A call to Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich

A call to Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich

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18559455_sTo Yitzhak Aharonovich, Minister of Internal Security

 

Over the past few weeks, television channels broadcast recordings of citizens calling the police’ 100 hotline and if that’s the “face” of our police, then the situation is quite desperate.

Someone calls and reports a rape, the desk sergeant doesn’t believe it actually happened; an MDA (Israeli emergency medical aid service) operator reports a murder and the conversation with the police officer sounds like a comedy sketch; an officer doesn’t understand where an event is taking place even though the address is mentioned clearly more than once; a police officer asks unnecessary questions, in an emergency situation. The citizen, even at this stage, is immediately hit by a lack of professionalism, and that’s putting it mildly.

These are not isolated cases, it’s a noted pattern. Desk sergeants all over the world are experienced police officers, but in Israel that doesn’t seem to be the case. Even at the first stage of contacting the police we feel unprotected by those who are supposed to protect us.

And that’s just the beginning. You’re clearly qualified for your post, and clearly your intentions are good. All that, however, doesn’t matter if all other government authorities just don’t do their jobs.

Let’s begin with the Prime Minister. He doesn’t care about what’s happening with the police. When a wave of crimes threatened Lod he appeared, made some statements and left. Lod remained the same. It was all about the headlines.

The way he acted during the Carmel fires is similar to the way he treats internal security. The “supertanker”, that massive firefighting airplane, reached Israel long after it could have made a significant difference, but it made for an impressive headline. Everything he does is aimed at getting headlines, covering his ass so that he personally won’t get burned by the flames, and keeping himself safe from the cries of the citizens, who feel ignored.

Police handled organized crime with some success, but regular, simple thugs it can’t handle. It turns out the finance boys and their minister, if he even gets a say in anything, think that the police budget is sufficient.

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Messengers on scooters treat the sidewalks like their own personal roads; ATVs on joy rides on the beaches; the police avoiding some neighborhoods altogether; violence in nightclubs and public parks; and that’s not even the half of it. The system can’t handle it all because it doesn’t have enough resources. There’s no police and the courts still don’t realize that light sentences for “light” violations only lead to more serious crimes. It’s not only Israel as a state that lost whatever deterrence capacity it once had, the police and the courts lost theirs as well.

Tomorrow Binyamin Netanyahu might announce a “supertanker” plan for taking on day to day crimes. Newspaper headlines will announce it, articles will enthusiastically describe it, but it will be just a lot of hot air, yet again.

There’s no law enforcement. The police is powerless against street thugs, who quickly turn into serious criminals. The cabinet ministers, surrounded 24 hours a day by their security guards, have no idea what is going on around them and how unpleasant and even dangerous life here has become. They can’t see the chaos on the roads, residential area sidewalks and beaches through the dark glasses of their official luxury cars. The Prime Minister and his cabinet don’t realize what Rudi Giuliani already understood ages ago in New York.

So, Mr. Minister of Internal Security, if you really want to change things, and I believe you do, just go to the Prime Minister office, close the door behind you and tell him what you really think about the way he doesn’t back you up. Do the same thing in the Finance Minister’s office too, because it turns out he isn’t exactly stellar at managing the budgets he’s in charge of.

Minister of Internal Security, sir, an Israel without a strong police, and without a strong police presence, is rapidly turning into a place that people just dream about escaping, and make no mistake, they are. Defend your good reputation and do something about it.

Arie Egozi i-HLS editor-in-chief
Arie Egozi
i-HLS editor-in-chief