Moshe Cohen charged with assault, causing serious harm and breach of trust, after he was videoed beating victim
ed note–remember, the only–repeat–ONLY, reason that charges were brought against him is because it got caught on video and was made public without any chance of spinning it as an act of ‘self-defense against a crazed Islamic Palestinian’, and we can just imagine how many millions of similar instances have taken place over the last 50 years that were not prosecuted because there was no video evidence.
This is Judaism, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Times of Israel
A policeman was indicted on Thursday for assaulting an Arab truck driver and a number of others, in an apparently unprovoked attack a week ago that was captured on video.
Moshe Cohen, an officer in the special Yasam forces, was charged with assault, causing serious injury and breach of trust, court documents showed. Investigators also recommended charges against another officer who was present and did not prevent the attack or report it afterward.
According to the indictment, Cohen’s car was damaged by a truck on March 21 as it was parked in the lot near his workplace in the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Cohen checked security cameras the following day, and with unauthorized use of police records, identified the culprit.
When he next saw the truck, last Thursday morning, he confronted the driver, identified as Mazen Shwieki, 48. Cohen hit Shwieki in the face, headbutted him and kicked him, while yelling curses at him.
A man approached to break up the fight and Cohen proceeded to curse and attack him too.
Cohen was suspended from his job immediately after the incident.
The Police Internal Investigations Department also recommended charges against a second police officer who appeared in the video, who witnessed the incident but did nothing to stop it.
Two other officers filmed passing by the scene are also to be investigated on suspicion that they did nothing to end the attack and also failed to report the incident.
The footage of last week’s attack spread rapidly on social media and quickly generated a firestorm, with several Knesset members denouncing the actions of the officer.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said the cop’s behavior was “very grave and worthy of condemnation.”
“This behavior harms the police as a whole, and it is good that the policeman was suspended,” said the minister on his Twitter account, expressing hope the Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department would treat the case “to the fullest extent of the law.”
He also said the police acted correctly by immediately suspending the policeman.
Responding to Thursday’s indictment, head of the Joint (Arab) List faction, MK Ayman Odeh, said the Israel Police was rife with racism and violence.
He said in a statement that “the problem with the police is not just one violent officer or another, but systematic racism and a culture of lies that has become an integral part of the system.”
Odeh accused Erdan of inciting the attitudes that led to the attack on the truck driver.
“When the minister in charge and the commissioner act toward the Arab community with blatant racism and don’t reject the lies and incitement, it is little wonder that the attitudes of the leaders reaches the soldiers in the field, who express them with extreme violence against citizens and Arab civilians,” he said.
