Fake ISF cars a menace on Lebanon”s roads
Ever wondered who dwells behind the steering wheels of cars with black dimmed glass? Did you know that they are above the law thanks to “divine intervention”? Here’s the full story. On a nice Sunday afternoon, one Mercedes ML350, a big black SUV, is heading towards Faqra. On board are two couples planning to have lunch in a restaurant in the area. The car has black dimmed glass all over– remember that this type of glass has been ruled illegal on civilian vehicles.
Passenger #1: “Cool ride dude.”
Sami(a Typical Lebanese): “Thanks man. It’s my dad’s you know, but all of the extras are the handy work of yours truly.”
Passenger #1: “What extras?”
And on it roared.
For no more than $100, Sami had managed to buy himself the most outrageous, and illegal, of gadgets. He had in his car a police siren device complete with a public address system and a sound amplifier. Is there a need to mention that such a device should belong exclusively to Internal Security police cars?
Sami pushed the siren button which instantly started to wail in the most atrocious of ways. He held the microphone to his lips and mimicked the line usually repeated by internal security forces (ISF) when “someone important” is blessing the commoners with his presence among them on the streets. “Silver Toyota move to the right!” And the poor woman driving the Toyota actually moved to the right side of the street. The incident had a surrealist quality: Typical Lebanese– Sami had actually perfected the aggressive tone of ISF officers who always sound like caffeine addicts deprived of their daily dose of the drug. He was maniacally speeding down the sloping hills of Rayfoun, pushing the siren on and on again (the image of a laughing Joker from Batman movies comes to mind), and cars around were obediently moving away from this important-looking death machine.
The truly scary bit came later though. Sami confessed that he had tried this trick with a real police officer on a motorbike. He sounded the siren while his black dimmed windows were rolled up. And what do you think happened? Yes, the policeman moved out of the “important man’s” car’s way, no questions asked.
And the story doesn’t end here. Sami had added a fake antenna to the top of his car to imply that he had transmission radio in his car, a device reserved for politician’s bodyguards. He put his full gear to use when he was picking up his cousin from the airport. You know how you get hassled at the airport front road when you park for more than one minute? Well, the ISF officer literally swept away each and every other car trying to park there, and only hovered around Sami’s car, not daring to even look in his direction. How could he? It was an important looking car and he was just a policeman stationed on hostile territory.
Rana Haidar is an instructor at the American University of Beirut’s English Department