"The Comptroller's report is a good reflection of what we have felt over the years," Orit Strook of Hevron told Arutz-7, "namely, that Mahash [the Department for Complaints Against Policemen] does not and cannot fulfill its job of investigating policemen."
The Comptroller's Report, the last to be written by former Justice Eliezer Goldberg before being succeeded by former Justice Micha Lindenstrauss, was publicized on Wednesday. It found that a large portion of the complaints of physical violence by policemen are not even investigated.
In addition, the report states, Mahash did not inform the police of the high proportion of complaints it shelves, and did not request the police to deal with them from an administrative standpoint. This is liable, the report says, to "lead to a lack of police awareness regarding the extent of the phenomenon, and could be understood by the police as a misleading message and approval of unacceptable behavior. It could also be interpreted by the public as if acts of illegal use of force are not viewed with severity."
Strook said, "Ideally, just like police investigate citizens, this is how Mahash should investigate policemen, with the same seriousness and responsibility - but this of course is not done. In fact, Mahash barely investigates; they just read a great portion of the complaints and decide right away that there is nothing to investigate. Often, in many cases when we report on violence, the police say immediately that they have decided not to investigate because of what they call 'lack of public interest.'"
"Just recently," Strook said, "on Jerusalem Day [three months ago], we were at a Knesset committee, and we showed a film of police brutality that really shocked everyone there. It showed a policeman handcuffing someone, and then, when the arrestee was totally neutralized and unable to do anything, the policeman simply took a fistful of the man's hair and pulled - for no reason at all. The MKs said we should send this to Mahash for investigation, and we did - but the response was, 'No public interest.' This was a case that was simple to investigate, because it was cut and dried, the policeman's face could be seen, etc., but they did nothing. This is just one example."
"Sometimes," Ms. Strook continued, "they begin to investigate but say they can't find witnesses - but they really don't even try to find them. For instance, Akiva Vitkin - the boy who was cruelly beat up a few weeks ago by policemen who tried to
'pull his nose off' - was beaten again at the police station, where there were about 70 people who saw it; yet the only witnesses the Mahash investigators spoke with were the four who we physically brought to them. Mahash did not seek out any of the other 70, and they didn't even ask those four the elementary question of whether they remember who else was in the room at the time."
Arutz-7's Yigal Shok asked, "Mahash responded to the Comptroller's report by saying, among other things, that many complaints are buried because the complainants don't cooperate. Do you agree?"
Strook said,
"This is both true and not true. It's true that some of the complainants are afraid to cooperate - and they have good reason to fear, because many times they find themselves afterwards charged by the same policeman against whom they complained.
"This is why we advise to file complaints via our organization, because our legal experts and lawyers constantly track what's going on and make sure this doesn't happen. But in any event, even if there is no complainant, this is not a reason for Mahash not to investigate. For instance, in the case of the man whose hair was pulled - we can't see who he is [in the film] and we can't identify him, but the policeman is still guilty of a crime and should be charged. We've had cases in Hevron where a Jewish boy and an Arab boy fought, and the latter ran away - and the Jewish boy still found himself charged with attacking a boy 'whose identity is unknown.' The same should be true here."
Strook explained that Mahash's failure in fulfilling its purpose is almost "built in" to the system: "Mahash was established so that the police would not be in the situation of investigating itself. But in fact, Mahash is made up of investigators who came from the police, and who will return to the police. The Comptroller notes this in his report."
Q. "The report states that policemen who are under investigation continue to be promoted - even though this is not allowed."
A. "This is related to what I just said, and let me add to that: Some of the investigators themselves were known, a few years ago, as violent policemen, against whom themselves complaints were filed. For instance, there is an investigator named Omri Ben-Meir, who was a very violent policeman; he had something like ten Mahash complaints against him himself - so what can we expect from an investigator like that?"
"However," she concluded on an optimistic note, "we have found a way to deal with this, and we have seen successes. We have another two channels that we are trying or about to start: civil damages suits, and a form of criminal complaints filed not by the government but by civilians... People should file the complaints, but only with legal counsel constantly accompanying them; the lawyer then sits on Mahash and makes sure it does what it's supposed to do."
The Comptroller's Report, the last to be written by former Justice Eliezer Goldberg before being succeeded by former Justice Micha Lindenstrauss, was publicized on Wednesday. It found that a large portion of the complaints of physical violence by policemen are not even investigated.
In addition, the report states, Mahash did not inform the police of the high proportion of complaints it shelves, and did not request the police to deal with them from an administrative standpoint. This is liable, the report says, to "lead to a lack of police awareness regarding the extent of the phenomenon, and could be understood by the police as a misleading message and approval of unacceptable behavior. It could also be interpreted by the public as if acts of illegal use of force are not viewed with severity."
Strook said, "Ideally, just like police investigate citizens, this is how Mahash should investigate policemen, with the same seriousness and responsibility - but this of course is not done. In fact, Mahash barely investigates; they just read a great portion of the complaints and decide right away that there is nothing to investigate. Often, in many cases when we report on violence, the police say immediately that they have decided not to investigate because of what they call 'lack of public interest.'"
"Just recently," Strook said, "on Jerusalem Day [three months ago], we were at a Knesset committee, and we showed a film of police brutality that really shocked everyone there. It showed a policeman handcuffing someone, and then, when the arrestee was totally neutralized and unable to do anything, the policeman simply took a fistful of the man's hair and pulled - for no reason at all. The MKs said we should send this to Mahash for investigation, and we did - but the response was, 'No public interest.' This was a case that was simple to investigate, because it was cut and dried, the policeman's face could be seen, etc., but they did nothing. This is just one example."
"Sometimes," Ms. Strook continued, "they begin to investigate but say they can't find witnesses - but they really don't even try to find them. For instance, Akiva Vitkin - the boy who was cruelly beat up a few weeks ago by policemen who tried to
'pull his nose off' - was beaten again at the police station, where there were about 70 people who saw it; yet the only witnesses the Mahash investigators spoke with were the four who we physically brought to them. Mahash did not seek out any of the other 70, and they didn't even ask those four the elementary question of whether they remember who else was in the room at the time."
Arutz-7's Yigal Shok asked, "Mahash responded to the Comptroller's report by saying, among other things, that many complaints are buried because the complainants don't cooperate. Do you agree?"
Strook said,
"This is both true and not true. It's true that some of the complainants are afraid to cooperate - and they have good reason to fear, because many times they find themselves afterwards charged by the same policeman against whom they complained.
"This is why we advise to file complaints via our organization, because our legal experts and lawyers constantly track what's going on and make sure this doesn't happen. But in any event, even if there is no complainant, this is not a reason for Mahash not to investigate. For instance, in the case of the man whose hair was pulled - we can't see who he is [in the film] and we can't identify him, but the policeman is still guilty of a crime and should be charged. We've had cases in Hevron where a Jewish boy and an Arab boy fought, and the latter ran away - and the Jewish boy still found himself charged with attacking a boy 'whose identity is unknown.' The same should be true here."
Strook explained that Mahash's failure in fulfilling its purpose is almost "built in" to the system: "Mahash was established so that the police would not be in the situation of investigating itself. But in fact, Mahash is made up of investigators who came from the police, and who will return to the police. The Comptroller notes this in his report."
Q. "The report states that policemen who are under investigation continue to be promoted - even though this is not allowed."
A. "This is related to what I just said, and let me add to that: Some of the investigators themselves were known, a few years ago, as violent policemen, against whom themselves complaints were filed. For instance, there is an investigator named Omri Ben-Meir, who was a very violent policeman; he had something like ten Mahash complaints against him himself - so what can we expect from an investigator like that?"
"However," she concluded on an optimistic note, "we have found a way to deal with this, and we have seen successes. We have another two channels that we are trying or about to start: civil damages suits, and a form of criminal complaints filed not by the government but by civilians... People should file the complaints, but only with legal counsel constantly accompanying them; the lawyer then sits on Mahash and makes sure it does what it's supposed to do."