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 -Published: Monday, November 18, 2019- Street video generated call
for law
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff A years-long effort to regulate the conduct of men in public places is about to spawn a new law. The proposed law equates something as common as a wolf whistle to violence and provides fines and jailings for a long list of such actions. The measure won approval from a legislative commission last week and soon will be on the agenda of the full legislature with passage likely. The current legislation appears to stem from a street incident in October 2015 when a young man, surnamed Cruz-Barquero, witnessed another man making a video of the legs and derrière of a young woman as she walked in the street. The Cruz made his own video confronting the peeper and then posted the encounter on his social media account. Generally photography in a public place is legal, but the situation generated a call for some kind of legal prohibition. In fact, the proposed law that will go to the legislature specifically forbids making a video with sexual connotations on a public street. The public outrage was inflamed further when men attacked Cruz with a knife a few days later in a San Sebastian park. Within days a handful of women's groups were calling for a law against public photography. At first many though Cruz was targeted because he blew the whistle on the ungentlemanly behavior. Cruz eventually died in a hospital. Later a mother, daughter and two hit men were convicted of attacking Cruz because he jilted the younger woman. Less than a year later the National Women's Institute and other public agencies launched a $35,000 campaign to raise awareness of women to street harassment and to warn off aggressive men. The campaign was to show an anti-harassment message on the electronic screens carried by 200 buses. A later campaign was to put signs on the street, place them on the back of buses and display the message in movie theaters, according to news files. The proposed bill goes much further than just criminalizing videos. The bill defines street sexual harassment of any kind of behavior with sexual connotation and unidirectional character, without the consent or acceptance of the person to whom it is addressed with the potential to cause discomfort, intimidation, humiliation, insecurity, fear and offense, which usually comes from an unknown person to the other person who receives it, and that takes place in public or public access spaces, said the Assembly in a statement last week as the measure cleared the Special Permanent Commission of Women. The bill also specifically says it is designed to reject the idea that men are superior and women are inferior. It covers some actions, such as indecent exposure, that already are in the criminal code. But the section of videotaping is so broad that there might be unintended consequences. It provides a fine or prison up to two years for anyone who produces audio or visual material with a sexual connotation of another person without consent. Such shots seem to be a standard in local television, depending how sexual connotation is interpreted. The bill also provides fines who anyone who produces sounds, whistles, gestures or words, again with a sexual connotation, toward someone without their consent. And the bill would impose the same penalty if the offender instead uses social media or electronic communications. A legislative analysis notes that a number of international agencies agree with this definition and even include lascivious glances. The current bill increases the penalties if the action is done by more than one person or is directed at protected classes, such as minors, the aged or the disabled. The bill is No. 20.299, entitled Law against Street Sexual Harassment. Many of the actions proscribed by the bill are so common that passage could result in a flood or complaints. Certainly a possibility of selective enforcement exists. Police and the judiciary have been less than aggressive in prosecuting even more serious sexually-orientated crimes. In Nov. 2008, a female A.M. Costa Rica staffer, for example, was accosted one night in Parque España by a naked man who was hiding in bushes. Police who arrested him found his backpack that contained rope and a knife. Yet a judicial aide later reported that the man could not be located for trial and suggested that the woman should search for him to serve appearance papers. She declined. ------------------------ What else could the authorities do to fight against sexual harassment in the streets? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com |
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