Rudy Giuliani - We need to get one, too, Rafi Ginat says
Photo: Reuters
Wanted: Israeli Giuliani
Surging crime wave in Israel requires tough police response
Not so long ago, when drug dealer A murdered drug dealer B, we turned our heads, understanding that such incidents were far removed from most of our homes and our children.
Rafi Ginat is newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth Editor-in-ChiefCrime Wave
By Raanan Ben-Zur
16-year-old suspected of stealing from youth clubs in Hadera, tells interrogators "wanted to hit cops"
In the last two years, however, the level of violence in Israel has skyrocketed, and has come closer and closer to home.
All of a sudden, we hear about a neighbor who raped his daughter, a father who beat his baby son to death, a mother who choked her daughter, and the grandfather who beat up his grandchildren. Sons kill mothers, kids take drugs to school and get stabbed in night clubs.
Crime is coming closer and is touching all of us. This week, it jumped up yet another notch: now, we've got our very own serial killer, who killed four people "just because," a teenager who killed another kid, and yet another jackass who shot at a car, killing a baby and her aunt.
Indeed, there was no apparent motive for any of these acts. We're killing here just for the hell of it. Human life has become worthless.
Violence as norm
Violence becomes the norm when no one fears the law. No one fears the law because there is no deterrent, no cops on the street.
Our police have 20,000 officers, with a yearly budget of NIS 5.7 billion (USD 1.3). 84 percent of that goes towards salaries and pensions.
The rest is needed for logistics - building/car maintenance, food, uniforms, weapons, and other routine expenses, and for attending to terror threats, protests, traffic violations, and other routine duties.
So how much, for God's sake, is left to fight crime?!
Financial loss
Police are falling apart and are facing a huge deficit. Meanwhile, the police department is being told by the Finance Ministry to fire 2,000 officers to make ends meet.
That's right: instead of adding 10,000 officers to patrol our streets, the cops are being asked to ditch 2,000.
Let's be clear: more police equals less violence. If there is no money - there is crime. The connection is clear. Just ask Rudy Giuliani.
Wanted: Rudy of our own
Before Giuliani became mayor of New York in 1993, the city was a free-for-all for crime. Joggers in Central Park were mugged and raped, visitors to Times Square regularly attacked, and no white person dared set foot in Harlem.
Then, in 1993, along came Rudy and changed the city's priorities. He took a lot of money and built a huge police force. He gave law enforcement money and guns and flooded the streets with cops, so ordinary citizens could see them all over the place, all the time.
Today, white people once again are free to shop in Harlem, and joggers have returned to Central Park without fear.
In six short years, Giuliani beat crime. He did so with love, courage, wisdom and money. Love for his constituents, and a realization that they deserved to live with a modicum of peace and quiet. Courage to face up to the forces of evil despite threats to his personal safety and threats on his life. Wisdom to spend money correctly, padding the thinnest bellies in order to accomplish the most important civilian goal.
Here, we need our own Rudy Giuliani, someone who will decide that street crime is a more immediate threat than, say, a Syrian invasion. For the price of one tank we could solve all the police department's problems for a year. For the price of one fighter jet, we could drown the streets with cops and really fight the violence that has started to touch all of us.
But then again, we've got no Rudy.
