I wanted to let everyone know in case you did not hear about this incident or read about in the newspaper:

Two gay US tourists were severely beaten by a group with a pipe wrench in a hate crime on Thursday, April 6th at approximately 3:00 AM near the Sunset Beach Bar. In addition to the initial beatings, the perpetrators ran into one of the victims with their car and proceeded with another beating. One of the victims is a senior CBS News producer and the other is a senior researcher for the 48 Hours show . CBS aired the arrival and air transfer of one of the victims to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. Their injuries were substantial to require intensive care. One of the victims has sustained irrepairable brain damage.

Not surprisingly, the 2 victims have commented about the lack of police involvement in the case.

The incident was covered in the The Daily Herald on Monday, April 10th and included a positive editorial.

This incident shoud have gotten coverage at AUC, but did not. This message needs to get out to the student community - gay or straight - so that we may all be aware. Of course we can only hope that the Sint Maarten police department will investigate the crime appropriately...

Whoa, this can't be good for the island. I'm surprised to have not heard about it sooner... Time to check U.S. news sites.

it was in the Daily Herald, I read it the next day that it happened

skipper

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If you fail at AUC, SGU, or Ross why not transfer to SMU, if you fail at SMU, why not try another SMU.

You just didn't report it cause you thought it would make Skipper'e Med look bad too, didn't you?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...n1487446.shtml

The last line is so true. I wish this would get some serious airtime, so that Americans would stop visiting the island. The local "authorities" need to learn that situations like this require action.

Just so people know, during AUC orientation two semesters ago Sgt. J. from the Sint Maarten police told us in orientation, "There is crime like any big city on the island:murders, drugs, rape, and "gays" (valuemd autocorrects, so I can not quote AUC orientation)." I should have left the island when I heard that, but I figured this is a third world country and things are different. At that point, I knew there was no police protection for people on this homophobic island.
As a gay person living on the island, the worst thing I experienced was someone yelling "gays" while I was jogging.
It is too bad groups of people have started gay bashing. It is good advice (which I must heed as well) to be extra cautious of my surroundings. These criminals are running around and they know they can get away with hate crimes. For all of us who are here, I hope this is just an isolated incident. I would hate to leave this medical school (my family knew about this crime from the news in the US before I did, and had to make sure I was OK), because of hate crime.

http://www.thedailyherald.com/news/d...7/bash277.html

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...-SearchStories



Hopefully more coverage of all the crimes in the Maho area will incourage the SXM police to get off their arses.

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http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?2006/04/08/2

The news made Planet Out as well.

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Arawakdawg says ... "adopt an Island Dog or Cat today!"

ummm whats planet out?

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Finally beat Super Mario Bros within 7 mins.