Damage control! BVITB monitoring int’l response to viral police video
BVI Tourist Board (BVITB) Director Clive McCoy has joined the chorus of persons who have come out against a widely circulated video involving Police Commissioner Mark Collins that critics say has tarnished the territory’s pristine reputation.
“As you know here at the BVI Tourist Board, our major function is showcasing the destination as one of the most beautiful in the world and one of the safest places in the world to come and vacation,“ McCoy told ZBVI Radio recently.
Calling the video ‘grotesque’ in its nature, the Director said this hampers the work that the Tourist Board has done so far.
“We are monitoring it very closely with our agencies around the world to see what the response has been. We are putting together a strategy to counteract what is already out there in the space,” he added.
McCoy also said he was hopeful that the work done by the Tourist Board over the last few months and years does not simply just “go down the drain“ because of one incident.
“This video does not represent the British Virgin Islands in any shape or form. The British Virgin Islands is one of the safest places in the world to vacation. We pride ourselves on that. We pride ourselves on being a destination where you can go around and patronise the various restaurants and island-hop,“ McCoy added.
The Director’s statement follows closely on the heels of calls made by several local commentators for the resignation of the Police Commissioner in the wake of the video’s release.
Collins previously offered an apology for the video’s widespread distribution in the public domain, noting that it was an incomplete piece aimed at regional recruitment of officers and not intended for public consumption.
Critics have since, however, rejected the Police Chief’s apology and have signalled that his offence warrants his resignation or dismissal by Governor John Rankin who heads up the public service.
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Where was your BVI marketing campaign when the premier was indicted for running a Narco State Enterprise? I guess this was different..
He still didn’t mention a marketing strategy for this neither. What he needs is a public relations strategy not marketing. When doing public relations you don’t tell the public that hey I am doing puoc relations. It happens naturally. You don’t broadcast that that is what you doing.
Were you concerned when customs boarded all the yachts with dogs and machine guns? Now you are concerned about a video that is truthful? Were you concerned when all the murders were taking place and the drug boats being chased by US Coast Guard? How about STFU and crawl back under the rock from where you came and put some effort into cleaning up the crime ridden Territory!!
None of them were outraged when innocent people were being gunned down like animals. The video of the shooting at fish bay only brought to light the ruthlessness of these killers.
When you say Narco State you saying the population. Classic rhetoric from a UK National and can never see anything wrong in something that literally smacks you in the face. But you have to defend your people, regardless if they are wrong or right.
Did you monitor the international response when the former Preimer was reported in every international media for drug and money laundering charges?
I am sick of this foolishness. The damage was caused back in April.
Because you all make sure to send it to all. That is how you make your money.
The truth hurts! I didn’t see anything factually wrong in the video, and hope it will wake up the population to what they have allowed to happen. Change has to start at home!!
The BVI is just fine, it’s up to the Police to do their work, that’s what they are hired to do. The COP himself said he has lots of rotten cops on the force, why didn’t the video mention that or mention what is being done to curb that? The Public DO NOT cooperate with the Police most times because before they could leave the station the information is already out there, thereby putting people’s lives at risk. The BVI is not a place of angels but it’s surely not hell on earth! There are still places where you can leave your doors open, leave your vehicle engine running unlocked etc. Drive around and you DO NOT see businesses and residences with burglar bars like most Caribbean Islands do. We are not claiming to be 100% crime free but looking at that video it looked and sounded more like a bad place in Jamaica, than the BVI (which I’m sure was the aim based on footage and music in the background!).
We not even on the map.
I am going to drink water and mind my business.
In 2021, the highest homicide rate among 22 Latin American and Caribbean countries surveyed was in Jamaica, with around 49.4 murders committed per 100,000 inhabitants.
Characteristic Homicides per 100,000 inhabitants
Jamaica 49.4
Venezuela 40.9
Honduras 38.6
Trinidad and Tobago 32
Belize 29
Colombia 26.8
Mexico 26
Puerto Rico 19.3
Brazil 18.5
El Salvador 17.6
Guatemala 16.6
Guyana 15.2
Ecuador 14
Haiti 13.7
Panama 12.8
Costa Rica 11.5
Dominican Republic 10.3
Uruguay 8.5
Paraguay 7.4
Nicaragua 5.7
Peru 4.3
Chile 3.6
We have had 3 murders already this year.
With a population of 30 thousand, we have a homicide rate of 9.9 per 100 thousand.
Wrong math! You cannot do it based on 30,000 alone and its not of 100,000.00. Do the Math AGAIN!
In statistics, your answer of 9.9/100,000 using a population of 30,000 will be considered “invalid”. That’s almost like saying that the murder rate in the garden of Eden was 25,000/100,000. It makes no sense.
A population of 100,000 was chosen as the standard because it is large enough to take into account thousands of variables like gender, race, age, culture, poverty etc.
This again illustrates the problem with people gullibly believing data that’s unregulated between countries.
Do you honestly believe Jamaica really has a higher murder rate than Haiti? Haiti has a level 4 travel advisory from the US DoS for crime, Jamaica doesn’t.
Where there’s more crime there’s more murder, as the saying goes.
Yeah it does because it makes the police to look very weak and incapable.
YEP , ALL THE HYPOCRITES ? IS GOING TO SHOW UP NOW ( REALITY LOOKS LIKE ITS REGISTERING IN THEIR CONCEITED MINDS , ?
Are you monitoring the impact of Fahie and Maynard being charged, what came out of the CoI and the appalling infrastructure we have notwithstanding the 100s of millions of government revenue generated since the 1990s?
What about all the unsolved murders, illegal firearms and drug smuggling we have? Do they need some monitoring too?
Is all the above because of an unfinished recruiting video that was leaked out on Monday? I don’t think so.
Try focusing on what really needs fixing in this place, instead of trying shift responsibility with distractions.
Can the BVI carry out a COI on the UK?
Where can I see the video that everyone is talking about?
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid034JR1eUGdSjESqUfamCcjinfe8spQb5EXwrWSXPNs1TC1cyVPAeTkkgpU13U8dTDBl&id=100069677692271
If it is not for viewing by the public why is it being made available for viewing by the public. Pretty easy to see who doing it here. Also easy to ask them who they got it from and all will be solved!! Made public by the person on this facebook page and leaked by the person that gave it to them? Anonymously?? So pray tell and stop the nonsense.
So what is all the fuss about the truthful video? We are in severe denial of our disease of crime and don’t want it to be publicized but it is the truth whether or not it is made public or that the international community knows…. We just need to clean up our act… We are sick from head to toe. That’s a fact.. hence the reason we feel so ashamed by the video.. we are now beginning to see how horrible the BVI, nature’s little secrets is. What’s in the dark will come to light.. the light has been shone on us exposing our hypocrisy… We want to be in the big leagues. This is the big leagues.. Many years of crime and corruption has come crashing down on us…. We look at other countries and talk about their crime.. now that are looking at us and talking about our crime. Get over it!
“ critics say has tarnished the territory’s pristine reputation.”
Pristine reputation LOL.
Hello,
We have two types of reputation in the outside world – one is that our islands and seas are incredibly beautiful, so much so that many people want to come here and enjoy our incredible nature, particularly our beaches/waters and sailing.
The other has many sides but begins with our worldwide reputation as a “tax haven” and centre for money laundering to help rich people, criminals and tax dodgers who want to hide their money. We may not think this reputation is justified, but it is a simple fact that a large portion of the world knows us for this.
Equally, and especially since Head Coach, we are known for other forms of corruption, like drug smuggling and having a government now in prison for cartel and organised crime activities.
We might not like it but those are basically the things we are known for around the world.
When I was a child NOT ONE of these negative accusations could be levelled at our beloved BVI. Try to blame who you want, but is we made this happen.
COP video issue is a tiny bit part player and if you think otherwise you are out of your mind, It will take more than a Tourist Board “marketing” campaign to overcome the reputations we gave ourselves over the last 3/4 decades.
Some people here are some set of toxic petty jokers. ??They think that video was damaging and will blow that out of proportion because it is UK aka the Whitenan ??? (remember we must fear the white man people). ???Compared to the PREMIER /LEADER OF THE COUNTRY SITTING IN JAIL ON ALLEGATIONS AROUND DRUG TRAFFICKING No video can replicate that damage no matter how you petty imbeciles try your tit for tat tactics to try to make it. Watch people all bad image of BVI will now be attributed to that video and not what happened before. This is the sick set of people here we live with…..
The one who illegally acquired and released this unedited incomplete and confidential property of H MS VIPD has committed an act treason.
She should be stripped of Belongership status and the Gallows reinstated for her accommodation.
for ‘safe’ tourism in the BVI began to diminish when Customs raided Nanny Cay on 11 Nov. 2021 for no reason. The downhill slide continued in Jan. and March 2022 with more unwarranted Customs raids on yachts all over the BVI and hit rock bottom on 28 April 2022 when the Premier was arrested in Miami. So in less than 6 months the BVI’s tourism reputation went from mediocre to scaring all tourists away. Good job Tourist Board!
That law was around since 2004 and was not enforced. Now that it is being enforced it is now a problem? Since we are on the charter industry how about the dumping of waste in our bays which is against the law. Look at Cane Garden Bay and Great Harbour, JVD; water gone from blue to green! There should be a very stiff fine for that environmental crime!
You talking about yachts but the whole island dumps it’s sewerage into the sea, and burns its garbage open air, makes its power from diesel… BVi govt care about nothing but money, money money
The only people who know the reality depicted in the video is us, those who live here and know the day to day stuff. In Europe and other parts of the world they’ll think it’s ITV doing a spin off of their very popular show Death in Paradise which is filmed in Guadeloupe. Its very entertaining and everyone lives the quirky characters and the beautiful scenery. Tortola was even featured in one of the episodes as it was about a cycling tournament and one of the teams was (depicted as being) from Tortola. A lot of the world’s population know we are on the map from the who financial industry thing. They know Guadeloupe is on the map too but they don’t think that people are being murdered there on a regular basis. As a matter of fact they go there and try to book in at the beach shack the Police Inspector in the show lives in. So Policing in Paradise will roll right over with that. Fear not.
Damage was done on April 28, 2022 when our then Premier and Ag. Ports Director was arrested and charged in Miami.
This hit ALL the media waves, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Islamic, Haitian, etc. all media waves had us on blast.
Get upset about that.
The video is just a reality of what we the people of the BVI are dealing with daily.
Nonsense. Do you honestly think tourists will even see or give a **** about this? You are useful idiots for the corrupt ruling class. Who benefits from this video being released at this particular moment? I’ll give you a minute.
Why should you mention Jamaica? Yes Jamaica has a lot of crime but it’s still the number one tourist destination. Jamaica pass one million visitors and climbing. You all don’t want anyone talk about your country but every single day you all mentioning Jamaica. The world know that Jamaica is full of crime but the world is still arriving in numbers. Now nature’s little secret is popping out you throwing it on Jamaica.
Then go back home and work for the tourist..since you have many visiting. Lol
How can you recuite officers with a video without making it public . Ayo really believe we gullible sah
Since the year 1900 the BVI has not reached a total of 100 murders in the territory’s history. In fact we are far from that. The numbers show that the BVI is one of the safest place in the world. Our news sites have to recycle articles frequently because there are little crime to report. The police blotter is minimal compared to other places in the world. These are the facts.
Correct!!!!!!
Next door USVI saw 50 – 60 murders per year – highest per capita in the world a few years back
BVI has seen as many as 15 per year I think (7 in 6 months this year?) – so Per capita BVI definitely isn’t inoccent.
I have had the opportunity to look at this video – thanks to the individual who posted a link in this forum. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the video. It depicted working in the BVI as a Police Officer. It is refreshing to see both the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner in the video giving their experience, aspiration and views. It showed facts that there are challenges in policing the territory and the capable manner in which they go about addressing the issues. As a recruitment video absolutely nothing wrong with it. The High speed chase are evidence that did not show anything that was not public record. Why persons should choose to use this video as a weapon speaks to their motives and not the video intention. The Chief of Police has absolutely nothing to apologize for and correctly apologized for the public release of something that was confidential and not meant for public release as yet. Persons responsible should be arrested and charged and those spreading it further also charged based on their erroneous commentary and defamation of character.
ARE YOU SAYING THAT IT AIN’T NO BIG THING , THAT WHAT WAS SEEN ON VIDEO IS THE NEW NORM ? ❓ THAT WASN’T HOLLYWOOD TWO ASSASSINS SPRAYING A HUMAN BEING WITH BULLETS IS COOL / OR ROBBING AND KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE TO GET MONEY TO PAY THEIR RENT IS ALRIGHT / COCAINE IS ALL AROUND US / AK47 ARE ON THE STREETS AND THE SO CALLED JUSTICE SYSTEM FREEING UP COLD BLOODED KILLERS TO GO ON THE BLOCK AND BRAG ABOUT IT AND CONTINUE THEIR KILLING SPREE ?
You do realize we have a higher homicide rate than Haiti?
You’re talking about reported homicides.
Haiti has easily the highest homicide rate in the Caribbean, but I suspect you knew that anyway.
“The territories pristine reputation”. Are you having a laugh? Let us not forget, the former Premier is on trial for trafficking cocaine and money laundering
They need to solve the crime in that video and get the criminals off the street. Why are they advertising an unsolved murder when an investigation is ongoing to make tv series? They need to put that energy into solving the crime to give the families closure.
sounds like commissioner is getting too close to catching someone and they are trying to get him to resign and off their tail. looks suspicious to me.
How many photos and Videos have we all seen of crime scene. Dead Shooting Victims, Dead drowning, Car crash deaths. All circulated within minutes. The shooting in the video I saw other videos of people gawking at the victim not offering help just videoing and looking. This is shocking to see but no outrage no politicians condemning these actions. I can not see how they are offended my this video and not the actual crimes. I was appalled when a school was shot at west end and not a peep from anyone condoning this innocent victim death. You should take a close look at yourself before calling Top Cops resignation when he had done so much to clean up the mess here and lots more to clean up yet.
We have all seen the WhatsApp photos of all of this…I have not seen this video, but it is all true. We the people know it. The Coconut telegraph does not lie like our politicians.
Damage was done when Premier started dipping into drug trafficking. No way to spin that.
The problem is here. Why don’t you start by trying to fix it???
Bring in the UK and bring in the UK Navy with the drug radar and this problem is GONE in about 3 weeks. The BVI Police are OVER THEY HEADS!
We don’t need spin. We need some action from you guys in charge!
No words for this idiotic fiasco! Never will change until people own up to mistakes and fix their problems. Still better than thou attitude, entitlement and tunnel vision. And still the same ones in office that brought us to this point! Nevermind, the drug running, corruption …lets complain about a video now! Never do stand up for the reality of the BVI! Keep it up BVI! The world can read right between the lines!
Hahahaha! So this man thinks the video is hurting the BVI’s image to tourists? Apart from the former Premier and Ports Authority boss being charged for drug offences, the drug smuggling, the murders – too many for a small island where guns are not allowed in the last 5 years – the BVI is a disgrace. I wonder what the tourists think when they see the damage from Hurricane Irma from 5 years ago? Sea Cows Bay should be renamed Shipwreck Bay. Then there are the scrap and abandoned cars and trucks all over the island on full view to the tourists, hurricane damaged buildings – including the Government’s own Admin building – rubbish all over the place, the wall on the coast road to West End has not been totally fixed yet after 5 years, East End is East End, and that’s not to mention the potholes and the smell of sewage on Main Street or the stagnant water. That’s without the high prices the shops, the restaurants and the hotels! Anytime a tourist sees all these things they go back and tell other people. And he thinks its the video that will bother tourists!
A systematic attempt to damage the reputation of the BVI?