Protesters, police turn out for address

ST. THOMAS - About 100 demonstrators gathered across from the V.I. Legislature on Monday evening to voice their concerns, frustrations and, in some cases, outrage over the state of life in the Virgin Islands, which many felt has been pushed to the brink.

They drew close to steel barricades lining Veterans Drive, chanting in unison and leaning into the roadway to wave signs at passing traffic. The noise could be heard inside the legislative chambers as Gov. John deJongh Jr. gave his State of the Territory address.

Outside, passing drivers frequently honked in solidarity with the protesters.

When that became too loud and police blocked off all traffic from passing by to prevent any further disturbance to the governor's speech, a handful of protesters marched over to Fort Christian parking lot, got into their own cars and started blasting their horns.

"Oh no! We won't go!" the protesters chanted.

Despite a brief rain shower that sent many of the police officers running for shelter under bus shanties, the protesters remained.

The protesters concerns varied drastically, but their solutions were much more pointed: Get rid of elected political officials.

Some called for deJongh to "dismiss himself" before dismissing any more government employees.

Others said they felt the senators must go.

"I could live with two senators per island," said Amanda Martin, a retiree.

"Sometimes in your life, you just gotta stand up and let them know you do not agree," said Carolyn Davis. "We still have to be present and responsible and let them know when they are not serving our needs."

Many protesters were members of unions and feared impending layoffs and a perceived attack on collective bargaining rights. Some showed up with political agendas of their own. Others gathered as concerned citizens, upset and worried about high power bills and a misuse of government funds - a sentiment that extended beyond the governor to include V.I. senators.

Many of the protesters were surprised at the size of the police presence in the area, the street lined in barricades and themselves shut out from the Legislature grounds, where just last year they had been allowed to stand and protest.

One police officer even stood guard on top of Fort Christian.

"It seems like we have just become a police state, where people are not allowed to go to their house to protest at their house," said St. Croix Federation of Teachers President James Howell. "I find it very disturbing. I think it is very sad that the governor, who was elected less than two years ago, is now saying he is afraid of the people."

Other protesters questioned the need for such a show of force - and the price tag it must have carried.

A number of teachers mentioned that a request for a police officer to be posted at Ivanna Eudora Kean High School for a basketball tournament Saturday had been denied because the government could not afford to pay the overtime. A shooting occurred during the game in the parking lot outside the auditorium.

"I hope we have some police still in the neighborhoods with all that's going on," said St. Thomas-St. John Federation of Teachers Vernelle de Lagarde, before asking V.I. Assistant Police Commissioner Raymond Hyndman about the police coverage.

"It's necessary under the circumstances," Hyndman told The Daily News. "We're taking every precaution to protect everybody - the protesters and the people who come into the chambers to hear it. We're not here just for one group of people."

Few present agreed with him.

"All we doing is protesting peacefully," said Randolph Allen, United Steelworkers international representative. "And he just go out and waste money for what he feel like all the time."

As the governor's caravan pulled up, the jeers increased in intensity.

Two police cars pulled up in front of protestors to shield the governor's car from the sight and the signs - a move that only drew more scorn from the crowd. People chanted the words "Scared," "Shame," and "Thief!"

The protesters' greeting for Senate President Ronald Russell was tame by comparison. As he drove up, Russell rolled down his window and smiled and waved at the demonstrators.

They shouted: "We are not happy" and "There ain't nothing to smile about."

A common theme among the protesters was a desire to hear "the true state of the territory."

According to Carol Callwood, who demonstrated with the American Federation of Teachers, the issue boiled down to truthfulness. Residents have jobs and bills and mortgages to pay, and they need to know if they will have a job and how they will pay their bills, she said.

"At least so we have an actual idea of what's coming up. Don't tell me on one day that we're good and then next pay period we don't have anything," she said.

Callwood said she was relying on negotiated pay increases to pay her mortgage, but she ended up having to refinance it. Two of those pay increases have been nixed and now she is operating on 8 percent less.

Union members also were upset about the legality of the government-wide 8 percent salary reduction and said the governor had now started to target union leaders, in violation of their contracts, with his first round of layoffs.

United Steelworkers local 8249 President Luis Morales said that two union officials - its treasurer and a shop steward - had been dismissed from their positions with the V.I. Internal Revenue Bureau when the first 500 jobs were cut. According to contracts, union officials have "super seniority" status, meaning they would be the last to go.

"It's a form of union-busting, because he's laying off the union representatives in the workplace," Allen said.

Morales said the union has filed a complaint with the V.I. Public Employees Relations Board.

Some of the protesters present expressed political ambitions.

Guillaume Mimoun, chairman of the V.I. Green Party, said he hoped to clear house and start anew in the senate when elections come around in the fall.

"With the hundreds of millions in federal funding, you have to scratch your head and wonder where does it all go," he said.

James O'Bryan Jr., a former senator and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate who lost out to deJongh during the 2010 primary election, called the protests Operation Yellow Cedar, owing homage to the state flower.

"I hope he sees the fire of the people of the Virgin Islands, who are obsessed and upset with what's happened under his administration for bringing Virgin Islanders to not want to live in the Virgin Islands anymore," he said. "It's across the territory. People are making decisions about whether they going to eat or they going to pay their light bills.

"It's a survival thing," he said.

Davis expressed a similar notion, and said that was why she showed up.

"These are serious times," she said. "And we know that, even if they don't know that."

- Contact Daniel Shea at 714-9127 or email dshea@dailynews.vi.

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