The Soldier Vs The Pimp.
We all love the Army. We all like the sense of security it’s giving the citizens. But is it really its job to arrest felons?
Who deals with criminals?
Considering these are unusual times, I will not nag about the traffic jam the various Army checkpoints have caused in Beirut last week. After all, you never know who’s roaming about with bombs. But take a look at this little announcement in the Army’s website:
Quick translation: The Army rounded up in the last week 300 people with various offenses including: Missing driving licenses, smuggling, provoking security personnel, vandalizing banners and billboards, prostitution, drug ownership, theft, “insulting the army and the Lebanese government”
This raises some questions: Why isn’t the ISF doing these arrests? Does this have anything to do with Mr. Berri’s prediction that the ISF is so fragile it would split in the case of a showdown? What’s with the “billboard vandalizing” and “insulting the Army” charges? Is the Army’s skin getting thin?
It is tempting to dismiss those questions by saying: “who cares, all the people caught are bad guys”, but that would be a dangerous expansion of the Army’s powers. Regardless of how much we like the Army, it should leave the cops’ job to the cops.
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Hello, my name is Mustapha and I blog in The Beirut Spring about Lebanese society and politics. I started in February 2005 after the killing of P.M. Rafik Hariri.
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Here’s an old post of mine from November 2006.
The army wastes a lot of time on police affairs (construction permits) and just plain stupidity (night club goers).
As much as the Army’s recent actions are important and securing the well being of the society, I still agree somehow that the ISF is the one who’s supposed to take action and implement the Rule of Law in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice. The aim must be to have appropriate habeas corpus (if the detention is legal or not) and fair trials. However, ISF is perceived as 14th March supporter. While most of the mobs are Syrians, Baalbakié or min Dahié, so they get violent towards the ISF, but not towards the Army, thank goodness. Unless you are in Shiaastan, Hezballastan or Iranstan = Dahié. BTW Stan is a Persian word and it means country or state.
Just a thought.
Could it be confidence builder?
Start with small things and slowly progress to real stuff.
Well the army is currently inside the cities for a very good reason and we all know that. Now if the army is doing its patrols to protect us against terrorists and see someone on the way breaking the law they can’t turn the other cheek and pretend that they didn’t see it. They have to act. In an ideal case the army should detain the law breaker call in an ISF unit, breif them of what have happened, and then the ISF should take over the case on the spot.
This is more like a dog who pisses on his new territory. But a really big dog who’s everybody’s new pet.
Don’t forget that there is a real threat that the army might turn out to be the only law-making entity in this country in the worst-case scenarios. Let them practice and let people get used to them.
I agree with Lebanese. Stop criticizing for the sake of criticism and start using logic to justify the unusual before accusing.
[...] The Soldier vs. the Pimp [...]
I have to wonder why “Insulting the army” wasn’t brought up when Wiam Wahhab was caught smuggling stuff at the border the other day, and proceeded to yell and scream and bully his way through said army checkpoints.
I get the sense that Lebanon is reclaiming herself – and yes – that includes the pimps
The “broken window” thery goes: even the smallest broken window in a neighborhood creates a sense of chaos and dis-harmony..
if not fixed…there will be more broken windows, and more broken streets will follow
ie: its the small things that add up that bring the house down