Cowards And Criminals
Commentary by CIF President Michael J. Springer Jr.
CIF President Michael J. Springer, Jr.
It seems that no agency in this government is functioning so all of them are blaming the others for their lack of action.
The latest example is Wednesdays Board of Elections meeting where no action was taken on the complaint Crucians In Focus filed challenging Sen. Alicia Hansen’s eligibility for candidacy in last November’s election.
A month after our complaint was presented to the BOE, who deferred a decision until receiving an opinion from the Attorney General, there is still no ruling on Hansen’s candidacy because the AG has not responded.
What are they waiting for?
By a vote of 3-2, the board refused to rule on the complaint because they haven’t heard from the AG. The Legislature won’t take any action until they hear from the Board. And none of them are required by law to wait for any of the rest to say one way or the other whether Hansen should be there or not.
The issue is not complicated – Hansen is on probation for her conviction on failing to file three years of income tax; probationers are not eligible voters; a requirement for running for public office is that you are an eligible voter; therefore, Hansen was not eligible to run and is not legally holding the office of Senator.
Why all this delay?
We went through the complaint process because that is the first step in challenging how Hansen was certified as an eligible candidate in the vetting process, which is the responsibility of the BOE. But the truth is, the Legislature has the authority to address this issue through its own legal counsel, and take appropriate action on their own.
Instead, they are allowing a convicted criminal who has not satisfied the terms of her probationary period to remain in a position to influence legislation when she has no right to be there. Instead they are setting a dangerous precedent by ignoring the very laws they are elected to create and administer. Instead they are hiding behind a flimsy nod to process to avoid taking action to try to return some small shred of integrity to this deeply stained institution and by their lack of action condoning this flagrant violation of the law.
But if you’re going to defy the law, then stand up and defy it. If you’re going to allow Hansen to remain in office, and ignore the laws that say she should not be there, then say so!
Instead of delaying a decision, hiding behind all of these layers of unnecessary process, just tell us you’re going to let her stay there and damn the consequences.
But to continue to duck and dodge and not make any decision at all sends only one message.
You’re not only accomplices to the crime – you’re cowards.
Speaking of webs,there are many who think they are spiders.Unfortunately
for them,however,they do not have sufficient legs (as do the real creatures)
with which to extract themselves from what they have so cunningly weaved..or
is it woven?
Many a ‘spider’,I do believe,will be ensnared.
It seems like Hill was a pretty good Senate President when compared to Russell…no?
Hill is the worst Senate President in VI history. The corruption of the Legislature occured when he was Senate President.
@rainman on December 9, 2011 at 7:42 am
NO I am NOT incorrect. You are stating what I am stating that her eligiblity as a voter must be established. The compalint questions her eligiblity as a VOTER as an individual on PROBATION. But the LAW says that is just not the fact that she is on PROBATION…SHE MUST BE ON PROBATION FOR A FELONY OR A CRIME INVOLVING MORAL TURPITUDE. THATS IT. Therefore…there is no falsehoods in my statement.
It needs to be established if her PROBATIONARY STATIOUS came from being involved in a CRIME of MORAL TURPITUDE as we all know it is NOT a FELONY. If yes to the CRIME OF MORAL TURPITUDE, She would be ineligable as a voter therefore should not have been allowed to run to be a Senator BUT if it deemed that the convition was NOT based on a CRIME of MORAL TURPITUDE she would be considered an eligable voter thus being able to run.
Therefore back to my initial argument that the only way the complaint can have basis it would have to make the Argument that her PROBATIONARY STATUS Involved a CRIME OF MORAL TURPITUDE. Thats just how the law is written, and attemping to ignore the Moral Turpitude and State solely on the FACT she is on PROBATION cannot stand Alone.
@ Professional 5:00 pm,
Hell no!
Absolutely not!
anon you are two sentances away, under the orgainic act thre are three requirements that qualifiy you to run, you mustbe a citizen of the us, you must be 21, and you must bea qalified regstered voter. befor we test chuckies elagability for anything else she must meet this set of qualifiers first, after they are met you can move on to, the next sentance.
as i said at an time chuckiecan endthe complaint by simply produceing a voters registration card saying shewas elgable and registered to vote at the time she was elected.
It ischuckie and theother senators that would like this to be about parole, her crime being moral terpatude, because this provides her with an arguement as to b discussed and looked at, the point is moot if she cant produce a record of her being a registered elagable voter. Its not up to us to discuss her crimes, there stature as fellonys or imoral acts untill she has met the basic qualifictions first. ie read this carefully
at 33-34, 50-51. Section 6(b) of the Revised Organic Act of 1954, the Virgin Islands’ analogue of a state constitution, requires that members of the legislature be qualified voters and “bona fide residents” of the territory for three years before their election.
this is the only issue in this case was she or was she not a qualified voter for three years befor election. its a simple thing that she can solve by simply proucing a voter registration card that was vaid for those three years befor election. why hasnt she? whyputthe govement of the vigin islands thru the expence of researching issues that are of no consequence? mr springer was quite clear that the challenge to her elagability was based on her being a qualified voter,it is not based on her being a fellon on probation or parole, the level or degree of her crime.
All of you playing with Chucky, don’t you see that as long as she is able to get her hands on our money, she can care less what anyone say about her, she is not going to leave. She is just going to stay and set herself and her family up with our money, that is just the way things are in the good old VI.So if the people that got the 8% out of there pay don’t care why should we that don’t work for the VI Gov care, just let them kill each other, then we will be rid of them, can’t you all see that is what is going on.
For all -
If everything is so straightforward and understandable, why hasn’t the Attorney General responded?
I’ll tell you why.
If Hansen is found eligible, all hell will break loose. If ineligible, all hell will break loose and the BOE is wide open for investigation.
10:22, yep. They’re backed into a corner. Maybe they are all just waiting for the Feds to take action; that way not one if them can be directly blamed by Chucky. It won’t be ‘their decision’ that removes her but rather the suggestion from an audit. What a bunch of sissies.
or, they are trying to come up with a way to protect chuckies a$$ without implicating themselves. no doubt, doing nothing won’t fly. it gives people too much time to talk and bring even more attention to the issue.
what a paradox. you KNOW the feds got their microscope on this one.
Yes, the Feds do…and, they didn’t just start the investigation last month. They have been on the job since March. This good. Now they can follow-up with the self-implicating BOE members that voted to put Abramson back in as supervisor….there is no wiggle room to plea ignorance…:)
Add to that the hiring of the ever corrupt Jimmy Weber…….assistant to Abrahamson. Now there’s a pair.
As far as I’m concerned, CIF has won the fight on the Hansen issue. We all know that if there was any credible proof that she was eligible to run, it would have been published, with great fanfare, by those who take any opportunity to try to crack the credibility of this site.
In fact, the probationer would have held a press conference, replete with her “legal counsel” and bray on about how this is just more persecution of her sacred self.
This entire situation is pathetic. The Board of Elections passes it on to the Attorney General – who doesn’t answer. So they can’t do anything without an opinion, which, by the way, they don’t need.
Meanwhile the Legislature sits on its hands and refuses to identify those who are responsible for the millions of dollars in pilfered funds identified in the audit, and countless other millions we may never know about.
From the Governor on down, this is a bunch of small time hoods and streetcorner hustlers enabled by an inbred community that didn’t have sense enough to call a halt to this madness.
Confront them on the street. Get in their faces and don’t bother to be polite. Cause some discomfort and don’t worry about “correct” behavior. Go to their homes. Wait by their cars. Enough with the passive resistance.
I am tired of having my pocket picked.
Heading north, going up the hill, passing the store on the left, Ronnie’s house/driveway is the first dirt road on the left. The road is ling, we can get plenty-a-people waiting for him!
Oops! This in Mon Bijou.
These b***tards don’t care as long as they sit on the throne and wipe thier butts with our money. F’ing Sociopaths.