We were all horrified to hear about the unfortunate incident in which an American tourist vacationing on the island attacked a local female taxi driver. He first beat her up badly, including broken ribs and nose, then he ran over her leg as he was stealing her cab, and driving away. I wish the lady who defended herself and her property valiantly, a speedy recovery, those of you reading this column your take-away should be the following: Don’t ever get out of your car, don’t leave the safety of the cabin if menaced by a stranger, hit the gas pedal, speed away!
The assailant is now in Police custody, he drove himself into a dead-end street and was apprehended but true to news reporting in Aruba the Police did not provide us with any more details about his state of mind, or his motive, or what he said to his defense.
We didn’t have to guess long. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3430603/Ex-US-marine-accused-running-Aruba-female-cab-driver.html. And I believe that Patrick Maxwell, 30, a former US marine, has both alcohol and drug abuse issues, obviously PTSD. As described by the US media, he is not an ordinary person, but a deeply disturbed one, and I am quoting: “After a solid career in the military, he left the Marines in 2011. He drifted from job to job, working construction, tending bar and pedaling a bicycle taxi. He also worked as a security contractor guarding a U.S. Consulate in Afghanistan, but left after seven months.”
So, we’re not dealing with a criminal, we are dealing here with a lost soul.
The local taxi drivers’ union had held a meeting in which they pleaded with the minister in charge to allow then to arm themselves, from now on, so that they could “defend” themselves working nights and picking up strangers.
Then another reader reminded me of another attack on a taxi driver that did not result in an arrest, since the tourist perpetrators just left on a plane to go home, the following day.
I regret both incidents, but they are the exception, not the rule. It’s the second time in one month that I am saying NO to arms. You do not need firearms in your cabs. At the time, the issue of guns concerned Customs Agents and what I said about them, is relevant here: Arming customs agents with firearms is a very bad idea. Our community will be better served with fewer guns in circulation. Besides you will now make customs agents more expensive with more training and more pay, and most importantly if they carry a gun they must be emotionally and physically prepared to use it, and that is a HUGE added moral burden. Repeat after me: Fewer guns, more better.
Moreover, you certainly do not want Nancy Disgrace, Dr Phil or any other rating chaser to hear anything but positive stories about Aruba, don’t draw their attention, don’t talk to them, for fear it will all end up to be our fault, for not extending more compassion and more hospitality to an American war hero.
Bottom line: Keep Aruba gun free, and just because some low lives forced a slot machine open, to tinker with its guts, it doesn’t mean that we need to install metal detectors at the entrance of our fun casinos, it just means that we have to train employee to be more vigilant, so that red lights go off in their heads as soon as they sense or see some unusual activity, and most importantly we must penalize those caught committing crimes here, heavily, so their fellow hoodlums know that you cannot come here and get away with that sort of despicable conduct.