The Sam Malone method for the violence in Bet Shemesh

Since the violent incident in Bet Shemesh on a Friday night a few weeks ago, many have asked what the police and the new mayor are doing to curtail the spread and increase of such incidents. The answer given has been, from the police, that they are investigating. From the mayors office we have heard that they will not tolerate violence and there must be talks between groups and he is checking out the situation. blah blah blah.

I was wondering how long it takes to investigate an incident that everyone in Bet Shemesh, and many elsewhere, know exactly who perpetrated. It has started to seem like the police and the mayor have simply just been trying to push people off as a way of buying time hoping everyone would forget as the flames die down, and just hope no more incidents happen to re-enflame the situation.

I personally am a big fan of the Sam Malone method to problem solving (i.e. If you ignore a problem long enough, it will go away). but I am not the mayor of a city.

The following update appeared yesterday on the Bet Shemesh email list:

I have been informed that the police chief has notified people in our community that:

1. he does not plan on having an increased police presence at the Hayarden location to protect the people who will undoubtedly show up
2. he actually plans on arresting anyone from our community who shows up to that location on Friday night as "instigators".
   

It is therefore clear to me that the police in no way intend to help protect the citizens of Bet Shemesh from continued violent attacks by those elements of the chareidi neighborhoods who are the true instigators of the confrontations and the violence.

I asked someone about it and he told me that Oz Eliasi, the head of the Bet Shemesh police, called in a number of activists in Sheinfeld and Aviv for a meeting.

Eliasi told them that the police will not protect them. Moreover, Eliasi told them that if anyone from Sheinfeld tries to protect their children from the kannoim, they will arrest them!

There are basically two possibilities as to what happened - either the police have been threatened by the rabbonim of the kannoim (mainly Rav Rosenberger and Rav Kopshitz), and the police, as usual prefer to not stand up to the threats of rioting and violence. Or, and this might be even worse, the mayor himself told the police to back down.

So, because the police are afraid of the hooligans, now the victims are under threat of arrest if they dare to protect themselves. Looks like when Abutbol said he wants to give the city back to the residents, and to let the residents win, he meant only a few residents who threaten violence.