By Eyal Clyne | Translation: Dana Shunra
This week, a policeman shot and killed a suspect. The deceased was suspected of harassment, of resisting arrest and of simply being too obsessive. There are those who also say he was suspected of an attempted vehicular assault, and he discovered that these were capital crimes. The late suspect was lucky not to be an Arab. As a Jew, the circumstances of his death are at the very least questioned.
It also turns out that the suspect may have been obsessive, but the policeman also demonstrated some obsessiveness of his own. Rather than moving aside he clung to the engine hood, and shot the driver to death, both in the upper and lower parts of his body several times. Once was not enough. The Ynet news portal apparently saw this shooting as being justified, or at least understandable, as their headlines stated unequivocally that the event was “an attempted vehicular killing”, which contradicted both on-the-scene testimony and the assaulting policeman’s own history – and well before any investigation had occurred.
Ynet also played the story as a top headline, as though this conduct by the police was extraordinary, and should surprise the reader. What is actually surprising is the surprise itself. Israel’s police often does not live up to the directives of the law and tend to be rude, violent, flawed in terms of their conduct, and characterized by a masterful resolve to show the citizenry just who is boss.
The following selection of articles and reports is entirely arbitrary and not at all comprehensive. They were almost all gathered over the past year, and similar reports can easily be found. They demonstrate that in the Israeli police exists a norm of violence and a lordly attitude; that policemen take it upon themselves to act in a rude and criminal manner; and that they enjoy nearly automatic backing from their commanders, who are also afflicted by this dysfunctional approach. When reading the accumulating reports and watching the video clips, one understands that these are not exceptional cases or focal problems. The Police Internal Investigations Unit, with its full 80 staff members, can no longer withstand the nearly 30,000 policemen. A wide-ranging process of cleansing, training, careful follow-up, and compensation is needed – at all levels.
I. Cop’s Honor
(Your friendly neighborhood cop on the beat is as mythical as unicorns or fairies)
The famous slogan “To Serve and Protect” is okay for television drama series – it has nothing to do with life in Israel. You might want to ask just who serves whom and admit that what gets protected is first and foremost the honor of the policeman, not the rights of the citizens. No, the word “honor” does not mean fairness, integrity, and professionalism. It refers, instead, to the questionable “honor” that we meet in the phrase “honor killing.” It is the honor demanded by thugs in the ‘hood, except that it wears a uniform and badge. If you “offend” them (and they get offended easily; they’re quite sensitive) they could bite your lip right off your face, beat, humiliate, and sexually harass you, fine you for NIS 1,000, have you kicked out of the Civil Guard, arrest you, and spray you with gas. It’s as if you work for the policemen rather than the other way around.
That’s what it’s like with bullies. Just give them power, a weapon, or a certificate and they’ll harass everyone, just because they can. They’ll pour your beer out on the beach, harass passers-by on the street (here, here, and here), break your nose, beat the **** out of you and mock you, throw stones, open fire for no reason, and harass women (while threatening them with arrests). On the road you must never tell them when they drive wildly, park illegally, and even when a 70-year old man dares mention anything – he’ll catch flack. On soccer fields they bust your faces (see also here, here, here, here, and in all items linked from there), and at home they’ll fine you for groaning too loudly, attack you with bare fists, wrestle with you, and commit perjury when testifying about it, to cover up. In their own time they will be “role models of crime”: they’ll call prostitutes to the station, steal money from suspects, place explosive charges, give false testimony, and drop by in the middle of the night without a warrant, just to scare someone whom they see as calling for the oversight of police forces. One of the senior staffers in the Violence Prevention Department went so far in his quest to be a role model that he actually attacked a woman subordinate employee, working in his department.