The reason for blocking Haredim from going to Ben Yehuda was to keep them away from a rally against the violence and the stabbing that happened by a Haredi man at the LGBT parade the other day.
As if all haredi-looking people are threats for potential stabbings, because one was.
On the one hand it is a bit surreal to see Haredi websites (Ladaat, Kikar) supporting Haredim to go hang out on Ben Yehuda street, or even just being upset that the police were not allowing them to. I could probably imagine a few of my rebbeim from back in my yeshiva days that would give a sigh of relief to such reports and be happy the police are stopping the yeshiva boys and frum Jews from going there.
On the other hand, the police preventing all such people from going there is collective punishment, probably with no threat (at least there was none reported in the news).
This is similar to the barriers put up around Jerusalem in front of some bus stops and train stops to prevent car attacks. Instead of dealing with the terror, they put barriers up all around town. Instead of dealing with violent people, they'll just stop everybody looking a certain way from going there.
The police failed at their job. This Shlissel guy had been in jail for 10 years for doing the exact same thing 10 years ago at another LGBT parade. He got out 3 weeks ago. The police couldn't keep track of him, considering him a real potential threat? There is no reason he should have been allowed within a kilometer of this parade.
And to cover up their own failures, the police are taking it out on everybody else.
The police are failures in general. Between the sexual abuse accusations against much of the top echelon, and the accusations all over of undue violence by the police, and now such a failure like this, it is fair enough to say the police system in general is a big failure and needs to be revamped. They hardly provide any personal security to citizens around the country, and are mostly an authorized terror organization at this point.
Another example is a report that the police arrested someone in Kiryat Malachi. The cause? He wrote something on Facebook in support of Shlissel. They arrested him and sent him for psychiatric evaluation. source: Srugim
This fellow might be warped. He might have misplaced priorities. But saying something in support of Shlissel is not a reason for arrest. If the police of Israel are now also the thought police, if they decide what people can and cannot say, we are all in big trouble.
According to another report on Kikar, they arrested/detained a woman whose husband opposed the pride parade. They arrested the wife because they could not find the husband.
Is that a thing now? If a husband does something illegal, they can arrest his wife? According to the report the husband did not even do anything illegal, unless by now the police have declared it illegal to be opposed to a pride parade and express that verbally. The police are deciding on their own whim, which in my opinion is not reliable in any way based on the internal problems within the Israel Police, what people can and cannot say, what they can and cannot think, and who they feel like arresting.
Give Shlissel the electric chair. I don't really care. Put him away for life. Shlissel is not the story here. The real story is the police. The Minister of Internal Security, the man responsible for the police force, should be pressured to revamp the police system.
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The Police are more reactive than pro-active, but that's true everywhere. I want to point out specifically, though, that the Police should not have tracked Shlissel after he was released. He served his time, as determined by the Judiciary, and he was released. That should have been the end of it. Obviously, someone made a mistake in releasing him. Either he was not psychologically evaluated before release, or someone ignored the signs. But that's not the fault of the Police, and they are not supposed to hound someone just because they were released from prison.
ReplyDeleteYou know what's scary? A civilized country only works as well as its police force. The more integrity it has, the more trust citizens have, the better society works. Look at Latin America or Asia where cops forces are notoriously corrupt. There is no rule of law. Is Israel heading in this direction?
ReplyDeleteImportant points, well articulated. Thanks, Rafi.
ReplyDeleteWhy WERE these Stabbings Allowed to Occur??
ReplyDeleteSo, why then was Shlissel not given a restraining order, or even house arrest during the parade and all of pride week, as a condition of his release?
Why wasn't Shlissel's photograph distributed to each and every police officer on duty during the parade?
If you noticed in one of the photographs of Shlissel being led away in handcuffs, the two holding on to him were 'agents' wearing clothing LIKE THOSE OF THE "PRIDE" PARADE PARTICIPANTS! So, it would not be difficult to suggest that these were undercover agents, on the watch for such an occurrence.
DeleteNeshama,
DeleteThis is important that you bring this up, and IMO supports a conspiracy/set-up.
>they arrested/detained a woman whose husband opposed the pride parade.
ReplyDelete>They arrested the wife because they could not find the husband.
Wrong.
Rebbetzin Yocheved Grossman, the Meah Shearim woman who, along with her husband, is thought to have assisted or encouraged the knife attack on Thursday’s Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade carried out by a haredi man, Yishai Shlissel (also spelled Schlissel), is no stranger to stirring up trouble.
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2015/08/haredi-rebbitzin-suspected-for-cooperating-in-jerusalem-gay-pride-stabbing-attack-has-long-history-o-123.html
How sweet of you to mention failedmessiah for your negativity; it so happens this Rebbetzen is also in the forefront of protecting Kever David and Har Zion! Did you show up to protect this site from the xtians and their avodah zarah? Yes, yes, i know that perhaps Dovid HaMelech may be buried elsewhere nearby, however, that does not detract from her bravery.
Delete>So, why then was Shlissel not given a restraining order, or even house arrest during the parade
ReplyDelete>and all of pride week, as a condition of his release?
The Israeli police are vile, cruel and indifferent. This is another example of why the Israeli police should be publicly investigated.
There needs to be a public commission to investigate crimes like this committed by the police. It is scandalous the extent of corruption, cruelty and criminality within the ranks of the Israeli police.
Do not think that you and your family cannot be victims of the same police:
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Cop-found-guilty-of-assault-conspiracy-in-beating
...
The Haifa Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday convicted police officer Amir Rabah of assault and obstruction of justice for his part in a saga of physical and sexual abuse suffered by a teenage boy who made aliya with his parents from Miami in 2006.
Rabah was one of three policemen accused of beating “S.” in his squad car after he was picked up for public urination one night in November 2009. Rabah beat S. repeatedly before taking him to the Karmiel police station, where he and two other officers were suspected of beating him while his parents heard his cries from outside the interrogation room.
The other two policemen, Ataf Barkat and Rimon Hinawi, were found not guilty, with judges saying that it was ultimately their word against that of S.
Rabah was found guilty largely because a fellow police officer witnessed the beating and came forward to testify.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, S.’s father, Lior, said that the conviction brings them some solace “because at least one of those bastards is going to be penalized, but at the same time two of them got away and are going to do it to someone else and get away with it.”
He added that his son still worries that the other two police will seek revenge on him.
S.’s suffering began when he was arrested for public urination and was accused of possessing hashish, which he and his parents allege police planted on him.
Because of the small amount of hashish, the police attained a five-day remand extension against S., placing him in the Kishon maximum security prison, where he was repeatedly gang raped by three juvenile offenders.
S. was eventually released and his family began their legal campaign against police, first by issuing a complaint to the Police Investigative Department.
In July 2011, the Haifa District Court found the three youths guilty of aggravated sodomy and aggravated assault for abusing S., which included piercing his ear with a piece of electric cable to mark him as a “slave.”
...
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Cop-gets-3-months-probation-for-assaulting-teen
...
Anger and bewilderment descended upon an American- Israeli family from Miami on Tuesday, when the Haifa Magistrate’s Court handed down a sentence of three months probation for a Karmiel police officer they say beat their teenage son repeatedly while in custody in November 2009.
“Justice in Israel is bullshit. What type of person is going to come forward and complain now? This just gives the cops a license to abuse people,” said Lior, the father of the abused “S.”
...
I have heard many horror stories about the police, and this present incident seems absolutely damning, but I have to mention that in my one and only (thank G-d) contact with the police (in the 24 years I have been living here) they were professional and helpful (I was the subject of a frivolous complaint).
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