Two minority House members are alarmed on the spate of criminal activities that have happened recently, particularly robberies in Dandan including a homicide case in the said village.<\/p>\n
Rep. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan), who is one of the six lawmakers of Precinct 1 where Dandan is located, and minority leader Rep. Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan), from Precinct 3, expressed concern on everyone\u2019s safety based on the recent events.<\/p>\n
Propst and Villagomez said the Department of Public Safety should increase their police presence especially in villages where it is needed most. They added the public has also the right to know of any heinous crime took place after DPS released information of Jim Nimwes\u2019 death more than a week after he was killed due to blunt force trauma.<\/p>\n
They questioned DPS why it took them more than a week to release information on what happened to Nimwes, who was then on duty as a security guard in one of the poker arcades in Dandan when he was killed.<\/p>\n
\u201cTime went by and they only released information more than a week later. Why did DPS take so long and why did they not let the Dandan neighborhood know about it? If someone is murdered, you want information ASAP. This is a huge concern, to have no information and have it released 10 days after,\u201d said Propst.<\/p>\n
Villagomez added people have the right to know if incidents like this happen. \u201cYou want to know who got murdered or if there are any suspects. We need to inform the people so they could be safe after someone got killed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to release any details but at least acknowledge that something happened. Like if a dead body was found, is this is a suspicious incident or if there\u2019s foul play,\u201d said Villagomez.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is unprecedented and I never heard of it before. A murder was committed but what happened was the public was informed 10 days later,\u201d added Propst.<\/p>\n
Burglaries and other forms of theft is also their concern, especially for Propst after several houses in Dandan were robbed, even in broad daylight. Even Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council chair Luis John Castro had been a victim of a robbery when their home in Fina Sisu was burglarized twice.<\/p>\n
Propst said robberies even happen when people are at home. \u201cCriminals become so bold they don\u2019t care now if there are people or no. Where\u2019s the police presence, where\u2019s the patrol? We don\u2019t see them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I do know is that there\u2019s a lot of overtime for our officers, but where are they? Our constituents in the villages don\u2019t feel safe anymore and 90 percent don\u2019t feel safe even if they are in their homes,\u201d said Propst, who added that some houses in Dandan Village are separated by huge distances.<\/p>\n
Villagomez said that even Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo, in one of their conversations, mentioned Dandan as a dangerous area. \u201cI\u2019ve talked to Judge Govendo one time and asked him, \u2018what do you think is the dangerous village on Saipan based on the cases you\u2019ve heard\u2014whether involved in domestic violence?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c[Judge Govendo] told me, \u2018I have to say Dandan. The past few weeks Dandan was a hot spot.\u2019 And that is pretty sad to know it is all messed up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Propst said that their house in Dandan has a security system and cameras installed, and they have dogs, and a fence. \u201cOnce our dogs bark, I\u2019m up with my machete and ax ready to go to battle. What a way to live. All are messed up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to sleep with our windows open, to let the breeze come in. Now we have to close it and turn on our air-conditioning unit. We want to make sure all the windows and everything are locked, and the alarm system is set before we sleep at night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Villagomez said if DPS and other concerned agencies should just ask for more funding if they think they lack the money in fulfilling their duties. \u201cWhat\u2019s also funny every budget season is we have agencies that come and yell at [the Legislature]. They would come to us and say: \u2018you don\u2019t understand the hardships that we go through.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey give their budget proposal to the governor. But if the governor submits his, they would say they are okay with it. They never say anything. They would say they are okay with the governor\u2019s budget and then complain later.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re okay to operate on this budget, then that ends the meeting. For me, what\u2019s the use of meeting for six hours where the only that you\u2019re going to do is keep the amount,\u201d added Villagomez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two minority House members are alarmed on the spate of criminal activities that have happened…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,16284,35,67],"class_list":["post-249984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-budget","tag-dandan-village","tag-dps","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}