Be careful where you twerk. Just weeks after a bunch of rowdy Russian cadets were disciplined for posting a video of themselves getting down and dirty–you can still see that here–a group of 10 foreigners is now facing up to a year in Cambodian prison after police raided a dance party in Siem Reap, near the ancient Angkor Wat ruins, and arrested them for what they say was “pornographic” dancing.
If you’re deeply confused by the phrase “pornographic dancing,” you are not alone.
Related: Everyone involved in this viral gay wedding video has been arrested
The arrest went down last week when the private villa hosting the party was disrupted by what seemed like an entire fleet of officers. Authorities declared that the partiers were “singing and dancing pornographically,” according to the Guardian.
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If you’re even more confused by the phrase “pornographic singing,” you are even less alone. But it sounds fun.
The backpackers, which include citizens of the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway, were kept in custody over the weekend and charged with “producing pornographic pictures and materials.”
Which brings us to the pictures.
Police posted images on the Cambodian National Police website from the “pornographic dancing” in question. And, sure, it looks like they were having a good time:
“Honestly, it was really confusing. Everyone was confused. They raided, rounded us up — there were about 80 to 100 people at this party. Some of them were tourists. There were about 30 of them (police officers),” said the suspects, according to Time.
It appears the chargeable offense was the posting of photos, like these ones, to social media.
The proximity of the party to Angkor Wat also seems to have something to do with the authorities’ motivation to punish the tourists.
Related: Gay couple who flashed their butts at Thai temples is now royally screwed
And while we fully support feeling yourself on the dancefloor–and clearly they had no reason to worry as the party was on private property–this is yet another reminder that when traveling internationally and posting hijinx online for your friends back home to LOL at, you can expect to run into trouble.
Last year, an American gay couple was arrested in Thailand for sharing photos of their bare behinds taken at Buddhist temples in Bangkok. They were also charged with producing and distributing pornography and were eventually released.
Daniel-Reader
So since the police posted the pics the police are going to prison for breaking their own “law” right? It’s not just a shakedown of people who don’t pay bribes? Racism is a global problem impacting all colors. Remember the average human being is not white. Caucasians make up less than 20% of the world’s population. The average racist is not caucasian, so this could just be racism rearing its ugly head in Asia yet again against non-Asians. White people are a racial minority on the planet who are fetishized in much of Asia. Racism against black people is really bad in Asia too. Sad. Racism is evil.
irbaboon
What is the appeal in going there in the first place?
Jaxton
It looks very hetero-normative. I wonder if any of them were drunk. Not a good idea to be drunk while dancing. It kind of makes you look desperate.
Sam6969
I hate social media and I do not even understand why people post publicly their private pictures (rather than sending them to only those who count for them).
Another illustration that social media are a plague to common sense.
SiamSam
The lack of representation of PoC is very problematic. #EndWhiteSupremacy