Some months ago my brother and I were on the phone brainstorming vacation times and places.  I live on one coast, he on the other.  It would be neat, says he, if we could all meet somewhere, like the Bahamas, or the Florida Keys…or say, how about Jamaica?

Uhm…not: 

(Kingston) Students at University of the West Indies rioted as police attempted to protect a gay student and escort him from the campus.

The Daily Gleaner reports that the student had been chased across the Mona campus by another student who claimed the gay man had attempted to proposition him in a washroom.

Dozens of students joined in the case and the student sought protection in a university building.

The mob demanded that campus security turn the student over. With security guards badly outnumbered college authorities called in police fearing the gay man would be killed.

The Gleaner reports that a contingent of police in full riot gear battled with students in an effort to protect the gay man.

Students threw objects from all directions at the officers. At one point the gay man was stabbed by another student, although the injuries are reportedly superficial.

The crowd only began to disperse when one officer drew his gun and fired a shot in the air.

This is far from the first story I’ve heard in a year, of Jamaican mobs chasing down gays (or more to the point, people only suspected of being gay) with the intention of killing them.  Last January a mob chased a young man through the streets and off a pier to his death, shouting homophobic epithets at him all the while.  And in December the man who who ran Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, Lenford Harvey, was shot to death on the eve of World AIDS Day.  Three men broke into his house, tied up two of his housemates and then forced Harvey into their car.  His body was found two hours later.

The Jamaica tourism web site says of the island country that it is a place of "sweet fragrances, shimmering sunsets, spicy flavors.  No wonder hearts beat faster in Jamaica."  Especially when they’re being chased through the streets by bloodthirsty mobs no doubt.