Utilities provider GEBE has been asked to avoid cutting power in Dutch Quarter (see related story). That’s certainly understandable considering the unrest there these past days, prompting an extension of the stop-and-search powers granted to the St. Maarten Police Force KPSM under the Firearms Ordinance in that district until Monday.
Nevertheless, for other areas experiencing outages of more than four hours Tuesday evening instead of the customary 90 minutes to two hours, it raises questions. Is electricity in Dutch Quarter now being kept on at their expense?
If so, one could conceivably argue that rioting, barricading the road, burning police vehicles, attempted looting and even shooting at officers pays. However, the importance of enhancing security with the aid of artificial light at this point in time overrides such considerations.
The government-owned company must in any case do its best to fairly distribute the impact of this added restriction on load-shedding between the other neighbourhoods. Hopefully the newly-imported generators will soon be online to finally alleviate the problem.
Mind you, being in the dark is no excuse for criminal activity. When an emergency situation such as the current energy crisis occurs, people should learn to carry their share of the burden just like everybody else.
Protesting intensified far-reaching controls by authorities is one thing, but when combined with violence and destruction it creates an unsafe and dangerous situation for all. At the end of the day this is about law and order.
