Internet swoons over man's smoldering mug shot, makes it go viral


Little did Jeremy Meeks know that after he was arrested Wednesday on felony weapon charges, his mug shot would appear on the Stockton Police Department's Facebook page and go viral, thanks to the thousands of women who just saw those high cheekbones and thought he was a Calvin Klein model and not a convicted felon.
Meeks, 30, was one of four men arrested as part of Operation Ceasefire, whose goal was halting an increase in robberies and shootings in the Stockton, California, area. Stockton Police Department spokesman Officer Joseph Silva called Meeks "one of the most violent criminals in the Stockton area" — but that's not stopping the Facebook requests for 8x10 copies of the mug shot and pleas to have his "convict babies."
So far, the mug shot has more than 37,000 likes, and almost 12,000 comments and 4,000 shares. Sure, the teardrop tattoo says "I'm sensitive," but the six weapons and gang charges and $900,000 bail scream "run."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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