Am I the only one that finds them bringing in deputies from Aruba to help investigate crimes somehow a bit comical? I mean really...bringing in the police who couldn't figure out who killed Natalie Holloway to help with crimes you can't solve yourself? Ok...mostly joking...but you have to admit it is kind of funny.
With that said, I am sure that just like in most other places, the Aruban police knew who had killed her and it was the judicial side that made it difficult for them to prove given the connections of the perp. But I have always felt the same problem exists in Bonaire. There is zero chance that the police don't know generally who is responsible for most of the crime targeting tourists in Bonaire. So the fact that nothing is done about it strongly suggests that there is a barrier somewhere in the system preventing them from doing anything about it.
For those who compare crime in Denver or Chicago or elsewhere in the US to Bonaire, you are missing the point. The US is a giant country with millions of people in it that has a hugely diverse economy. We have the same economic disparity in our population that Bonaire does, so there are the same inclinations in the population to resort to crime at times. When somebody in Denver or Miami steals something, you have a massive pool of potential suspects, many avenues (local and distant) for them to dispose of their loot for cash, and no set place where you would expect the crime to happen. However, Bonaire is not a huge country. Bonaire is a very small country with a very small population relative to the US, or even to many of the cities mentioned. It is an island whose economy is very narrow and very dependent on money from tourists. As such, the number one priority of the government should be to be absolutely intolerant of anything that has the potential to disrupt that economic engine. Crime on a small island with a small population is not something that happens anonymously. When a window is broken on a car in Denver, there may be 50,000+ potential suspects if you consider all kids between the ages of 12 and 20. On Bonaire, that pool of suspects is much smaller, and their avenues to translate their thefts into cash even smaller still. It is not a complex policing problem. You know where the thefts are likely to occur (shore dive sites), you know at what time they are likely to occur (mostly during the day while divers are in the water), you know who the likely perps are (kids or young adults living near the dive sites or lingering in the area). So why is there no interest in actually trying to catch them at it? There must be some internal barrier to doing what is necessary, and I have never figured out what that barrier is or why it would exist on an island whose lifeblood is tourism. Never made sense to me...
