A silly new group, “Occupation Free DC,” is calling on Washington’s police force to suspend police training visits to Israel.
The group says that Metropolitan Police Department’s engagement with Israeli training programs is “illegal” and endangers D.C. citizens. Banning the training, the group claims, would be an action that “makes DC safer for people of color, Muslims, Jews, queer people, and all others threatened in these hateful times.” This is because, we are told, “”these trips serve as an exchange of worst [policing] practices.”
I could not disagree more strongly. For a start, two of the three individuals that Occupation Free DC argues are representative of D.C. police aggression were clearly killed justifiably.
More importantly, though, considering that Israeli security forces are the world’s most experienced in defeating organized threat actors, there can be very little doubt that racial or sexual minority D.C. residents are actually made safer by their police department’s training in Israel.
After all, those who actively target “Muslims” or “Jews” or “queer people” often have an identifiable modus operandi. Israeli security officers can teach their D.C. counterparts to detect these individuals before they act.
But that only speaks to the ultimate truth here. Namely, that Occupation Free DC isn’t really interested in better policing at all. Instead, it is interested in fueling the far-left’s boycott of Israel. The group’s announcement video admits as much, claiming that Israeli forces “terrorize and kill Palestinians with virtual impunity.” This is patently untrue, but the group also asserts that Israel has “killed over 135 protesters” since March. Such claims are textbook Hamas propaganda, but sadly representative of the delusion with which many analysts assess the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Regardless, as a D.C. resident I’m glad to learn that D.C. police officers are receiving training in Israel. That training makes the nation’s capital safer for its citizens, and none more so than for people of color, Muslims, Jews, queer people, and all others threatened by criminality.
