UN
ambassador: cop said he could be a terroristAssociated Press | 0 comments
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A
U.N. ambassador who was handcuffed after walking through a barricade to get
into his office building said Friday the New York police officer who arrested
him thought he could be a terrorist.
Ambassador
Camillo Gonsalves, from the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines,
also said in a statement released by his government that he was "struck or
somehow bruised" behind his right ear and was treated at a hospital for
minor injuries to his head, wrists, hand and shoulder.
Gonsalves
said he was returning to his office after lunch Wednesday and stepped out of
his official car and walked through a barricade in front of the building _ as
he has done for the past five years _ when he was confronted by an officer. The
building houses a number of U.N. missions including Israel's and has a 24-hour
police presence, with a guard post outside.
According
to Gonsalves, the officer demanded to know why he went through the barricade.
He said he didn't respond and proceeded to the elevator. He said the officer
ran into the building, approached him from behind, "grabbed me by my neck
and shoulders, spun me around and said, `Didn't you see me talking to
you?'"
Gonsalves,
the son of St. Vincent's Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, said he replied
calmly: "You couldn't have been talking to me."
He
said the officer then demanded identification. "I said, `Why? Am I under
arrest?' He said, `Well you are now.'"
Gonsalves
said the officer tried unsuccessfully to get his hands behind his back to
handcuff him, and he remained "uncooperative, but peaceful." The
backup officers who were called forced his hands behind his back and handcuffed
him, he said.
He
said other ambassadors with offices in the building _ including the envoys of
Gambia, Dominica and St. Lucia as well as his own staff _ came into the lobby
and began to tell the officer he was in the wrong, and that Israeli diplomats
had crossed the barricades that day, just as he did. As a U.N. diplomat,
Gonsalves has diplomatic immunity.
As
the crowd gathered, Gonsalves said, the officer who arrested him "began to
act in an uneasy manner."
"Apparently
by way of post-hoc justification, (the) officer ... said quietly to his fellow
officers, but within my earshot: `I couldn't let him just walk into the
building. Look at him: he could be a terrorist,'" Gonsalves said.
He
said senior police officers and State Department officials from the U.S.
Mission eventually confirmed that he was a diplomat and his handcuffs were
taken off after about 20 minutes.
"The
lobby of the building is under 24-hour video surveillance," Gonsalves
said, and his mission is trying to obtain the footage of the incident
"which I am confident will corroborate this account of my ordeal."
Deputy
Police Commission Paul J. Browne said Friday that the ambassador ignored the
officer's request for information and resisted being handcuffed. He said he had
no information about whether the terrorist comment was made.
"This
was a high-security post," Browne said. "The officer had an
obligation to stop that individual and establish who he was."
Gonsalves
said that after he returned to his office, State Department personnel expressed
"their personal regret that the incident had taken place." He said
they told him police were considering issuing him a summons for disorderly
conduct, but later decided against it.
"I
informed them that I considered myself the victim of a police assault, and may
pursue my own redress to that assault," Gonsalves wrote. "I was
informed that if I contemplated legal action, I may become subject to a counter
suit by the New York district attorney."
"Responding
to this, I told the State Department official that all of my legal and
diplomatic options remain open at this point, and that I was unwilling to
foreclose on any action under threat of counteraction," he wrote.
