in the past 17 months for the very worse, and no amount of sticking your heads in the sand will change that FACT.

I, too, mourn what has happened to st john....it simply needs time to heal and get its civil discourse back to being civil.

Ron and Curt--what have you done to make St. John stop this trend? Stay on island and do nothing?

Give me a break.

Well, gee, I live in that awful crime-ridden, evil island, St. Thomas. I've worked in hotels & go to work every day. I'm a female living alone & nothing, I repeat NOTHING has ever happened to me here. Crime has & does happen here but I didn't & won't turn tail & run. I didn't do it in Sint Maarten & I wouldn't here. This ax Carib has to grind about St. John is getting stale.

I have witnessed ugly racist behavior by locals AND tourists & a bartender cannot force anyone into a car or taxi, especially a drunk.

BTW, I've lived here since 1989.

Carib,
Where do you live?If you don't mind me asking?

Christie

The planet earth.

Thanks for the smarta** comment Carib, I was being for real.

Christie, another poster read through Carib's previous posts & he has a business in STJ but lives now in the BVI's & goes back to STJ a few times a week for work & to snorkel.

I guess somebody gave him the raspberries & it frightened him so bad he moved to the BVI.

It appears most of us on the thread are not "Scared Away" by a (few) crimes that have occured on STJ. So for those that really believe the island is so dangerous, maybe you should find a different island to visit? I wish you lots of luck finding anywhere in the entire "Earth that you live on" that is crime free.