Naked and humiliated – shocking police homophobia in KZN revealed
A disturbing video of police officers allegedly abusing two KwaZulu-Natal men who they caught having sex in a car has gone viral.
The video clip, which appears to have been filmed by the officers themselves, shows the terrified men cowering in the vehicle with their pants down.
The person holding the camera focuses on the men’s exposed genitals while verbally abusing them with homophobic hate speech.
“Who’s doing who?” asks the officer, calling his colleague to, “Come see the shame – the stabane [faggots] are having sex!”
He continues to humiliate the couple, ordering them to not put their pants on. He questions them again: “Who’s the man between the two of you? Who’s the man, who’s the woman?”
When one of the individuals in the car claims, “We were not doing anything,” the officer replies: “Stop lying to me. Don’t make a fool of me.”
He goes on to further rebuke them: “Why are you having sex, because you’re boys? What you’re doing is disgusting!” Another person says, “Let’s arrest them”.
One of the half-naked men meekly responds with: “We want to apologise.” The individual holding the camera, reacts by telling him to “piss off” and get dressed, after which the video ends.
Mambaonline has received unsubstantiated claims that the men were beaten after being arrested. Activists have tracked down at least one of the victims, who’s been described as being “devastated” by the leak of the video.
The clip outed him to his family and he has been mocked in his workplace. He has also expressed doubts about speaking out or being further identified.
Questions are being asked about why officers treated the men in such a degrading fashion and how the video, which may have been filmed some time ago, has made its way into the public realm.
“The men may have broken the law when it comes to public indecency but they deserved to be treated with dignity,” commented Lerato Phalakatshela, Hate Crime Manager at OUT and spokesperson for the Love Not Hate campaign.
“It’s degrading to be filmed and exposed like that. Their human rights were violated. There is clearly homophobia involved in the way the men were treated and what was said to them.”
He argued that, “The police would probably not have made such a big deal out of it if it was an opposite-sex couple.”
Phalakatshela said the men should be given support after their ordeal. “They are probably traumatised and need to get some kind of counselling.”
He added that the police’s actions come as no surprise and pointed out that a 2016 Love Not Hate report found that 88% of LGBTI people said they had not reported hate crime incidents to the police.
“The police always seem to be looking at ways to humiliate or make fun of LGBTI people. This is one of the reasons why LGBTI people don’t report hate crimes, because they fear being victimised by the police,” Phalakatshela said.
Mambaonline understands that the video has been reported to the Department of Justice and the Ministry of Police. Activists are waiting for a response from the authorities.
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where are the police guys they should be exposed
This country makes me so angry. We are supposed to be protected. We need our government to step in and educate our masses. Our queer bodies mean nothing and we just get humiliated and killed every day. But the gvt is silent.
Those police officers should be taken to court of law and really it was not fair. We are human being though it was wrong but we all need a little respect.
Sadly this sort of thing happens more then reported. We live in a world where people feel the need to comment on others and how the live when we are all just going on about life, someone feels the need to destroy someone. People that think it’s okay to do these sort of things need to be outed, let’s humiliate and expose them – no one deserves to feel like less of a person. Love and light to all
We are working on the case. Apparently the police have been suspended but we will not be going on hearsay.
We will be going to the Station on Monday to see if this is true.
We are working on this incident for the two me to get the justice they deserve.
Wow this is totally shocking.. im very shocked.. so how are the victims… are they coping with..
Please you guys should keep us updated also on that one.
When opposite couples do it on a daily basis theres nothimg wrong these police themselves do it in their cars government vehicles in their offices now they shame the poor guys and look they were jus experimenting with eachother the police has no right if this was me i was goin to shoot them dead and win the case in court as to my dignity the poor guys must be very torn inside cos of these rude police they dont realise its all our taxes paying there salaries and this is what they do in the end no law in this country to protect us citizens anymore the same police are selling drugs dagga fake dvds etc bad hearted monkeys
This id wrong!!! Period! Could the LGBTQI Community of South Africa intervene!
I have never really heard of any offenses like this committed by women, Maybe I am wrong… Because of events and actions like these by mostly men, Trying to shove homophobia and their “hetero-normalcy”, misogony down our throats. I find that until the day that our society can decide that being heterosexual is not so normal as e think it is. It is not the default that everyone is born with.
We should not be afraid to be able to live our everyday lives because of men that have been raised and cultured in a society where their way is the only way.
This way of abuse and hetero-normitivity. It is disgusting to treat a human being like that and to supposedly boost your own ego through humiliation.
I suppose a solution is in order:
Gays should stop being chicken shit and stand united against a world like this.
There should be a zero tolerance approach to homophobia and sexism in any aspect of our lives.. We can overcome having to explain to people why we are the way we are.
We should show them how we should be treated and that should become an Institution. The new one.