The Usual Mess

Judge Jan Harmen Bosch of the Court of First Instance had considered it proven that the now 22-year-old man from Guadeloupe had committed an act of public violence in which he had inflicted severe bodily harm upon Ryan Smith and Richard Jefferson, two homosexuals from the United States, with a wheel wrench near Sunset Beach Bar on April 6, 2006.

This conviction was mainly based on the statement of one of the victims who said he recognised his attacker by his “pom-pom” hairstyle.

After Javois had launched his appeal several witnesses were heard who indicated that Javois was not the man with that hairstyle. Therefore, the judges of the Appeal Court found it could not be convincingly proven that Javois had been the man who had been wielding the wheel wrench.

I haven't been following this case closely and only came across this story by accident today. I suppose the remaining three years were for that part of his participation that did not involve the use of the wheel wrench.

As for the idea that this clown or any of the others were "offended" -- don't believe it for a minute. They beat these guys up for the pleasure of it. In the Caribbean a homosexual man is someone who can be mocked, harassed, beaten and vilified with impunity - in the abstract or in the flesh. Beating these two men up was a good time for the participants. And when they went into the court and said they did it because they were "offended" they were appealing to the bigotry of the court and the public. You can understand how deeply we were offended, your honor, we got completely carried away. Lie. In a just world, such an argument would have doubled their sentences.

The idea that these beach loafers suddenly turned into morally sensitive souls at the sight of the victims would be laughable if the outcome hadn't been so horrible.

It's all about the perception of power. Morality doesn't enter into it at all.