Israeli Police Officers Don't Want to wear Name Tags?

י"ב לחודש השמיני תשע"ד

Arutz 7: About-Face on ID: Police Want Right to Avoid Nametags
Police sources say mandatory nametags ‘operationally difficult,’ cannot be implemented. Knesset cttee to vote.

Maayana Miskin, October 13, 2013

A Knesset committee is to vote Sunday on a bill, left over from last Knesset, that would mean harsher punishments for police officers who fail to wear name tags.

The bill is meant to prevent police violence, particularly at demonstrations, by making officers aware that they can be held personally responsible for any unwarranted use of force.

It passed an initial reading in the last Knesset, where it was put forth by MKs Uri Ariel, Dov Henin and Nitzan Horowitz, but its progress was frozen when the Knesset’s mandate ended.

At the time, the bill had support from Minister of Internal Security Yitzchak Aharonovich, whose duties include oversight of the Israel Police. However, Aharonovich has informed the bill’s supporters in the current Knesset that the Israel Police no longer supports the law.

“Professional sources in the Israel Police maintain that from an operative perspective, the proposal cannot be implemented, and is likely to create difficulty and complications,” he explained.

“It could even lead protesters to demand ID cards when there is no need, and by doing so to thwart officers’ attempts to restore order when protesters riot,” he warned.

MK Orit Struk, one of the bill’s backers in the current Knesset, expressed surprise at Aharonovich’s about-face. “The fact that [officers] wear ID tags will actually ensure that people do not bother them by asking for ID,” she argued.

“The Police Commissioner and Minister of Internal Security, who repeatedly declare that the struggle against police violence is a top priority, are thwarting a bill which is intended solely to prevent such violence,” she accused.

Dozens of complaints against violent police officers have led nowhere due to the fact that those filing the complaint did not know the name of the officer who had assaulted them, she noted.

Struk expressed hope that the other ministers on the committee that has convened to deliberate on the bill will vote in favor despite Aharonovich’s change of heart. “I very much hope that the ministers will understand what the Police Commissioner and Minister [Aharonovich] do not – that protesters are not criminals, and there is no need to treat them as such,” she said.

(Tip Credit: Sun Lion)

Esser Agaroth (2¢):
I have no idea why this bill would not pass.

Well, actually,...yes I do: The Israeli government's desire for increased control over the "sheeple." You see, it is getting a little nervous....

"...from an operative perspective, the proposal cannot be implemented, and is likely to create difficulty and complications."

What a load of crap! ...unless, of course, you believe that being held accountable for your actions, as a police officer, is a "difficulty" and/or a "complication." 

Everyone would benefit from this bill becoming law. Everyone. That means...

Settlers -  who protest against getting thrown out of the homes, and off of their lands.
Arabs - who protest over whatever they want to protest over (...as if I care.)
Haredim - who protest an unnecessary autopsy from being performed.
Anarchists and Ultra-Leftists - who protest the presence of the so-called "security fence.) (...so that the settlers don't have to, I suppose.)

You name it. Everyone would be able to gain piece of mind from the passage of this bill,...while they are getting pummeled by the Israeli Police, because at least they could identity, and later report those responsible for their possibly life-altering injuring,...assuming, of course, that they still have some eyesight left to read name tags, and the cameras of in possession of the nearby witnesses aren't destroyed.

Probably only your standard government line, left-wingers would neither benefit nor be hurt whether this bill passes or not. They fulfill the will of the "almighty" government, so why would the police feel the need to scrutinize them? Why would the government see the need to sick its minyons on them? They wouldn't.

When I was a kid, we were all taught how police officers were "our friends" and are they to "help us."

When I lived in the Shomron (Samaria), in an ideologically and Torah-based "real" settlement, the children there learned early on that the police were not their friends, and were not there to help us; they were there to...

1. Beat up their parents
2. Push around their mothers (sometimes pregnant at the time)
3. Kick their families out of their houses
4. Give their brothers restraining orders preventing them from entering the Shomron during olive picking season
5. Keep their sisters in jail for participating in civil disobedience actions, while alleged murders of Jews, awaiting trial, laid around at home in front of the television on "house arrest."
6. Raid their junior high schools, and interrogate their friends without a parent or attorney present.

The list goes on....

So, it is no wonder why these children, often demonized as "out of control" hilltop youth in need of "Re-Education," learn at a very young age to lie to the police, AND to become very good at it.

Police officer: Where's Avi?
Child: Oh, he's out in the fields over there with the goats.

(He then runs to tell Avi, who is inside his house that the police are after him.)

Police officer: Where's Sarah? I need to talk to her.
Child: It's Tuesday. She's at B'nei Akiva.*

*B'nei Akiva was kicked out of this kid's town, which the cop did not know.

Anyone still want to argue that Israel is not turning into a police state,...or rather MORE of a police state?

What police force of a country claiming to be "democratic," would have the hutzpah (gall) to claim that name tags are "operationally difficult???"

Gimme a break!

Below is a video by the popular, Israeli group "Teapecks" (white out). The lyrics reflect the attitude of Israeli youth toward its local police officers, who always seem to ruin their fun...

...דיסקו מנאייק מגיע לשכונה.

...[when] the "disco manayak" arrives in the neighborhood.

Manayak is much worse than the Hebrew Maniak, which does simply mean "crazy," as maniac does in American English.

This song does not depict anything different than the youth hanging around the "'hood" in most other countries, making fun of their cops. It does show that settlers, and all of the other ideologically motivated groups listed above, are not the only ones in Israel who view the Israeli police force as government lackeys who are supposed to keep the "citizens" in line.