Shock: Man Convicted in Court of Being a Sexist
For the first time ever, Belgian authorities have convicted a person for displaying “sexism” in public.
The man — who remains anonymous for privacy reasons — was fined $3,725 and faces possible prison time if he does not pay, reported The New York Times on Tuesday.
A female police officer in Belgium pulled the man aside for jaywalking in June.
He told the officer, “Shut your mouth, I don’t talk to women, being a police officer is not a job for women,” The Times reported.
The man was charged in November with sexism, slander and threatening a police officer, according to public prosecutor’s office representative Gilles Blondeau.
He must now pay 3,000 euros, or $3,725, but he did not show up for court.
No person in Belgium had ever been officially convicted of “sexism.”
The man claims the officer discriminated against him because he had dark skin, according to Blondeau.
The arrest comes after Belgium passed a sexism law in 2014 following the release of “Femme de la rue,” a 2012 documentary that inspired a reactionary force against displays of sexism.
The law defines sexism as “every gesture or deed … clearly meant to express contempt of a person based on sex,” The Times reported.
Perpetrators can be fined up to 10,000 euros — about $12,400 — and spend as long as a year behind bars.
“Female personnel are integrated in all services, departments and ranks of the police,” said Sandra Eyschen, spokeswoman for the Belgian federal police.
Eyschen maintains that more than 30 percent of Belgium’s 40,000 police officers are female.
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A version of this article previously appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website.
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