“Do you really think democracy works?” demanded my student.
He’s a very intelligent guy, as well as a very passionate one. So I wasn’t
surprised when he went on: “in my democracy, that father of the kid
killed at the Caribe Hilton this weekend would be in jail, until he starts
talking to the police.”
It was a story that shone by it absence, as the saying goes
here. Or perhaps it was I who was absent, since do I look at TV news? Listen to
morning radio? Of course not—I read the online version of El Nuevo Día, the largest newspaper in Puerto Rico. And it has to
be said, however paltry the news is in the print version, the online version is
ten times more scant. So maybe everybody was talking about the murders of two
children, ages six and ten, at 9:50 PM at the pool in one of the best resorts
on the island.
The Caribe Hilton is one of the oldest hotels in the island;
nonetheless, it’s been well-maintained and has the feeling of a new, quietly
elegant hotel. The pool is lovely, and the hotel is the only one on the island
that has its own private beach. And last weekend, a 29-year old guy who has no job
paid 1000 dollars in cash for two hotel rooms, one of which was untouched. Nor
was that the only thing a bit amiss--here’s
El Nuevo Día:
En el caso registrado ayer en el hotel Caribe Hilton, la
Policía halló un arma cargada en el bulto del menor que aún se encontraba en el
área de la piscina y fue ocupada por los investigadores.
In
short, the police found a kid’s backpack with a loaded firearm in it in the
pool area.
According
to accounts I read in Facebook, the usual pandemonium ensued: a retired state
legislator tweeted that he had dived under a staircase, and was cowering there for
the many minutes—which might have felt like hours—before the police arrived.
And the supposition of the police? It was one more drug-related killing. And so
there are dead children, two men (apparently rival drugs dealers) being held in
Centro Médico. And nobody is talking
to the police.
The
narrative used to be that if you were at the wrong place at the time—well, you
took your chances. Now we have to ask: is being at the Caribe Hilton the wrong
place? And if so, can we tweak it?
(Camera
pans over beautiful hotel grounds, with peacocks exhibiting the full plumage
before enthralled, tow-headed children)
Voice:
Imagine the lush, tropical beaches of a Caribbean paradise, combined with the
thrill of Al Capone’s 1930’s Chicago!
(Shots
heard—the tow-headed kid squeals with delights, and dives underneath a sofa….)
Why
do I think that commercial has a way to go, still?
The
fathers are not talking, of course, because the code on the street is not to
talk to the cops. The street will take care of it, which means just what you
think: in a week or two, we’ll hear—or not hear—of the murders of two kids of
the other father. Or maybe it’ll be his mother and grandmother. But the
account, as we say here, will be adjusted.
What
is interesting is what there isn’t. Because I was appalled by the murder of a
young black man at the hands of the police in St. Paul, last night, but also
strangely comforted. There was the spectacle, for example, of all those people,
seemingly drawn from the streets of Lake Wobegon, and what were they all doing?
The were standing outside of the governor’s mansion, alternately shouting,
“Prosecute the Police,” and “Wake up, Governor!”
They were liberals,
presumably, and who is the governor of their state? Drayton, their poster
child, who raised taxes on the rich and put the money in the schools, and did
all kinds of things that made Republicans howl. And so now Minnesota has a
surplus, has an excellent quality of life as well as business climate, and…OK, I
should look all this stuff up and hyperlink it. But unless I’ve been misreading
consistently for the last three years, all of the above is true.
“The
first thing that has to happen is for the citizens to get outraged,” said my
student, who went on to tell me that when the Cubans came—as he did at age 7—to
Puerto Rico, they started complaining. The main road of the town he grew up
in—Arecibo, which is one of the largest towns in the island—was unpaved. So all
the Cubans complained, and all the Puerto Ricans either derided or made fun of
them.
“It’s
what V. S. Naipaul once wrote: the worst effect of colonialism is a crippling
inability to think critically or act proactively,” I told my student. Did
Naipaul actually say that? Think so….
“Of
course,” he said.
So
now we have two kids dead, with comparatively little press coverage, and
no—that I can see or hear—public outrage. The Caribe Hilton, of course, has
come out and said what any publicist would say: They are horrified that despite
their excellent security precautions, this tragic event occurred. And they are,
of course, cooperating fully with the police department.
But
why do I feel that none of the rest of us—the guilty fathers, the absent
mothers, the uncaring public—none of the rest of us, I say…
…are
cooperating?
