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Lawyer Parnell R. campbell, QC.
Lawyer Parnell R. campbell, QC.

The manner in which opposition senator, Vynnette Frederick, was arrested on July 11 “invites criticism of the strongest kind”, constitutional lawyer Parnell R. Campbell, QC, says.

The senator was arrested while having lunch with her legal team, political colleagues, and relatives at a restaurant in Kingstown on July 11, hours after a court threw out six perjury charges against her.

Nine charges relating to false declarations, swearing falsely, and fabricating evidence were brought against her later that day.

Speaking Monday on his weekly television programme, during which he explains the laws of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Campbell said the prosecution bringing amended charges against Frederick was lawful.

“But the fact that it is lawful to do something doesn’t mean it is morally right to do it. That’s a difference. And the manner in which it was done invites criticism of the strongest kind,” he said.

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He said his comments were not because Frederick is a lawyer, senator, and a prominent citizen from prominent family.

“I am not saying that Miss Frederick is entitled to any special treatment. I am simply saying she is entitled to be treated as a human being.

“And you don’t treat any human being the way she was treated — if the published reports are correct — in those circumstances.”

‘out for vengeance’

Campbell said it was clear to him the authorities were not out only to make an arrest but also to humiliate and embarrass.

“You are out for vengeance, not for justice. And I take very strong objection to treating any human being that way. After all, she is somebody pickney. She didn’t drop out ah holla tree,” Campbell said, using colloquial expressions meaning that a person is someone’s child and therefore, human.

“She is somebody’s daughter. And I say this you know, I have four daughters, and if anyone had treated anyone of them the way that Miss Frederick was treated, I wouldn’t be here sitting before you on this programme. I’d be awaiting a charge or awaiting the hearing of a charge against me. That is not the way you treat people in a civilised country, man. Come on,” Campbell further said.

‘treatment you reserve for terrorists’

Opposition Senator, Vynnette Frederick. (IWN file photo)
Opposition Senator, Vynnette Frederick. (IWN file photo)

He suggested that one or two police officers could have gone to Frederick’s home or office and arrest her there.

The arrest at the restaurant, he said, is “uncivilised behaviour in any language.

“That is treatment you reserve for terrorists and hardened criminals, not a normal citizen.”

“So that those who are involved in the decision to take her into custody in that manner should think again. And how did the police know that she was at a particular restaurant? Somebody must have followed her.”

Campbell said that someone must have gotten annoyed at the fact that the charges were thrown out and decided they were going to teach Frederick a lesson and decided to abuse their authority to humiliate the politician.

“This is St. Vincent and the Grenadines. We are not supposed to behave in that uncivilised, barbarous way at all.”

Respect presumption of innocence

Campbell said that Frederick’s guilt or innocence is another story, and noted that the Constitutions presumes her innocent until proven guilty.

“Up to this minute, she remains and innocent person of the charges because the charges have not yet been heard. And you have to respect that presumption of innocence.

“You cannot threat here as if she is already a convicted person being hauled off to jail to begin a sentence. I think that is carrying matters too far.

“That, to me, has all the ingredients of being motivated by malice, ill will, and spite — things that should not enter into the deliberation or thinking of anybody in the prosecution service, or in the Police Force for that matter.”

Reports say that nine officers from the Special Services Unit — a tactical squad, and the Criminal Investigation Department went to arrest the senator.

Campbell questioned why so many officers were necessary.

“To me, that conduct is deplorable,” he said, adding that he does not believe “all the exaggerations about the manner in which she was physically manhandled”.

Campbell urged caution regarding the manner in which authority “is being exploited because today for you, tomorrow for me.

“So, don’t people don’t understand that they are not in the system, prosecuting people forever? Don’t they understand that there will be a reckoning?” he said, adding that the Bible urges us to threat others as we would like to be threated.

“Those involved should be ashamed of that sort of uncivilised behaviour and the motives which led to that legal barbarism. Charge her, yes, but do it in a decent humane way, no to humiliate and embarrass,” Campbell said.

10 replies on “Manner of senator’s arrest ‘is treatment you reserve for terrorists’ — constitutional lawyer”

  1. Well I never did, what a turn up, I hope PARNELL CAMPBELL realises that even he can get the spite and malice treatment there is plenty of it to spare.

    It take a lot to get him to pronounce a wrong doing by or of this regime. He even came back from Cuba and said what a wonderful system they have, remember that. Well Campbell its even worse in Cuba, so why didn’t you tell us about that, instead of heaping praises on them.

    But thank you for your current honesty and courage, just beware, you are not immune to the spite, malice and pure evil that can be heaped on your head.

    I consider PARNELL CAMPBELL has a lot to answer for, including his input and advice that he gave us about the referendum. He is a very clever man, perhaps to clever for his clogs.

  2. Duggie Nose says:

    Oh, yea, so I am a terrorist?
    How many times police have placed guns at my head, all because myself and others carried Afro hairstyle? PR knows for a fact that I did not drop off any ‘halla tree’, as he made reference to Vinne on television.
    And what is PR’s take on Dwaine Sandy, who was handed over to police and kept for 48 hours and then re-arrested in the wee hours of the morning and kept for another 48 hours, without a single charge being laid against him?
    The police released a wanted poster, which they gave to SVGBC/SVGTV, stating he was armed and dangerous, without one semblance of proof. That youth, who has a child that still uses pampers and milk, could have been killed and we would have gone our merry way stating that’s life.
    It must be noted that all this took place before Vinne’s arrest and neither PR nor the Bar Association made any squeak.
    I stated once that we all call for the death penalty when it is not one of our own who is heading for the hangman’s noose. See how we are behaving now that a legal mind is confronted by the law?
    I hate to think that PR is now blowing hot because Vinne is a lawyer. That cannot be right. He has to stand up for everyone and not one of his kind, a lawyer.
    Somebody wake me up when everyone becomes equal under the law, otherwise, like Touch said in song, SHUT UP!

  3. Some journalists like some lawyers became hot when things happen to people close to them. All the wrong doings that has taken place in our country what was your take on it Dougie Nose? Like PR you too is guilty of selective journalism. You condemn PR for his position on Vinnie but didn’t say that PR was wrong in his assessment of the situation. With regard to Sandy, no one knew what evidence the police had or reasons for arresting Mr. Sandy. With wanted posters out and so on, how are anyone to know the details the police has against Dwayne Sandy? As u say he was arrest and re-arrest without a shred of evidence. Who knows if he is guilty or not? Unlike Vynette, he never had cases that were thrown out by the magistrate.

  4. lenneth boucher-franco says:

    I am very sorry of all this commotion people need to behave themselves properly respect the law and do what is right what the Prime minister is doing people should really think twice for vincentians have to look for the further and must be able to se beyond their nose when they travel out in other parts of the world this is why they need to take every opportunity that’s comes because it comes once in a while agree for the building of the international Airport there in ST.Vincent Vincentians people OPEN YOUR EYES make use of everything now.

  5. Thank you God for not allowing us to take his mal advice on the constitution.

    Can you just imagine for one moment the trouble we would be in right now.

    History will judge the man, at the moment it doesn’t look to good what has been written, but he has the chance to come good.

    So PC get to work, wake up before you go down in history in a dreadful light, as a collaborator of this spiteful and malicious ruling regime, wake up man we need you on our side. Remember how the fat man tried to destroy you, its all sitting there in the annals of history.

  6. Patrick Ferrari says:

    This is a powerful and moral Parnell. Thank you very much. His stand now, is no disrespect or slight for what went on in the past. His abhorrence at the way Ms Frederick was treated is evidence that the unflappable, erudite ex-Attorney General recognizes that we have crossed the threshold.

    We are all guilty of allowing the threshold to be set too low. And when we eventually say no, this is not acceptable, some might say, well, we did no say no before, why are we saying it now? And they would be right. But it is the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. We have passed the elastic limit and we are at the Rubicon. Yes, we should have drawn the line earlier but that we did not; it should not stop us now.

    “Somebody” has to put a stop to Ralph’s pit bull and the quasi-military mongoose gang in waiting. That “somebody” is we – the people. Oh dearie, I almost forgot, Peter Binose gets annoyed when I say “quasi.” We must be careful not to annoy the caustic self-appointed keeper, mustn’t we. I hope I don’t cross that one’s threshold … quasi, quasi, quasi.

    There must be six dozen points on Parnell’s opinion I would like to rejoin but it would be too much so I am going to do one. One that I think is a little more subtle than the others are and I’m afraid that because of that it might get lost.

    Parnell said, “Someone must have gotten annoyed at the fact that the charges were thrown out and decided they were going to teach Frederick a lesson.” He is right. That someone is Julian Francis. If you know HOW to listen and more so, if you WANT to listen, Francis made that pellucid when he express his annoyance that the NDP took the dismal of Vynnette’s (first set of) charges as a victory and were partying. He suggested that if Julian Francis was arrested, if we thought that the NDP would let him party. It was a leading question putting us in a position to answer “NO!” Well that is hypothetical. He is not arrested. Vynnette was arrested. Vynnette was stopped from partying. So from Francis’ suggestion the ONLY LOICAL CONCLUSION IS THAT THE NDP STOPPED HER FROM CELEBRATING A VICTORY. IT IS NATURAL TO HIM THAT THE NDP WOULD TELL THE JUDICIARY WHAT TO DO. I WONDER WHY?

    His point is since the NDP would hypothetically teach him a lesson the ULP is quite right for the ULP to – I think he would like to say, “retaliate” and – teach Vynnette a (real) lesson. Tit for tat even though the tat never existed.

    WE ARE IN A BAD PLACE, DREAD. A PLACE WOULD BE A THRESHOLD FOR A RALPH IN OPPOSITION THAT WOULD HAVE BROUGHT ABOUT A ROAD BLOCK SURE

  7. Julian, the name literally means, in Latin, “belonging to Julius”, a woman a child an item or a slave, hence its use for the Julian calendar introduced by Julius Caesar.

    So what exactly or who does Julian belong to, does he belong to Gonsalves, is he his slave? is he his yard boy, fall guy, what is he? We know the are both Francis’s, but there are a number of those and some are quite nice people. I sometimes wonder how those people feel to be part of the same clan as this duo. How many have considered or even changed their names, or left the count

    FERRARI, you must be taking those intelligence pills again, what you wrote makes a lot of sense. Problem is many of those in the Diaspora are unable to obtain the intelligence pills, in fact I think some of them might still be taking the ULP silly pill.

    You can see the regime is running frightened when they get their silly little scum chums to write nonsense, using a host of silly false name like ‘lenneth boucher-franco’ ‘Urian’, I notice this is happening more and more as they panic and try to control the release of the truth by people like us.

    Gonsalves has now shown that he is still a supporting MARXIST, and even now is in Cuba dancing in the streets with half nude old ladies, the young ones in Cuba have become a little more fussy. He will also find time to roll up his trousers and expose his little fat legs, whilst paddling on the beach. I doubt that the Castro’s will have much to do with him after the WIKILEAKS alleged expose. But still he loves and worships their system, a true Marxist supporter of the Cuban revolution.

    I think we should tone it down regarding the Goons, those military style perhaps police perhaps Star Trek lovers, those nasty people who dress in jungle camouflaged uniform in Kingstown. Because Gonsalves likes them, according to him he kissed the Goon woman in his garden at 4am one morning, she claimed he raped her. He then against all rules of decency told the country and the World her name, exposed her in what I regard the most improper way, then kicked and bucked like a bronco to make sure he never appeared before a court. Culminating in his dear friend Colin Williams who happens to be the Director of Public Prosecutions, appointed by him, previously holding the post in the ULP as their Public Relations officer, and a member of Gonsalves legal office chambers, as DPP he took over the case and dismissed it. When Gonsalves gave him the DPP job, the SVG Barr Association wrote letters in protest of his appointment, saying he was to close to the ULP, and I am sure to close to Gonsalves. Well the Bar Association were not listened to, now we have the problem of what the public think is happening, even if its not.

    Then the FRANCIS boy comes and indicates to us that the prosecution of Ms Frederick is of the ULP doing. Well if that is true, I just hope thats not an admission that they control the DPP, if I am wrong in thinking that, would someone please correct me.

    FERRARI, you are spot on right when you say “Somebody has to put a stop to Ralph’s pit bull and the quasi-military mongoose gang in waiting. That somebody is we – the people”.

    You see the World is watching and history is being written, one thing we can be sure of, such like as the FRANCIS DUO and the DPP will take a prime place in our history books, because when they are dead and gone historians will be able read all, such as this and many other writings, analyse the situations and write the truth without being sued.

    My belief as I stated yesterday and will repeat today, Gonsalves is a one man government, a one man spokesman, a one man judiciary, and the owner of an enslaved people called Vincentians. Its time to take back our freedom, the truth, and to dump this self proclaimed liar and worshiper of Obeah. Let him go and live in CUBA and take all his fellow believers with him.

    He himself told us “if I work Obeah, I only work Obeah for the Lord” “show me a liar and I will show you a thief” He also told us “I sometimes tells lies”. What admissions for a Prime Minister, what admissions for a lawyer to make.

    Only when this ULP government is gone will the suffering inflicted from spite, malice, hate and evil, be behind us.

    PEOPLE IN CANADA, AMERICA, BRITAIN AND THE REST OF THE WORLD
    WAKE UP AND SMELL THE SULPHUR. THIS REGIME IS EVIL, PURE EVIL.

    Peter Binose
    Self-appointed keeper of the whistle

  8. On reflection PARNELL was very brave to write this paper, remember I warned he may be inflicted with the hate, spite and malice, well is has already started. Lets just see if he is brave enought to take the straight path without needing to run off into the woods and hide. Parnell you are under close scrutiny.

    https://www.iwnsvg.com/2013/07/25/dpp-rebuts-former-ags-criticisms-says-people-are-even-arrested-while-sleeping/

    see this article and the relevent comments

    1. Ralph Gonsalves and Julian Francis?…the DPP and Police Force seem to be their booth-lickers. Their attitudes towards upstanding citizens of SVG is lighting a bush fire which would end in a riot if Ralph and Julian is not stopped. I saw the fottage on YouTube, and Parnel Campbell’s article was spot on. It will appear that if you are not jumping with the Unity Labour Party, you suffer. […] in the Labour Party who are supposed to be Christians, please do the right thing and separate yourselves…are you afraid to say something in fair of being slapped by the PM

  9. BROWNE THE WORLD IS THE STAGE AND ALL ACTORS HAVE TO LEAVE THE STAGE SOME TIME , PLEASE DONT DO ANYTHING YOU CANNOT LIVE WITH WHEN YOU LEAVE THE STAGE.

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