British article condemns St. Kitts for Laplace’s hanging… 
Government expected to respond

By Ryan Haas
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

Prime Minister of St Kitts-Nevis, Hon. Dr Denzil Douglas

Released on the same day as the arrival of St. Kitts-Nevis’ inaugural British Airways flight, the article by David Jones details the hanging of Charles Elroy Laplace as a “gruesome scene from the West Indies of bygone days” and reminiscent of “when ruthless white sugar plantation bosses routinely lynched their troublesome black serfs”.

Jones’ article went on to make several contentious claims against the government, public officials and the country of St. Kitts on a whole.

Among those claims is that officers of Her Majesty’s Prison were celebrating Laplace’s impending hanging by drinking on the job, “senior politicians in St Kitts & Nevis are convinced [hanging] is the only effective answer to the violent crime” and that the hanged man was “bound hand and foot” for eight hours prior to his execution.

A source close to PM Douglas said that he was aware of the article and had taken the appropriate avenues to have it addressed by the Government of St. Kitts-Nevis.

“I have spoken to the Attorney General and he subsequently spoke to the Prime Minister [Dr. Hon. Denzil Douglas]. A statement should be issued very soon, maybe as early as sometime today after Cabinet.”

He said he believes legal action may be taken against the newspaper for painting St. Kitts as a collection of “marijuana-scented ghettoes” rife with American-style gang war.  ~~Adz:Right~~

The source indicated that he “had a feeling” Jones was going to paint a negative picture of the country on his visit, but felt an obligation to assist the man’s investigations where appropriate because “this is a democratic country and we are not trying to intimidate people into writing a certain way”.

“I had seen a previous article he wrote on a prison in New Jersey and it was quite negative. I didn’t expect too much when he came here, but I still provided him with enough access to have a balanced article showing that the government is doing many different things to fight crime,” he said.

Run under the headline, ‘Return of the noose: St Kitts has just hanged its first man for a decade and believes it is the only way to beat violent crime’, the article says that the practice of corporal punishment is “unlikely” to prevent future violence in the Federation. Jones also expressed his views on the nation’s leader saying, “It is highly unlikely that Prime Minister Denzil Douglas will mention this unwanted distinction this morning when he makes a speech at the airport to welcome the first holidaymakers off the inaugural British Airways flight direct to St Kitts.”

Jones’ criticisms were not limited to St. Kitts-Nevis however, as he was also critical of the region, calling it “the crime-plagued West Indian archipelago”. In referencing neighbouring Antigua, he said “empty hotel rooms and half-deserted beaches are the legacy” of last year's shooting of a Welsh honeymoon couple.

The Daily Mail is a conservative middle-market paper that is published across Great Britain and has an estimated circulation of over two million papers per day.

The World Association of Newspapers ranks The Daily Mail as the fifteenth most read newspaper in the world.