Amid turmoil surrounding the heightened powers that the Police Act 2023 seeks to grant to the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force; Premier Dr the Honourable Natalio Wheatley has distanced himself from allegations that the Territory’s leadership is opening the gates for abuses of those powers by Law Enforcement.
After announcing the postponement of the second and third readings of that bill, Wheatley defended himself against those allegations by stating that he is “the last person in the Virgin Islands that would grant the police powers that could be abused”.
Wheatley owed this greatly to having experienced abuse of power at the hands of law enforcement at three distinctive points in his life, both at home in the Virgin Islands and abroad.
The first incident he recalled occurred while he was navigating Road Town as a teen.
The second incident, which has in recent years become a tale too often replicated on too many, occurred at the hands of United States of America Law Enforcement, and landed him an undeserved stay in detention.
His third experience occurred in the United Kingdom, when he was again wrongly identified and accused of a crime by police officers.
Wheatley stressed that he does not support such abuses by law enforcement and has stood publicly, as possibly the only Virgin Islander to lead a march in London against a death in police detention.