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Some say we are brotherly people. Would it be conceivable that my brother, or my sister, would deny my rights or the rights of ordinary citizens of the country and the country we all share?

Passive violence

The answer of course is no!
But reality smacks the people living in Zion in the face at almost every turn. One of the shocking manifestations of this phenomenon is the violence and bullying that is increasing every day in our streets, including the passive bullying and violence.

The phenomenon in which drivers without any consideration park their cars on the sidewalk in a way that blocks the passage and requires a dangerous descent to the road, is this type of passive violence.

This phenomenon, in which tenants on the street do justice to themselves and turn the sidewalk in front of the building where they live into their private parking, has become common in our places. The phenomenon worsens during the weekend when law breakers park their vehicles for whole days in a dangerous and disturbing manner.

Parking on the sidewalk - passive bullying (Photo: Yossi Berger)
Parking on the sidewalk - passive bullying (Photo: Yossi Berger)

Like many other illegal and unacceptable things that have become normalized in Israel in recent years, this phenomenon, as dangerous and disruptive as it may be, has become a norm that citizens have no choice but to adapt to.

Can the bullies win?

Two volunteer police officers decided that it was their duty to take action and try and fight this ugly phenomenon. We decided to start every shift in law enforcement on the "Midrachania thugs", as we called them.

It was a bright and warm morning. We asked Felix not to give us readings for the next hour and we went to one of the main streets in Kiryat, where the phenomenon is widespread and quite regular. We pasted the reports on the first three vehicles that were parked in a thuggish and inconsiderate manner without the owners appearing.

The fourth vehicle parked in a way that completely blocked the passage on the sidewalk. The driver did not bother to leave even a narrow passage for a skinny pedestrian, let alone a mother with a baby carriage or an elderly person with a scooter. Anyone who used this sidewalk had to go down to the road risking their lives.

The fine for an offense of this type is 500 NIS without points and the wording of the charge is simple and clear: "You stopped the aforementioned vehicle in a place that was not arranged for parking a vehicle."

Maniac cop

Victor drove the car next to the parked car and I approached it on foot. It is the duty of the police officer, before deciding to write a report on illegal parking, to make sure that there is no one in the car and that the reason for parking is not a malfunction or other circumstances that justify the stop.

Lack of consideration - parking on the sidewalk - passive bullying (Photo: Yossi Berger)
Lack of consideration - parking on the sidewalk - passive bullying (Photo: Yossi Berger)

 "Shimon, a maniac cop is going to give you a parking report!"

I turned my gaze in the direction from which the call came and saw that it came from the mouth of a young man who was standing on the balcony on the fourth floor of the adjacent building.

At the sound of his call, more neighbors appeared on the balconies, looking curiously at what was happening.
I opened the report pad and started writing.

"Well done, policeman," called a lady from the balcony on the first floor, "they turned the sidewalk into a private parking lot. First time the police have come. Well done!"
"Don't give up on him," cried an elderly man from the balcony on the first floor, "they do what they want here. We're fed up!" he announced in a thin voice.

I raised my hand to calm the viewers of the show.
"Calm down guys. We know our job," I said and continued writing the report.

"Hello, Shoterus, wait a minute, what happened? Why is that?" A man's voice was heard behind me.
It was a stocky man who approached me from the path that led from the door of the building to the sidewalk, flip flops on his feet, wearing a white tank top and faded sweatpants.

"Your car?"
I asked after glancing at him and returning to fill in the details in the report.

"Not mine, my mother's," he answered.
"Rosa is your mother?" asked Victor, who meanwhile got out of the car and joined us, holding the tablet in his hands.

You drove robberies

"Yes. My mother. Why what's wrong with my mother?" Ask.
"According to the date of birth, your mother is already ninety-one years old. Does she still drive?" Victor asked…

"You must be driving," said the man in the tank top, stretching his bristling face into a smug smile, "you're a robber driver." The man laughed, looking up to see what impression the joke made on the crowd on the balconies. No one laughed at the joke, except the young man on the fourth floor.

"Are you Simon?" Victor asked as he scrolled through the tablet.
The man nodded and stood behind Viktor's back, peering at the screen.

"Tell Rosa, your mother, the Swedish driver, to come down here together with a driver's license and a car license," I told him.

"You made me laugh, Shotros," replied Moshe with obvious self-satisfaction, "My mother is not at home. She is in a nursing home."
"So who parked the car here?" Victor asked.
"I don't know, what am I Columbo?"
"Do you happen to have the car keys?" I asked.
He hesitated for a moment, probably testing the consequences of answering the question in the affirmative.
"Yes, I have," he finally answered.
"Then you better get them and move the car before we have to get a police tow truck," Victor said.

Amazingly the man did not argue.
"Broch, throw me the keys," he called to the young man from the fourth floor.

Kudos to the cops

Baruch obeyed, disappeared and returned in a few seconds. He threw the keys and Shimon picked them up, got into the car and started.
"Take the report and give it to your mother," I said and handed him the appropriate copy, "it's better than sticking it on the window."

The man took the report and looked shocked.
"Where will a ninety-year-old woman get 500 NIS from now?"

"Maybe from your inheritance?" Victor suggested, "In any case, I'm making a note on the tablet and we'll visit here every shift. If this car parks here, Rosa will get more and more reports. Do you understand that, Shimon?"

Shimon did not answer, started, cleared the sidewalk and parked the car in an empty parking lot, one of the many that were there.
Applause and applause from the neighbors who were standing on the balconies, accompanied us when we returned to the car and drove away from the place.

"Free?" asked Felix in connection.
"Yes," I replied, "what do you need?"

"There is a call about a vehicle parked on the sidewalk. Come see," he said and gave the address.
The address was on the same street, right in the building across from Shimon's.
"You guys are learning fast," Victor said and did a U-turn.
"And you also gain courage," I smiled and prepared the report book.

contact: At watsapBy email

Yossi Berger
Yossi Berger
Resident of Kiryat Haim. Has a bachelor's degree in industrial design at Bezalel and a master's degree in industrial engineering and management at the Technion. Father of six and grandfather to one cute granddaughter. Rafael's pensioner, a volunteer police officer in the traffic police in the past and now he is mainly engaged in writing. The four prose books he wrote were published. A member of the Society of Writers and a partner in the group of poets from the Kiryat. https://booketesh.weebly.com/

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22 תגובות

  1. Check out Ibn Sina Street, in the section between Brewald St. and Bialik St., which was blocked off with fences and turned into a private parking lot for Haifa municipality employees. Why are there no reports?

  2. Come to Hillel Street in Haifa from the afternoon until eight in the morning.

    People are forced to walk on the road and the cars on the road drive fast without any regard for the road conditions, and miraculously no pedestrian has been run over yet, but it's only a matter of time before that happens.

  3. Yossi Berger is important. Have a good week everyone.

  4. When there is no choice but to walk, this is how it is on Harofeh Street, when the hospital employees also park here, we residents of the street park wherever possible

  5. There are entire streets in Haifa that park on the sidewalk because there is no other choice. Pedestrians who must get off the road are the ones who park their vehicles on the sidewalk. And why selective enforcement? Give a report on all these streets. Give a double line report in the Ziv Neve Shanan center, give permission to the homeless in disabled parking without a disabled badge or with a disabled badge that is not theirs.
    afraid?

  6. I read with real excitement and great envy that there is no one in Jerusalem who comes to the aid of the residents like this

  7. Here is where cops go wrong.
    They came with good intentions, but in practice they took care of a number of people who usually park in the place.
    And all the benefit of the fines they produced is their intimidation and justified anger.
    It's possible that even the law is in their favor - because that's how it's done there and a policeman doesn't decide on his own to make such a change.

    They could explain to the drivers, they could contact the municipality to refine the guidelines.
    But they chose the childish attitude that they themselves would be angry if they were approached with it.

  8. Well done, a policeman did his job in an exemplary manner
    I'm proud of you.

  9. We are all waiting for you in the Carmel neighborhoods as well. Not only in Kiryat Haim.
    The phenomenon is ugly and despicable and occurs in all neighborhoods, near shops, near places of entertainment and also deep within the neighborhoods.
    Vehicles park on envelope marks (X) at the entrance to parking lots, on traffic islands, block sidewalks for passage and even entrances to houses.
    Haifa Municipality sends a municipal enforcement vehicle that never gives reports!!!
    Time after time they are invited and nothing is done.
    Is the solution to call the police? Call 110? I would appreciate advice.

    There is not a single non-candidate who declares that he will start enforcing offenses here. the wild West.

  10. Well done. The issue must rise to the public agenda.
    It has already reached the point where the municipalities are blocking sidewalks with recycling bins and drivers are only careful not to block the road. The sidewalks belong to them.

  11. We are also waiting for you in the city of Haifa on the Carmel. Good and blessed Shabat for every one.

  12. Kudos to the police lately there is no law and no justice. A huge parking problem. Each couple has 2 cars and sometimes 3. There is no parking space. But endangering adults and the elderly is forbidden. Disabled and elderly..

  13. And to Tommy, I thought that reports of violent parking on sidewalks is the function of the *municipal supervision*
    Unfortunately, there are not enough police officers to deal with parking violations

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