Video allegedly shows cop striking teen on beach
Teens catch officer smacking 18-year-old for littering; police chief says, ‘No justification for violent behavior’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJudah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
Less than a week after intense protests against police brutality roiled Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, a video showing an police officer striking an 18-year-old on a beach in Ashdod surfaced Saturday night.
The teenager was with friends on one of Ashdod’s beaches early Saturday evening when a squad car pulled up to them. The officers accused the youths of littering and demanded that they clean the surrounding area of trash, the teenagers said.
According to some reports, the group of 18-year-olds had been drinking at the time.
According to the group, one of the officers continued harassing the teens, finally grabbing one of them and arresting him. The video begins at this point, showing the 18-year-old attempting to wrest himself away, at which point the officer strikes the youth in the head and then knees him as the teenager slumps over.
“Come on! Come on! Get in the car,” the officer says in the video.
One of the teens responds, “You’re going to be sorry you did that.”
The 18-year-old was put in the back of the squad car and questioned at the local police station. According to the boy’s father, at that point the officer realized he was being filmed and called a municipal worker to give the group a ticket, Channel 10 news reported.
“There’s nothing he can do, he doesn’t have a leg to stand on,” the father told the news station.
The police chief of the Lachish district said an investigation had been opened into the incident.
“We see this as a serious incident,” District Commander Eli Kazari said in a statement. “From what is seen in the video, there is no justification for the violent behavior of the officer. The material was immediately handed over to police investigators and a decision will be made, pending their review.”
Another video released last month showed a policeman and a police volunteer assaulting an IDF soldier of Ethiopian descent in Holon.
That footage sparked violent demonstrations in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv against alleged institutionalized discrimination and police brutality.
In the wake of the outcry, political leaders and police officials vowed to work to fix the problem.
The Times of Israel Community.