An Italian man was arrested and charged with rape. His crime: he kissed his 8 year old daugher on the mouth, an innocent custom in Italy. He is also accused of fondling his daugher, seems he straightened out the daughter’s bathing suit. His wife and mother of the child, who was present during all the ordeal, is in shock, as her husband has been in jail for days already. The kid was interviewed by police and was in no way disturbed about the father’s behavior.
He is jailed in a common cell with 15 common criminals. It is known that in Brazil criminals rape and abuse prisoners accused of raping and abusing children.
Sources: http://www.corriere.it/cronache/09_settembre_03/brasile_arresto_italiano_0a0dd620-98ba-11de-b8d4-00144f02aabc.shtml http://www.estadao.com.br/estadaodehoje/20090904/not_imp429426,0.php
This doesn’t surprise me in the least. Northeast Brazil is the most backward, morally repressive part of the nation. Brazil has a reputation for being a free-spirited, partying, fun-loving country, but once you get into the Northeast if you don’t fit in exactly with their absurdly narrow worldview–you have to dress, walk, talk, and think like them–you get dirty looks, at best (especially from Northeast Brazilian women, who are the most pinched, judgmental people I have ever had the displeasure of encountering); at worst, you are arrested for something innocent. I’ve had to live in Fortaleza for work on and off for the past four years and because I am a tall white guy, I get all kinds of judgmental looks from strangers everywhere I go: the beach, the mall, the bank, the post office, the grocery store. Unfortunately, there is a major underage sex tourism industry here (and, yes, Italians–because they are the most plentiful here–are the most common offenders). By the same token, if I cannot safely walk down the street with someone who does not look exactly like me. This is NO exaggeration: if it happens to be someone of a different race, age class, physical type–I am immediately thought to be a sex tourist. As a great credit to Fortaleza’s men, they don’t give a crap one way or another. It’s a judgmental, pious, horribly filthy-minded women here who lob the nastiest looks and comments and go running to the police every time they see something they don’t understand. This is a vile, vile city. I cannot wait to leave and never come back.
From what I remember WRT this case the Italian man’s wife was black which (duh!) made his kid mixed race. When the locals saw a white man kissing a mulatto girl they assumed that it was a foreign tourist with a child prostitute.
You say: “I’m sure the allegations have the potential to destroy this woman’s family, but the safety of her child should be first and foremost in her mind..”
The safety of the child is served very well by her loving father spending a week with 15 violent gang-banger criminals in a jail cell (watch the movie Carandiru to see how Brazilian prisons are). Criminals usually rape and beat rapists and child molesters, so dad might come out of jail with AIDS. Dad should be back home in Italy working, he might lose his job. All this for some insane ridiculous accusation.
And of course he is guilty until proven innocent.
These laws about pedophilila are the modern witch hunt. Let us suppose the worst (which seems extremely improbable): daddy really always inappropriately fondles his daughter. They could not give him a restraining order to stay away from his daughter and leave him free until convicted? Even worse, let us assume at home daddy actually abuses her. A restraining order would not take care of this momentarily? If he violates it, ok, put him into jail. Again, is it not a legal rule: “guilty until proven innocent”!? Exactly the essence of a witch hunt.
Jail should be punishment, prevent further crimes, or avoid that a criminal escapes prosecution.
Afraid of father fleeing prosecution? He will be arrested in Italy if there was any essence to the accusations. So the arrest is totally unnecessary and arbitrary. Or rather, the witch hunt law mandates such arbitrary ridiculous arrests. How can a father change a baby’s diapers without getting arrested?
And why don’t they arrest the mother too? Obviously she is defending the father, so she is guilty too. She is an accomplice of the child molester. So why do things half way? Arrest the mother, and put the kid into a filthy government orphanage while both parents are in jail. That would really assure the safety of the kid.
http://www.estadao.com.br/noticias/cidades,justica-nega-habeas-corpus-para-italiano-preso-em-fortaleza,430431,0.htm
The poor Italian was just denied a habeas corpus, so he will continue in a Brazilian jail for a few more days. The court understood that they needed to hear the police chief first (so why did they not hear him?).
This is Brazil’s way to make it clear not to bring family to Brazil. Add to this that they are known to protect child kidnappers ( http://bringseanhome.org ), international bank robbers (Ronald Biggs), terrorists (Battista from Italy), they try their best to get bad rap internationally. But they want to get the Olympics.
The international press is starting to pick up on this:
http://www.madnessoftheworld.com/?p=653
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/brazil/6142371/Italian-tourist-faces-jail-in-Brazil-for-kissing-his-daughter-on-a-public-beach.html
http://luishipolito.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/brazil-%E2%80%93-italian-tourist-arrested-for-kissing-daughter-on-lips/