Tag Archives | police

Australian 60 Minutes Show Crew Arrested for Documenting Children Abduction in Beirut

TaraBio

News outlets reported yesterday morning that two kids were kidnapped in Hadath by gunmen while waiting for the school bus with their grandmother. As hours went by, the police claimed that their Australian mother was behind the whole thing since she was separated from the father and the two were apparently fighting over the custody of the kids.

Such affairs are not unusual in Lebanon and they sometimes get eventually settled between the parents at a police station, but I was quite surprised this morning to read that it wasn’t really that simple as it turned out the mother planned the abduction in coordination with some private child recovery agency from Australia that helps recover parentally abducted children, and wanted to get them out of Lebanon through the sea to Cyrprus. And it doesn’t end here, she even got the Australian 60 Minutes show involved to film the whole operation as it happens.

The Lebanese police however uncovered the whole thing and ended up arresting the abductors and 60 Minutes crew including presenter Tara Brown (the Australian media is currently buzzing about it by the way) while the mother managed to escape to the Australian embassy along with her children.

I’m not sure how legal this children recovery thing and if journalists are even allowed to document such operations, but it definitely sounds baffling! Let’s see how things will unfold for those in custody right now.

1

This Sums Up The Hypocrisy in Our Society

IMG_9575.JPG

Every now and then photos like the one above surface on the internet and people start showering the Lebanese police and governmental employees in general with criticism.

No one is sure yet how authentic this photo is since the ISF hinted on twitter that the policeman might have done this stunt on a closed highway as part of some training. It would be really ugly if it turns out to be true, I mean this is the kind of stuff you expect zouzou ebba guys to be pulling on the highway, so having this officer acting the same way is just plain unacceptable…!

But thinking about the photo and the reactions it got for a moment make you realize it actually sums up the hypocrisy in our society…

The man is basically in charge of fining those who violate the law by performing such stunts, yet he enjoys doing them himself! Likewise, we tweet myriads of photos showing ISF officers texting on duty, while we fail to drop our phone when driving. We even argue that the new traffic law should allow us to check our phone on red lights!

We report tens of ISF officers on motorcycles without helmets, yet we also hate to wear them because it’s too hot and they mess our hair! We also break twitter writing about people bruning red lights around the city, but we are of course allowed to do it after 10PM because we know better. Oh and the best of all we also hate when people take advantage on us through “wasta”, but we absolutely have no problem using the same “wasta” to break the rules too!

So yeah, the photo is still ugly, and the officer still deserves to be punished for it, but next time you see something similar, don’t react as if it’s something out of this world, because what you will be seeing is just a reflection of this hypocrite society we live in.

0

The Internal Security Forces rewarding seat-belt users

noel isf

The minute I saw this photos on twitter I knew it was some kind of a media stunt by the Lebanese Internal Security Forces. And the first thing that came to my mind was that they should have been working to ease the traffic congestion over the past few days instead of taking photos with Santa. But now that I saw the video I think it was a nice move.

In a country where people honk at you at a red light, I personally would have loved to get rewarded by the ISF for wearing the seatbelt!

0

Gold prospecting is illegal in Lebanon?

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

I never knew gold prospecting is actually illegal in Lebanon until I came across this piece of news by the National News Agency! Anyone knows the reason for that?

وطنية – اعلنت المديرية العامة لقوى الامن الداخلي في بيان انه “ضمن إطار مهامها في مجال حفظ الأمن والنظام ومكافحة الجريمة بمختلف أنواعها، تمكنت قطعات قوى الأمن الداخلي بتاريخ 26/06/2013 من توقيف 58 شخصا لإرتكابهم أفعالاً جرمية على الأراضي اللبنانية كافة، بينهم: 8 بجرائم سرقة، 7 بجرم تنقيب على ذهب، 5 بجرم إطلاق نار، 4 بجرائم مخدرات، 4 بجرم إقامة غير مشروعة، 4 بجرم ضرب وايذاء، 3 بجرم عدم حيازة أوراق ثبوتية، 3 بجرم لوحة مزورة، 2 بجرم سرقة هواتف، 2 بجرم شيك دون رصيد، 8 بجرائم : إحتيال، معاملة بشدة، عدم دفع نفقة، محاولة قتل، طعن بسكين، حيازة أسلحة، تسبب بوفاة، مقاومة رجال الأمن، و8 مطلوبين للقضاء بموجب مذكرات وأحكام عدلية مختلفة.

via Mahmoud Ghazayel

5

Kaak kaak!

To my knowledge, there’s some order to all security forces forbidding them from using small motorbikes when wearing their uniform, to stop giving a bad image about them to the society. It’s about time it gets enforced because this guy is taking it a bit further!

Darak kaak

via WTF! Only in Lebanon

3

Unknown lady blocks Hamra street!

According to this Facebook page, some unknown lady driving a black BMW with tinted windows in Hamra today afternoon, refused to stop for the police who apparently wanted to check the tint license, and decided to block the whole street when he insisted!

lady blocking hamra street 1

Lady blocking hamra street

lady blocking hamra street 2

No matter how important this lady is, it would be a real shame if the ISF let her get away with what she did. She cannot cause people to get stuck in a traffic jam for no reason except that she thinks she’s above the law, especially in a business center area like Hamra. I hope no one was being rushed to a nearby hospital and ended up getting stuck there!

Thanks to @ghazayel

5

Lebanese police running a red light

The below photos were taken in Tallet El-Khayyat showing a police car running a red light. Definitely not a shocking scene as we’re all used to the reckless driving by the police in Beirut, but it’s cool to have their actions documented by Cheyef 7alak now!

And I know, they can always justify that by saying it was an emergency!

3

Snoop Dogg being sued by a Lebanese concert promoter

Lebanese police are reported to have started an investigation after a footage of Snoop Dogg smoking weed at some club in Beirut was featured in the music video for “That’s Tha Homie”.

Kalaouz claims Snoop blazed up some weed in the middle of a concert after-party — which is illegal in Lebanon — and then featured footage of the puff session in a music video for his song, “That’s Tha Homie” (image featured above).

Kalaouz claims Lebanese authorities caught wind of the weed smoking — and launched a criminal investigation into his company … leaving his reputation “severely damaged.” Source

Shu wi2fit 3a Snoop Dogg? The whole country has been high on something over the last few years!

8

Powered by WordPress. Designed by WooThemes