Tasered Yitzhar settler arrested again; police clash with settlers
Yitzhar resident stunned by taser almost escapes arrest again after locking himself in chains, surrounding himself with supporters. Settlers clash with police forces
For a second time this month, the arrest of Yitzhar
resident Boaz Albert
who refuses to abide by his restraining order has gone awry.
After his prior arrest ended in a much publicized video of police using a stun gun to restrain Albert, Tuesday, upon arriving to arrest him, police discovered Albert had locked himself in chains, as he is surrounded by dozens of supporters who attempted to hinder his arrest, prompting clashed with police forces.
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- Watch: Officers armed with stun gun arrest settler
According to settlers, police used excessive force and injured one settler lightly in the process of attempting to arrest Albert. The man was evacuated to the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva.
Watch video of Albert being electrocuted
Eventually police managed to extract Albert from the confines of the West Bank settlement and he was taken into investigation with the police's nationalistic-crime unit.
Albert's arrest operation began Tuesday afternoon with the entrance of massive security forces into Yitzhar. According to the police, when they arrived at the scene, a large group of settlers had already congregated there and were already throwing chairs, eggs and other objects at the forces.
Yitzhar clashes (Photo: Ohad Amiton, Tazpit)
Making good use of the frenzy, Albert proceeded to chain himself to a special contraption prepared just for such a purpose in advance. Police managed to insulate the house from settlers and then began attempts to extract Albert from the device – but to no avail.
Shomron Council Head Gershon Mesika arrived at the house and attempted to find a solution to the situation, however no such compromise could be found, thus prompting the forces to alert a Home Front Command team armed with construction equipment.
Two hours it took the team to take the contraption apart so Albert could finally be arrested – some four hours after the first forces arrived at the scene. During this time frame, settlers succeeded in calling supportive backup forces of their own to block the entrance road to the settlement as well as to slash the tires of police forces' cars so as to delay their exit.
In a filmed clip of the original arrest, a police officer is seen holding his stun gun and threatening to shock Albert, as Albert pleads against it and declares that he is not resisting arrest – all in front of his detained children. Albert is eventually tasered a number of times.
As a result of the video, Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino announced his decision to temporarily prohibit the use of Taser stun guns by officers. A decision he recently announced his plans to gradually reverse.
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