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Israel's police chief David (Dudi) Cohen talks on Violence and Rehovot
Israel's police chief David (Dudi) Cohen talks on Violence and Rehovot. See his interview full text at Haaretz.com]
...But there is youth violence and there is night violence, and the protection racket has become a national problem.
"The police force is the country's emergency room. In a large number of cases involving a social or educational failure, we are the ones who finally arrive to pick up the pieces. Our ER receives the ailments of the Israeli society. On Friday night you will find hundreds of drunk kids from a certain ethnic background on Herzl Street in Rehovot. Hundreds. That is their culture. I cannot deal with their culture. I get them at 2 A.M., drunk, threatening one another with broken bottles. So what do I do? I transfer six Border Police companies from the seam line [the boundary line between Israel and the West Bank] to the city centers. I create more Border Police companies. I station a company in Acre and a company in Carmiel and a company in Hadera and two companies in Tel Aviv. And I send people from offices to the stations, to the front line. And I formulate a multi-year plan that will give me a larger budget and more policemen every year. But when you have 2.7 policemen per 1,000 inhabitants in Israel, compared with 5 per 1,000 in Europe, there is a problem. You cannot expect a relatively small and poorly budgeted police force to cope with all the problems that arise in Israeli society."
You said nothing about the protection racket. Herzl Street in Rehovot, which you mentioned, is said to be tainted with protection. As are main streets in other major cities.
"It is impossible to say that there is no protection money phenomenon in the country. There is such a phenomenon. But I don't think that protection is a national problem. I admit that it is hard for us to gauge the scale of the phenomenon. With drugs I can tell you how much is coming in: 100 tons of marijuana from Egypt, two-thirds of a ton of heroin from Jordan, and the same with Lebanon. But when it comes to protection money, people do not file complaints. It is hard to uncover because there are no complainants, there is no evidence and no case. But it is clear to us that the protection money phenomenon has worsened in the past few years."
And the "crime families"? It looks as though the crime families have simply taken over the street. They are everywhere. Whole cities are within their sphere of crime.
"I don't like the term 'crime family.' A family is a normal thing. These are crime organizations that have sprung up in the past decade and grown stronger over the years. Each such organization has a hierarchical structure. It has a chief, an intermediate level and 'soldiers.' Each such organization numbers between dozens and hundreds of people. The structure is almost military, but the capability extends to the economic sphere, too. The organizations are involved in drugs, protection money, taking over businesses, smuggling and gambling. They also penetrate local governments and the legitimate economy."
How many organizations do the police know of?
"Currently we have identified about 20 local crime organizations and six national crime organizations: Abutbul, Abergil, Jarushi, Domrani, Molner and Shirazi. We know that there are others as well..."
Source: Ari Shavit. The shield. Haaretz.com (3 October 2008) [FullText]
...But there is youth violence and there is night violence, and the protection racket has become a national problem.
"The police force is the country's emergency room. In a large number of cases involving a social or educational failure, we are the ones who finally arrive to pick up the pieces. Our ER receives the ailments of the Israeli society. On Friday night you will find hundreds of drunk kids from a certain ethnic background on Herzl Street in Rehovot. Hundreds. That is their culture. I cannot deal with their culture. I get them at 2 A.M., drunk, threatening one another with broken bottles. So what do I do? I transfer six Border Police companies from the seam line [the boundary line between Israel and the West Bank] to the city centers. I create more Border Police companies. I station a company in Acre and a company in Carmiel and a company in Hadera and two companies in Tel Aviv. And I send people from offices to the stations, to the front line. And I formulate a multi-year plan that will give me a larger budget and more policemen every year. But when you have 2.7 policemen per 1,000 inhabitants in Israel, compared with 5 per 1,000 in Europe, there is a problem. You cannot expect a relatively small and poorly budgeted police force to cope with all the problems that arise in Israeli society."
You said nothing about the protection racket. Herzl Street in Rehovot, which you mentioned, is said to be tainted with protection. As are main streets in other major cities.
"It is impossible to say that there is no protection money phenomenon in the country. There is such a phenomenon. But I don't think that protection is a national problem. I admit that it is hard for us to gauge the scale of the phenomenon. With drugs I can tell you how much is coming in: 100 tons of marijuana from Egypt, two-thirds of a ton of heroin from Jordan, and the same with Lebanon. But when it comes to protection money, people do not file complaints. It is hard to uncover because there are no complainants, there is no evidence and no case. But it is clear to us that the protection money phenomenon has worsened in the past few years."
And the "crime families"? It looks as though the crime families have simply taken over the street. They are everywhere. Whole cities are within their sphere of crime.
"I don't like the term 'crime family.' A family is a normal thing. These are crime organizations that have sprung up in the past decade and grown stronger over the years. Each such organization has a hierarchical structure. It has a chief, an intermediate level and 'soldiers.' Each such organization numbers between dozens and hundreds of people. The structure is almost military, but the capability extends to the economic sphere, too. The organizations are involved in drugs, protection money, taking over businesses, smuggling and gambling. They also penetrate local governments and the legitimate economy."
How many organizations do the police know of?
"Currently we have identified about 20 local crime organizations and six national crime organizations: Abutbul, Abergil, Jarushi, Domrani, Molner and Shirazi. We know that there are others as well..."
Source: Ari Shavit. The shield. Haaretz.com (3 October 2008) [FullText]
Labels: Rehovot Criminal
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