BVI faces law and order breakdown

| 13/09/2017 | 40 Comments

(CNS): RCIPS officers were the first policing reinforcements to get to the hurricane stricken British Virgin Islands, where in addition to all other security issues, the local police had to deal with more than 100 convicts set free by the storm on the island of Tortola. Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan has said there is a “serious threat of the complete breakdown of law and order” in the BVI.

Richard Branson’s son, Sam Branson, has reported on social media that some of the escaped prisoners are now armed.

The Cayman contingent arrived following an urgent request from the governor of BVI, and have for the last four days been assisting the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force restore law and order and deliver humanitarian aid. The 16 Cayman officers have been carrying out urgent policing duties, including the provision of security for aid convoys.

“Without adequate policing, the environment cannot stabilize enough for aid to be delivered and people to get the help they need,” said Police Commissioner Derek Byrne in an RCIPS release.

As well as the RCIPS officers, the BVI police are also being assisted by the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force and British military forces.

Cayman News Service

PC Stephen Shaw, part of the RCIPS contingent on BVI

“Obviously security is important,” said Matthew Forbes, Head of the Governor’s Office of the Cayman Islands, who deployed with RCIPS officers to provide support to the BVI governor’s office, “and the role that RCIPS officers are playing in providing vital security alongside BVI police and the UK military is critical to operations here.”

The RCIPS helicopter, which was dispatched to Turks and Caicos within 24 hours’ notice and arrived immediately after Hurricane Irma on Saturday, has been assisting with aerial reconnaissance and support.  They have completed 35 flights, including two medevacs, and have visited all islands to check on residents, delivering supplies and water, and carrying out damage assessments.

They were joined Monday by the advance UK Military team, and are now working with those military teams to assist in assessments to establish aid, engineering and reconstruction plans.

“The deployment request from the UK Foreign Office was a challenge at 24 hours’ notice, but we made it happen with the help of many people,” said Steve Fitzgerald, Executive Officer of the Air Operations Unit.  “We feel that our ability to arrive so early and equipped to immediately start operational support has made a real difference to people on the ground.”

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Category: Caribbean, Crime, Police, World News

Comments (40)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    I think a good K9 squad would be very valuable for those Islands as well as here in Cayman. I don’t ever see a K9 unit here in action but hope that they are put to use for all incoming freight and luggage to smell out drugs, guns, cash, pests, and foods/agricultural matters which are prohibited to be brought in.

    It’s amazing what a good K9 unit can accomplish in preventing illegal imports but also when suspected criminals have to be chased down

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  2. Anonymous says:

    When the tsunami hit in Japan there was not even the thought of looting. People lined up orderly and waited their turn. That’s the difference between a civilized nation and an uncivilized one.

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    • A Point of View says:

      Only in Japan – can you name another country?

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      • Anonymous says:

        England

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        • Anonymous says:

          All the Asian Countries exude far greater discipline and benevolence than the rest of the entire world.

          My hope for people is that we will all learn to take the good we see from other nations and apply to our own lives whilst simultaneously letting go of all our negative ways.

          Peace, love & understanding vs. hatred, greed & division.

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          • Anonymous says:

            Humanity is the same everywhere when under stress. We’ve fought global wars predicated on false moral and cultural superiority, and many will recall the Japanese were on the wrong side of the WW2 fight all the way until the bitter end. Their PR machine seems to be back at it again to re-write the reality of post-tsunami Japan, and it’s up to you to cut through the nationalistic rhetoric and see that humans are all the same everywhere. The greed and corporate self-interest of the “Fukushima Daiichi” radiation disaster is almost without precedent and one would think that would be difficult to overlook!

          • Anonymous says:

            In the Asian Countries the punishment for crime is more hard, here and the other places is only a flap on the wrists, that why.

    • Anonymous says:

      By and large people in Cayman lined up in an orderly fashion and waited their turn after Hurricane Ivan.

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      • Anonymous says:

        The Owen Roberts airport line was long, hot, but orderly – and demonstrated an awesome level of human restraint that all should be proud of.

    • Expat Andy says:

      Yeah, everyone just ran away from the lowing stuff as fast as possible.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Please spare us the implausible and false moral superiority lectures that attempt to re-write history….the simple fact is THERE WAS documented looting in Japan – people gaining advantage from other’s misfortune and death – just as in any other place on Earth:

      “Police in the devastated Miyagi region said 250 thefts had been reported in the 10 days since the disaster and around JPY1.1mln worth of goods had been reported stolen. The authorities said they are determined to cut down on the growing number of petty offences and would put an extra 100 officers on patrol.
      Reported incidents have included men trying to break into cash machines, siphoning petrol from cars and taking items from damaged stores and homes.
      Hironori Kodashima, vice chief of police in the hard hit fishing port of Kamaishi, in Iwate province, said: “We have just begun receiving reports about this and making arrests. But we are concerned about it and want it stopped.”

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  3. Anonymous says:

    Cayman also had a law and order breakdown and our Caymanian Chief of Police, appointed with much acclaim all around, was totally absent for several days and eventually had to be retired on excessively generous terms for being AWOL to get him out of the way. A terrible embarrassment to us all.

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    • False Pretender says:

      Caymanian Chief police appointed by the UK lets not forget let us add who they knew would fail! TWo types of people the colonial power loves to promote the incompetent who highlights and justifies their rule and the very corrupt who they will always blame!

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      • Anonymous says:

        Total bullshit 10:19. He was appointed despite U.K. reservations about him being too laid back XXXXX but he was competent though only just, well liked by Caymanians, a nice guy, had done his time and there was and is ( in Government) this desperate effort to promote Caymanians whether they can handle the job or not. He could not. But no big deal, he got to retire with enormous benefits and his dignity more or less intact.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Who’s paying for all this, I wonder? It was only weeks ago that it was reported that police were on leave because of the high amount of overtime accrued. Kindness is one thing, but getting deeper into debt is another.

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    • A Point of View says:

      Get a grip, these people need our help. Is money more important to you than humanity?

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      • Anonymous says:

        It is not a criticism of our willingness to respond, it is a reasonable question on what the proportionate expectations of the tiny fellow territory of the Cayman Islands are Vs. the mother land’s Overseas Territorial obligations.

        Sure, it’s neighbourly, and undoubtedly appreciated, that we sent our folks, but shouldn’t our little territory have expected a minor supporting role, not a first responder staring military function as the case seems to be? Where is the proportionate scale of response from mother dearest? How long are we supposed to be on the scene picking up and covering the cost of the slack?

        The UK should have known the storm was approaching (like everyone else on the planet) and had contingency plans ready to be activated as soon as the wind speed dropped to 40kts. Over a week later, senior MPs are still arguing over limited response and feeble monetary pledges (rarely fully realized):

        http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41251594

        The very expensive “amphibious” resupply ship couldn’t make a beachhead in Anguilla. Solar Lanterns and £10-15 million are inadequate temporary bandaids.

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  5. False Pretender says:

    This is equivocal proof that all these table top execises and conferences put on by our colonial power FCO are a complete farce and waste of time and money and when situations arrive all these logistical and robust contigency plans are pure fictional and a real joke to the detriment of the BOT’s and its populations just like Hurricane Ivan. When are we going to learn ????

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  6. Anonymous says:

    A salutary lesson for all smaller islands in the Caribbean in the event of a future Ivan/Irma damaging prison buildings. They need to be extra secure.

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  7. MM says:

    So proud of our RCIPS for being a part of this very difficult effort; I pray for their success in bringing order back to the BVI as well as their safe return home.

    All the best RCIPS!

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  8. Lomart says:

    My prayer is that our police service will be able to restore and maintain law and order in the Cayman Islands. We have been lawless ever since Hurricane Ivan!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Many blame Ivan, but I blame many of the cabinet status grants. They happened at the same time, and both have proved to be disasters.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    Having (hopefully) survived and collaborated to bring some semblance of order back to a looting war-zone, public expectations will surely rise that returning emboldened officers will confront the now chronic “lawless” of our own neighbourhoods, where, up until now, they’ve dared not tread. Train well, and return safely.

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  10. Anonymous says:

    See that’s what happens when your government confiscates good, law abiding citizen’s firearms & ammunition before a storm. Now the criminals are the only people armed and they will destroy all good people who can’t protect themselves. Wake Up!

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  11. Anonymous says:

    While I fully support Cayman’s efforts to lend assistance to BVI and other damaged OTs, including accommodating people who may be re-located, I trust Cayman authorities will properly vet everyone to whom we offer sanctuary – wherever they’re from!!

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  12. Veritas says:

    Congratulations to our Government for acting quickly where prompt assistance was direley needed. I am British but ashamed that our Government acted far too late when it was ovious what was going to happen from 3 days before the storm hit the BVI and other islands in it’s path.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    go cayman go! show the christian spirit of sharing/ kindness/ and love!? thats what jesus christ would do☺

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    • Anonymous says:

      This has nothing to do with religion, just human kindness.

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    • Just Sayin' says:

      In sending assistance we are defying God’s will. Had he wanted the people of BVI to survive he would not have sent his deliberate devastation there in the first place.

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      • Diogenes says:

        Christians will never agree with you because whenever something bad happens (ie a natural disaster) they either claim that:
        A. The victims deserved it and had it coming
        or
        B. That god is “testing” them to see who is going to lend a helping hand and who is going to follow his word

        If i had a dollar for every time I heard a Christian talk about how Haiti and New Orleans are being punished because of Obeah and Voodoo I would be as rich as Dart
        I always thought we are supposed to be thankful for everything because God in his infinite wisdom has a reason for everything
        Let me be the first to say if that is the case “Thank you God for Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and the destruction they caused, I don’t get why you decided to kill a bunch of people but I guess that’s how it goes”
        or maybe I should say “Thank you God for killing all those people on those other Islands and not us”
        Remind me which part of this whole ordeal I’m supposed to be thankful for
        (insert the generic you should be thankful you’re alive and that God has woke you up to see another day)

        I will patiently await angry hypocritical evangelical responses,
        Ta Ta for now

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  14. Anonymous says:

    Couldn’t be more proud of our RCIPS and our governments response tot his disaster. A call for help answered withing hours.. that’s amazing. Well done to all involved.

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