Some State Police Officers say ignorance made their jobs tougher

Written by Bill Jaynes

Thursday, 21 January 2010

Some members of the Pohnpei State Police department have said that the law passed by the State Legislature to partially lift the ban on alcohol sales during the holidays has made their job tougher. While interviewing two police officers about the facts of the two murders that occurred over the holiday season I asked if they had noticed any difference between the rate of this year’s holiday alcohol related violence and that of last year’s when there was an alcohol sales ban over the holidays.  Their reaction was emphatic.  “Definitely, this year is much worse,” said Officer Kasner Aldens.  “You’re right.  This is Pohnpei not New York City.  We don’t have murders here but there were two this month.” Captain Cerley Araceley, Pohnpei State Police’s Captain of the Detectives didn’t show for a 9:00 in the morning appointment with The Kaselehlie Press to discuss those murders.  I was told that he had worked extremely late the night before and was asked to come back in an hour.  When Captain Araceley did arrive he told me that he had been at the hospital with a stabbing victim the night before.  Yet another alcohol related violent act.  It was certainly an excellent excuse for missing the earlier appointment and I bore him no ill will. On New Year’s Day the day shift commander of the Pohnpei State Police said that overnight there had been a number of incidents of alcohol related fighting and drunken disorderly conduct.  And yes, he agreed, it was probably tougher this year than last. Three days before deadline I asked the Director of the Department of Public Safety if he could provide statistics on the crime rate during Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year as compared to last year.  He either forgot or was diverted by other more urgent matters and those statistics never arrived. Anecdotally however, all of the officers I spoke to agreed that part of the problem was a misunderstanding of the new law by business people in Pohnpei.  Several store owners on island apparently thought that the ban on alcohol sales had been lifted entirely when in fact there was still an island wide ban on the sale of alcohol for off premises consumption.  Even some store owners who previously would never have considered selling alcohol before 10:00 in the morning which, until the law was amended they were prohibited from doing, sold alcohol on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  At least some of those store owners apparently now know what the law says and put signs up in their stores saying that carryout sales of alcohol are prohibited on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. But other store owners still hadn’t gotten the message.  Maybe it was because they didn’t know what the new law said or they simply chose to ignore it.  While driving past one major grocery store on that day I saw three people loading three separate cases of beer into three separate vehicles.  It was the second time I had passed the store on that day but the first time I only saw one man loading a case of beer into a taxi and another walking out the door with a six pack. While it was true that the Legislature did pass the law quite late in the year it also seems that very little was done to educate the business owners about what their amendments meant to the conduct of their holiday business. However, The Kaselehlie Press ran a page two article about the law in the December 9, 2009 issue but apparently even some of the store owners who sell the newspaper sold alcohol on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  The headline was in no way misleading.  It said, “Pohnpei lawmakers PARTIALLY lift holiday ban on alcohol sales.”  It then went on to list the details of the law which were really not that hard to understand. In a nut shell, no one anywhere on the island was authorized on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, or New Year ’s Day to sell alcohol to anyone for the purposes of carry out consumption. The law had several other provisions and changes that my article also discussed which might have been a bit harder to understand but the basic fact of the ban of alcohol sales for off premises consumption on holiday ban days was pretty stinkin’ clear. See, this is where I get to say that I personally think that if alcohol is legal to sell on one day of the year it should probably be available for sale on all days of the year including the days that people most want to make merry.  Of course, that thinking is a bit flawed because while some people do in fact get merry after a few drinks some of them turn into raging lunatics. I know that the ban this New Year caused me personally to buy more than I ever do at one time just in case; actually, two cases if the truth be known.  I may have been alone in that reaction but I somehow seriously doubt it.  I know that many people in Pohnpei don’t plan ahead in that way so perhaps my reaction was not a system wide reaction and therefore probably doesn’t serve as a good example of why I think the law is basically flawed and actually encourages over consumption. BUT, it doesn’t matter what I think.  The Pohnpei Legislature amended the alcohol law.  We ran a prominent story about it even if it did take two weeks to get the Legislature to give us a copy of it so that we could do so.  Information was out there even if it was scant and unless I’ve missed my guess, ignorance of the law is not allowable as a defense.  I mean you can’t say, “Honestly, officer I didn’t know that it was illegal to smack John Doe over the head with a bat.”  Would we really expect the law enforcement community to say, “Oh you didn’t?  Well that’s just fine then.  Now you know.  Don’t do it again.”  Civil disobedience by ignoring the law and doing whatever we darn well please is still punishable under the law and actually is usually the point of civil disobedience I asked the Pohnpei Detectives if they knew what kind of alcohol Mariano John and Brian Edwin who are charged with the Christmas murder of Erlino Remei were drinking.  They didn’t know.  I asked them if they had discovered which store sold them the alcohol and when they had purchased it.  They didn’t know that either. I’m only guessing based on nine years of living here but I would almost bet that they bought the alcohol during the alcohol sale ban days because that’s often the way it goes here.  I can’t help but wonder then if the store owner who made that sale, if in fact it was illegal, feels any sense of remorse whatsoever.  I also wonder if the store owner should be held culpable for selling the alcohol that seems to have led to murder; if not criminally so perhaps at least civilly. We should all be responsible for acts; responsible to ourselves and also responsible to each other. Well enough of that.  Happy New Year to you all!  I truly hope that yours is a good year! Bill Jaynes Managing Editor

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 03 March 2010 )