The police responded to a wave of online posts alleging US law enforcement is also trained by Israeli police.
Police Spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld tweeted on Tuesday that there is “no procedure that allows an Israel police dept to carry out an arrest by placing a knee on the neck of a suspect.” While the tweet did not mention the late George Floyd by name, it is believed the tweet was in response to growing social media theories that US police officers are partly trained by Israeli security forces. This theory alleges that police brutality in the US is connected to the methods Israeli security forces employ in Israel.
There is no procedure that allows an officer of the #israel police dept to carry out an arrest by placing a knee on the neck of a suspect.
— Micky Rosenfeld (@MickyRosenfeld) June 9, 2020
Floyd, an African-American man, was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis when the officer kneeled on his neck while ignoring Floyd’s plea “I can’t breathe”. Floyd died and the video depicting his death went viral, sparked protests across the US and around the world, making his last words a slogan shouted by thousands.
As riots intensify, some online users began to tie the tragedy to the Jewish state. Art depicting Floyd as a Palestinian was shared online, offering the idea that the African-American situation in the US is allegedly like that of Palestinians in Israel. Other theories alleged that one reason US security forces can be so brutal is that they are allegedly trained in Israeli methods of keeping the peace.
Such posts had often been slammed by Jewish-American and Israeli social media users who point out that the militarization of US police had been taking place for years and has very little to do with Israel and much more to do with various internal US issues, such as privatizing prisons, the three strikes and you’re out law and the availability of firearms in the US (Israeli law is not so liberal with gun ownership rights).
In Minneapolis the city reported it means to shut down its police department as it is now and discuss other means to protect the public. In NYC, some police officers knelt with the protesters to express solidarity, while in Seattle a white protester who attempted to ram protesters and shot a protester in the arm was arrested by police.
The massive riots caused alarm among many Americans with allegedly more than half of the country in support of using the armed forces to restore order to cities. When an opinion supporting this point of view was printed in the New York Times a large outcry led to the Times’ opinion editor resignation within 24 hours.
The protests are not limited to the US alone, with protests held in Europe as well in solidarity with people of color and other minorities who face police brutality and in the UK a monument honoring a man who was a slave trader was destroyed by an angry crowd.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post