"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Thursday, May 31, 2007

IMPORTANT SHOW OF JUSTICE: POLICE BRUTALITY CONVICTED

This is something that I wrote about two years ago, about an Israeli police offier who committed an act of violence against a right-wing protestor during the disengagement monstrosity, totally out of line in any democratic society. Now, he and another one involved in this have been convicted of their crime, which in my mind was done out of their political positions(?):
(IsraelNN.com) The Tel Aviv Magistrates Court has found two policemen guilty of brutality against an "orange" anti-Disengagement protestor - thanks to an on-site video taken by Arutz-7 journalist-cameraman Tuvia Lerner.

The two Yassam-unit policemen, Eran Naim and Eliran Avraham, were found guilty of beating demonstrator Akiva Vitkin without cause during an anti-Disengagement road-blocking demonstration on June 29, 2005. Naim is seen in the video appearing to be trying to pull Vitkin's nose off by sticking his fingers in his nostrils from behind and pulling up, and Avraham later beat Vitkin repeatedly in the police station.

Solid Evidence
The judge wrote that he had been presented with solid evidence by the plaintiffs, while the police defendants provided only weak testimonies in their favor. This, after observers said he appeared to express sympathy with the policemen at various points during the trial.

The policemen's lawyer claimed during the trial that Vitkin had committed grave acts by lying on the road and blocking traffic, including that of security vehicles. Orit Strook, of the Yesha Civil Rights organization, said that the judge ruled that police may use reasonable force when in danger or to make an arrest, but not as punishment. It was Strook's organization, together with Atty. Nadav HaEtzni, that filed the suit against the policemen.

Legitimate Tactic
The policemen's lawyer also stated that "fingers in nostrils" is a legitimate police tactic against demonstrators, one that is studied in the police martial arts school. The judge later stated that the major issue of the case is how to set the limits of police force against demonstrators.

Officer Eran Naim was caught on tape by Arutz-7’s Lerner taking part in what Lerner later said was a "cruel, shocking and pre-meditated attack." Despite attempts by the police to obstruct his view by standing tightly around the victim, Lerner managed to film the attack on a digital camera. Naim is first seen on motioning to his colleagues to help beat the demonstrator, after which they sit on him and stick their fingers in his nose and mouth, causing extensive bleeding and facial injuries. Naim is also seen beating 58-year-old Rabbi Dr. Yisrael Katz, after the Rabbi appealed to him to refrain from beating girls present at the road-blocking.
There's a video of this at the INN page, and if you have the stomach for any graphic acts that appear there, you can see it for yourself.

And with that, let's take a moment now to ask some questions: what kind of lawyer does this beneath-humanity police officer have, who justifies violence? And will he and others of his ilk be legitimizing pedophilia next? Nor can I see the logic in assaulting someone blocking traffic, when it's quite possible to just simply drag them out of the way. Forget it, the man is an inferior product of a bad education system who shouldn't be part of society anymore.

Let this be a lesson to one and all about what kind of corruption plagues some of the Israeli police, and that needs to be cleansed. With this conviction today, we'll hopefully be reaching the point where that'll be done.

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