Israel Matzav

Horse psychology

For those of you who have forgotten what happened at Amona, you may want to re-read this post and watch the video that it links. Or search "Amona" on my blog.

Fortunately, much of what went on at Amona was caught on videotape, and some of the brutal police officers have been brought to trial. This week, one police officer who is charged with causing his horse to trample a young protester made an interesting claim to argue for his innocence. He blamed the horse:

Police Superintendent Peri Margalit testified Thursday there may have been extenuating circumstances to explain why mounted police officer David Edry trampled a protestor during the February 2006 beating and forcible eviction of Jews at the Amona outpost.

Edry is charged with deliberately attacking Yehuda Etzion, a young protestor who was participating in the demonstration.

Margalit testified during Edry’s trial that although police horses rarely injure humans, “the horse was under intense psychological pressure” at the time.

...

While Margalit focused on the behavior of the horse and not the officer, he nonetheless added that Edry should have succeeded in controlling the situation. Mounted officers must know how to stop horses or veer them away from potential victims, he said.

The Supreme Court handed down a decision in July barring Edry from participating in police control at other demonstrations until the end of his trial. The ruling followed a complaint by the Yesha Organization for Human Rights. Justices expressed surprise that the State had not issued a similar order earlier.

Why should the justices be surprised? After all, they only injured 'settlers' and not Arabs.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:45 PM