Police a ‘punching bag’ for media, top cop says amid brutality claims

A day after footage of plainclothes police officers beating an Arab man in Tel Aviv drew a stream of criticism, Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich on Monday said law enforcement in Israel had devolved into a “punching bag” for the media.

“The police are perceived by the public as an organization in deep crisis, one that is related to its norms and values, which has turned it into a punching bag for the media,” Alsheich said at a criminology conference at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.

“We cannot allow this perspective to influence… an officer who is just waiting to be vilified,” he told participants attending the university’s “Future of Police” symposium.

“The aim is to distinguish between a civilian and a criminal,” Alsheich added.

The speech came as the police continued to investigate an incident in which plainclothes police officers appeared to beat an unarmed Arab man in central Tel Aviv.

The incident is the latest disgrace to have engulfed the police, which has been beset in recent years by a series of sex scandals and brutality claims, as well as claims of incompetence and excessive use of force.

Photos and a video of the violent arrest of 19-year-old supermarket employee Maysam Abu Alqian emerged online Sunday and immediately sparked outrage and claims of police brutality.

According to the Israel Police, Alqian, a resident of the Bedouin Negev town of Hura, resisted arrest and attacked officers when they asked him for identification.

However, eyewitnesses charged that police beat the man after he declined to show his ID and asked the plainclothes officers who they were while taking out garbage for the Yuda supermarket on Ibn Gabirol street in Tel Aviv.

In his first interview since the incident, Alqian challenged police’s version of events.

“I returned from a delivery — I help with deliveries for the supermarket — and a man asked me for my ID,” he told Army Radio Monday morning.

“I said I won’t give him my ID unless he shows me his police ID. He said, ‘I’m a cop and I have an ID.’ He didn’t tell me why he stopped me, why he wants to see [the ID]. I said, ‘You have to bring me someone in uniform.’”

The officer — police later said he was an off-duty border guard — “brought someone else from his team. It wasn’t long before they started hitting me,” Alqian said.

More police came to the scene. “There were a lot of them, I didn’t count. No one showed their ID. They just started beating me. I asked them to stop, tried to defend myself, to block their blows so they wouldn’t land on my face,” he said.

Under Israeli law, plainclothes officers are required to present their full name and rank and present an ID when they carry out police activities.

Alqian was eventually taken away in a police cruiser, but had to be taken to Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv to be treated for wounds to his face, neck and back. He was released to house arrest by the Tel Aviv District Court late Sunday.

In the wake of the incident, dozens of eyewitnesses took to social media to describe what they said was a vicious, unprovoked attack on Alqian by police.

The manager of Yuda Supermarket, Kobi Cohen, said he attempted to intervene with the officers, telling the Ynet news site that officers had hit Alqian “mercilessly until he was incapacitated.”

“Everyone is shocked by what happened. And there’s only one reason for it — the guy was an Arab,” Cohen said.

“There’s a problem in Israel of security personnel who take liberties and act this way. Someone needs to do some soul-searching,” Cohen told Army Radio Monday morning, recalling a number of incidents of police brutality against Ethiopian Israelis last year.

A spokeswoman for the Israel Police told The Times of Israel that Alqian had resisted arrest and attacked officers, and that the investigation into the incident was underway.

“There is nothing at all to add,” she said, without explaining what the man is suspected of. “The circumstances are still under investigation. Refusal to be detained and to submit to a search is illegal.”

In December, police announced its officers would be equipped with body-worn cameras in a bid to increase transparency and improve the public’s trust in law enforcement.

Earlier in 2015, a video clip showing Ethiopian-Israeli soldier Damas Pakada being beaten by two police officers in the city of Holon was met with public outrage and several days of protests.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.