Guilty of good looks?
The mug shot of a "handsome" Northern California man arrested Wednesday on felony weapons charges has gone viral after garnering approximately 50,000 likes on Facebook and drawing comments praising his high cheekbones, chiseled face and striking bright blue eyes.
Jeremy Meeks, 30, was arrested on five felony weapon charges and one gang charge, according to Officer Joseph Silva, a spokesman for the Stockton Police Department. As a result, police posted his mug shot to Facebook as part for a nationwide shaming effort meant to deter potential criminals. The goal, however, seems to have backfired in Meeks's case.
Since the mugshot was posted late on Thursday, the picture has been "liked" by 51,944 people, and shared 5,745 times on Facebook as of this morning.
"Is it illegal to be handsome?" one person wrote.
"Momma, I'm in love with a criminal," another joked. Some online commentators even suggested Meeks should quit whatever he does for a living and start modeling for Abercrombie & Fitch.
"I have not seen that many likes for a photo before," Silva said.
But not all the posts were favorable; many were harsh and disapproving. "He may be a tad bit cute, but with six felonies, he ain't that cute," one observer wrote. "And then woman [sic] get offended when called brain dead or offended for being abused. Well you're attracted to losers," another person stated.
Meeks was one of four men arrested as part of a crackdown on increasing violence in a Stockton neighborhood during Operation Ceasefire, a multiagency mission to curb a recent increase in shootings and robberies in the Weston Ranch area of Stockton, a Northern California city of about 300,000. He is being held in lieu of $900,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Friday afternoon.
Silva called Meeks "one of the most violent criminals in the Stockton area," though he declined to provide any details on the crimes Meeks is alledged to have been involved in.
