UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. ambassador from the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines was briefly arrested and handcuffed by a New York police officer Wednesday for alleged disorderly conduct after he walked through a barricade to get into his office building.
Ambassador Camillo Gonsalves told The Associated Press that he was returning to his office after lunch and stepped out of his official car, through a barricade in front of the building -- as he has done for the past five years -- when he was confronted by an officer who shouted: "What do you think the barricades are there for?"
He said he walked to the elevator and the officer ran into the building, "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: "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."'
"At that point he handcuffed me, with assistance from other officers he called as a backup," Gonsalves 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. As a U.N. diplomat, Gonsalves has diplomatic immunity.
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