Canadian gay couple handcuffed & arrested by Tulum Mexico cops for kissing near children until released after pressure by beach onlookers.
A Canadian gay couple vacationing at Tulum, Mexico were briefly detained for kissing on a beach ‘near a group of children’, last Sunday, February 21.
Video footage recorded by a local women’s right’s activist, Maritza Escalante Morales shows the moment the men were handcuffed together. A third man is also handcuffed in the back of the police pickup truck according to the dailymail.
Quinana Roo Tulum Police said that officers were ‘responding to a complaint of obscene behavior involving several people’.
In the video, one of the arrested men can be heard saying ‘and that’s why they arrested us’ as he struggles to step into a police vehicle as a group of beachgoers surround it.
‘We are gay and we were kissing and that’s why they are taking us,’ he later says. ‘We are gay.’
🔴#Viral | Policía detiene a pareja LGBT por besarse en las playas de Tulum
En redes sociales se difundió un video donde una pareja gay es arrestada por la policía municipal de #Tulum por haberse besado en público en la playa. pic.twitter.com/iMSEPEzjVU
— Río Revuelto Noticias (@RioRevNoticias) February 24, 2021
Crowds gather to protest gay couple’s arrest
The crowd chanted at the officers until the men were released according to Mexico’s El Universal journal.
Escalante said she was on a family beach trip when she noticed a police patrol unit approaching the gay men on their ATVs.
‘To my surprise and that of many who had also approached [the cops], the reason for their arrest was because they were gay and had kissed,’ Escalante posted on Facebook.
‘The policemen were violent and gave arguments such as there are families and children and they cannot be seeing this. They were forced into the patrol and not allowed to go,’ she added.
‘We are an inclusive and impartial police both for residents and tourists’
‘All of us who were gathered were upset to see the situation. No matter how much we told them they [the police] were committing a crime, they would not let them go.’
The Quintana Roo Tulum Police issued a statement Thursday saying the officers were responding to a call of several individuals engaging in vulgar sexual acts in front of other families, with some claiming that the men were ‘committing immoral acts.’
After being pressured by the crowd, the officers soon removed the handcuffs from the three arrested men and allowed them to leave to prevent a riot, according to local Mexico media reports.
In response to the arrest, Quintana Roo Tulum Police said: ‘We are an inclusive and impartial police both for residents and tourists who visit the state of Quintana Roo. So no abuse of authority will be tolerated.’
The name of the individuals arrested have not been made public.
The incident has led to several human rights groups have filed complaints with Mexico’s government.
