One of the arrested men tells the crowd why they're being detained. Photo: Screenshot
After two men were arrested for kissing on a public beach in Mexico, a crowd of furious sunbathers surrounded the heavily armed cops and demanded their release.
As parents and locals started chanting “I’m gay!” and “I’m gay too!” in solidarity with the men, the officers let the men go.
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Video of the incident has skyrocketed around the world and Mexican LGBTQ groups are demanding authorities take action. The video alleges the police were “violent” and said the men were being arrested for kissing in front of “parents and children and they cannot be seeing this.”
Maritza Escalante can be heard arguing with the officers, saying “they were not committing a crime” and “they kissed like any other couple.”
After the confrontation, local police issued a statement saying the men were being arrested for “immoral acts and sexual erotic demonstrations, on the road or public places.” They claimed the men were having oral sex and that one of the men pictured in the video riled up the crowd by claiming it was discrimination.
No one on the beach saw the alleged sexual contact, but police say a citizen complaint spurred the arrests. Two officers reportedly saw the men kiss and returned with two ATVs and several armed officers.
Aercturius on February 28th, 2021 at 15:39 UTC »
Yeah so fun fact: In most of Mexico, "committing immoral acts" or "performing sexual activity in public" are not actual crimes, but something akin to civil infractions and, as such, they require a citizen's complaint for the police to act, but then that same citizen has to accompany the police throughout the whole process, which can take up to 24 hours with no rest and ends with paying a fine and three days arrest at most, so police only use these terms when they're looking to extort the arrested party into giving them money (which is about 99.99% of the time). If the "aggravated" party refuses to accompany the police and present a formal complaint, then the police have to let the arrested party go.
From reading the story, it seems that these police officers saw an opportunity to extort who they thought were vulnerable people because of their sexual orientation, but they severely misjudged the people's reaction in that case. Sadly, rural Mexico is still pretty conservative and homophobic, and the police are really corrupt, but we're getting better (on the homophobia part, since we're still getting fucked by corruption and it doesn't seem to be getting any better).
Source: Am Mexican. Am lawyer.
Edit: sexual orientation, not preference.
Edit 2: civil infractions, not misdemeanors.
autotldr on February 28th, 2021 at 10:02 UTC »
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 61%. (I'm a bot)
Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: men#1 arrests#2 kiss#3 officers#4 crowd#5
apple_kicks on February 28th, 2021 at 09:36 UTC »