Top cop optimistic Ushrenko family murders will be solved, does not reveal any new information
Top cop optimistic Ushre
By BEN HARTMAN
Israel Police Insp.-Gen. David Cohen said on Monday he was closely following the investigation of last week's murder of a family of six from Rishon Lezion, and was confident that the killers would be caught.
Cohen also called on the media to honor the gag order on the case and to be patient while awaiting details on the tragedy.
Six members of the Ushrenko family were brutally murdered and their apartment set alight on October 17. Police have placed a strict gag order on the investigation, and no arrests have been reported.
Cohen spoke at an Israel Police ceremony held at the Yitzhak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv to mark 14 years since the former prime minister's assassination. The ceremony was attended by many senior police and Border Police officers.
Cohen spoke of Rabin's death and violence in Israeli society, saying the assassination represented the most extreme expression of violent protest, and that "unfortunately, we are a society where there is still fertile ground for political violence."
He discussed the recent disturbances at and near the Temple Mount, saying police would not tolerate changes to the status quo on the Mount and would not allow incitement to percolate.
Cohen also mentioned the sentencing Sunday of four Nahariya police officers found guilty of plotting revenge attacks on a local mobster. As on Sunday, Cohen referred to the officers as "professional and intelligent," but added that he regretted that they had made the decision to take the law into their own hands.
Speakers at the ceremony, which was titled "Yitzhak Rabin - His Image and His Actions," dealt largely with the subject of morality and the ethics of law enforcement. Before the addresses, each police commander was given a copy of a book containing the Israel Police mission statement and a personal message from Cohen. Cohen presented the book as an examination of law and ethics, multiculturalism and multinationalism, and the issues of Arabs in Israel and the country's Jewish character.
Tel Aviv University Prof. Asa Casher said it was crucial for the police to have a system of ethics to which law enforcement officials must adhere. The public must know that "every person who wears the police uniform represents the values of the State of Israel," he said.
Former deputy defense minister Dahlia Rabin-Pelosoff, the slain prime minister's daughter, mentioned rising violence in society and offered the Rabin Center as a forum within which the issue could be dealt. She mentioned how her father had talked about the danger violence posed to Israel's democracy shortly before he was assassinated, and her desire for the Rabin Center to help in the struggle against violence.