Police minister Amir Ohana publishes an open letter to police in which he tries to walk a tightrope between backing his officers and answering public clamoring for heads to roll over heavy-handed mask enforcement, including an incident in which cops tried to ticket a girl and made her cry.
“There’s no choice but to enforce the guidelines, or the country could be hit with a massive crisis the likes of which it has not known that will have destructive effects for the coming generations. … I expect you to do your jobs faithfully, with determination where needed, but also to use common sense and to act with sensitivity when it is called for,” he writes in the letter, which he posts on Facebook.
Amir Ohana at a Public Security Ministry changeover ceremony in Jerusalem on May 18, 2020. Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
He claims that from what he has heard, the ultra-Orthodox have been better than most at keeping the rules and guesses that few citations have actually been handed out to community members.
He also expresses dolor over the fact that police have been tasked with a job that nobody wants, attempting to show solidarity with his charges.
“The police don’t love this work. It would be a lot more alluring to fight crime and terror. But we are in an emergency.”
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