Admittedly, in Cyprus we would not stone a man or woman in the public square for committing adultery. In the case of the two police officers, adultery was not the issue—it was their profession, the institution they represent, the location, and the timing.
The same might well have happened if any other couple without identifying professional insignia had been caught in flagrante in a public space.
The social media post would have garnered many views, perhaps even gone viral, but the protagonists would not have faced such severe consequences to their personal and professional lives.
Most importantly, they would not have endured the mockery that befell the two officers—mockery equivalent to public stoning.
“They should have been more careful,” some might respond. True, they were not careful. However, are we justified in exposing them to such a devastating degree?
We argue we are not exposing them personally, but what they represent: a police force that sought to pass legislation preventing citizens from photographing officers during protests whilst on duty and in uniform; a police force that would arrest any other couple in similar circumstances for public indecency; a police force we call when burglaries occur but which cannot respond because there are more pressing matters; a police force unable to maintain order when hooligans wreak havoc in neighbourhoods surrounding football stadiums.
Both police leadership and union representatives understood perfectly that the target was the institution—the institution as it exists today—not the couple themselves. They recognised that citizens had found an opportunity for revenge.
This is why they left the couple exposed to public ridicule—possibly even being the ones who “removed the masks” from their faces—and only when some citizens attempted to illuminate the human side, with its weaknesses and collateral victims, did the police begin speaking of character assassination and appealing for an end to the public shaming because children and families were involved. Their reflexes functioned as sluggishly as those of the two officers in question.
Now there is a search for whoever recorded and posted the scene. Was he entitled to do so? Would you have done it? Would I? Laws do not determine this—individual principles do.
We would more readily have averted our gaze and allowed the couple to enjoy their moment had their profession not been apparent.
However, their police identity, the location, and timing left little room for discretion from any eyewitness.