Security and the state : A study on how different security measures influence the psychological security of students of a Jewish high school

Security and the state

A study on how different security measures influence the

psychological security of students of a Jewish high school

Awi Groen, 10360980

Bachelorscriptie Algemene Sociale Wetenschappen Universiteit van Amsterdam

Mentor: Koen van der Gaast

Second reader: Nel Vandekerckhove 19-06-2016

2 | P a g e Abstract

This qualitative study explores the perception of security in Jewish high school students of the ages 17 and 18 years old. Ten interviews were conducted amongst four female and six male students. An interdisciplinary approach was used in researching how street-level perceptions of security were being experienced by the students, as opposed to the classic, static view of how security should be guaranteed from a political point of view. This brought up interesting results, regarding the role of private, Jewish security (shomrim) working in co-operation with state security personnel. A situation of so-called hybrid governance emerged, with different perceived roles for the shomrim and the state security personnel. In the end, it was concluded that the students perception of security was heavily increased by the presence of the shomrim, while the presence of state security personnel without shomrim being present, decreased the perception of security.

3 | P a g e Foreword

I have always found it interesting how the Jewish community, my community, positioned itself in relation to the rest of the Dutch community. My choice for this subject was obviously influenced by that, in a way that I thought it should be fun to research an aspect of this

community. Well, the beginning was fun, somewhere halfway through it stopped being fun, but now at the end I can say that I’m starting to have fun again.

I want to thank my girlfriend, Merav, for helping me with forming this thesis to what it has become and for always supporting me even when I was stressed out in ways I didn’t know I could be. I also want to thank my teacher, Koen, for the constructive feedback he gave and with which he could make me see what I actually wanted to know as opposed to what my mushy brain was starting to think I wanted to know.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction p. 5

2. Theoretical Framework p. 7

2.1.1 Security as guaranteed by the state p. 7

2.1.2 Influence of police presence p. 8

2.2.1 The role of the vigilante p. 9

2.3 Discrepancy in security, the need for an

interdisciplinary approach p. 10

2.4 The meaning of greeting p. 11

3. Problem definition p. 12 4. Methodology p. 14 4.1 Strategy p. 14 4.2 Design p. 14 4.3 Method p. 15 4.4 Operationalization p. 15 4.5 Population/ Sampling p. 17 4.6 Data Analysis p. 17 5. Results p. 19 5.1 Research Process p. 19

5.2.1 “I mean they could hit me, but they probably couldn’t kill me” p. 20 5.2.2 “There’s nothing going on? Then what is his problem?” p. 22 5.2.3 “If I wouldn’t trust them, who would I trust then?” p. 23

5.2.4 Redefining the police p. 25

5.3.1 “Of course I would listen, he’s there for a reason” p. 26

5.3.2 The importance of acquaintance p. 28

5.3.3 “Well this might sound weird..” p. 30

5.3.4 “The only difference is…” p. 32

5.4.1 Greeting the man at the door p. 33

6. Conclusion p. 34

7. Discussion p. 36

5 | P a g e

1. Introduction

“The soldier wore green camouflage, a red beret and the serious expression of a man at war as he stood sentinel outside the heavy iron gates of a Jewish school in the heart of Paris on Monday” (Washington Post, 2015). This could very well have been a literary quote, taken from a book set in a dystopian time. Unfortunately, it’s not. Ten thousand army-men have been employed, after a kosher grocery store was attacked by terrorists on January 9th of 2015 (BBC, 2015). Ever since that attack, and with security heightening even further in the state of emergency France is currently in because of another set of terrorist attacks in Paris (BBC, 2016).

Jewish locations such as the store have always had extra security measures in several countries in Western Europe. However, these were never provided by the state in the form of police personnel. Instead, Jewish communities, in for example Amsterdam, Paris and

London, took it upon themselves to instate private security measures, existing of Jewish security guards at the entrance, and around Jewish locations (Lensink, 2010; Shomrimlondon, 2016; CST, 2016). In the Netherlands the organization that provides private security to the Jewish community is called Bij Leven en Welzijn (BLEW). The money to keep these organizations has traditionally always come from sponsors within the Jewish community. In the Netherlands however, there has always been a lobby to have the government employ the police around Jewish sites (Weezel & Broer, 2014).

However, attempts to have the government help with the safety situations in Amsterdam have always failed. That is, up until the 24th of May 2014, when the Jewish museum in Brussels was attacked (Weezel & Broer, 2014). Since then, police posts were put outside of the Jewish high school and since the beginning of the school year 2015/ 2016, state troopers have been posted next to it as well.

I have been a member of the Jewish community since the day I was born and, in the Jewish culture more importantly, since the day I was circumcised a week after. While my circumcision might not be of much academic relevance to this thesis, it was the day that my life as a Jew in Amsterdam started. Throughout my “Jewish career” it always struck me as a very peculiar thing how much the community relied on itself instead of outsiders. Whether it was sports, youth movements or the providing of security, everything was done by Jews, for Jews, with Jews.

As of the Brussels attacks however, when police and state troopers were positioned outside of Jewish locations, this was no longer the case. Seeing as how I’ve always wondered

6 | P a g e about the position of the security personnel from BLEW in the Jewish community, this presented me with a unique opportunity. In this thesis, the role of the private security in relation to the state security personnel will be researched and reviewed from the perspectives of the students of a Jewish high school that interact with both parties on a daily basis. Their perception of security will be the main concept, being of societal relevance because it’s interesting to ask the question that when the government guarantees your security as a citizen, but other parties also are present with the same goal, which party seems more effective to the people being protected?

While the societal relevance is definitely the most interesting part of this thesis, in my eyes, as a member of the community myself, at least, there is also an academic relevance. Very little to no research has been done on the role of private security provided by vigilantes in co-operation with state forces in modern, Western society. All the research on this type of security, called hybrid governance, has been on war zones or regions recovering from a war. This thesis will firstly set a theoretical framework, in which the concepts that are being researched will be explored. Then the methodology will be explained together with the main and sub-questions of this thesis, after which the results and finally the conclusion will be presented.

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2. Theoretical Framework

The term security has historically mostly been viewed as ‘national’ security, providing security meant providing protection from external and internal threats (Gearty, 2010, p. 2). This protection, in the history of the nation state, has been provided by the third party better known as the state itself. Individuals within a society rely on the state to provide them with this security and, as described by Hobbes (1651; Gauthier 1998), in turn give some of their freedom to the state. This is called the social contract, in which the state acquires a monopoly on violence and with that monopoly guarantee the safety and security of their population (idem.). Hobbes however left in his theory on the social contract, no official contractual role for the sovereign, granting the state absolute power. This way the people would grant the sovereign unlimited power and there would be no room for civil disobedience, all in exchange for the guarantee of safety and security (Russel, 2008, p. 659). Because the sovereign was not officially part of the contract, the people could not hold the sovereign accountable. This stands in contrast with Locke’s theory on the role of the government, in which he does name the state as a party in the contract, thus binding the state to act in compliance with the contract. If the state fails to do so, the people will have the right to protest the acts of the state (idem.). In this thesis the role in providing security by the state will be viewed in contrast to security as provided by the people themselves.

2.1.1 Security as guaranteed by the state

A monopoly on violence, like the one the state has in modern nations, comes, according to Weber (1919), with a certain ethical paradox. Weber builds upon Hobbes idea and agrees that the monopoly on violence state has, is legitimized (Andersen et al., 2014, p. 1205). But, he writes that violence comes with a potential for ‘diabolical forces’, even when that violence is used to guarantee the safety of other individuals (Weber, 1919, p. 64). In modern society the state has an institution of visible enforcers of their monopoly on violence; the police. Thus, within our society, police officers face the ethical paradox Weber describes (Terpstra, 2011).

However, the role the police is supposed to fulfil, according to the state’s role of using the monopoly on violence to provide a safe environment (Weber, 1919), is not always

perceived by the public as being satisfactory (Jackson & Bradford, 2009; Jackson &

Sunshine, 2007). Instead of enforcing actual, physical safety, the public sometimes sees the police more as ‘moral guardians’ (idem.). In a study on public confidence in the police that

8 | P a g e took place in England, the results showed that people judge police on whether or not they are representative of community values (p. 215). If this turned out not to be the case, the public lost confidence in the police and did not view them as doing their job satisfactory anymore. Thus, one could argue that the perceived role of the police in modern society differs from the part the police would play according to Weber’s theory.

Finally, when analysing the trust the public has in the police, both Weber’s

perspective and the newfound perspective of the police as ‘moral guardians’ have to be taken into account. Overall, there are several factors that have been proven to influence general trust in the police; the general corruption amongst public officials (or the believe that this is happening), big investments in public order and safety, the cultural diversity of a country (and its history with police) (Kääriäinen, 2007; Schaap & Scheepers, 2014). However, there are also factors on a more individual level that constitute trust in the police, such as whether or not citizens feel respected by officers (Stoutland, 2001; Van Craen, 2016), if a police officer seems open to input to create a fairer judgment of a situation (Tyler, 2005; Van Craen, 2016), and, on a more physical level, if a police officer’s behaviour reflects the norms they should protect in the eyes of the public (Jackson & Sunshine, 2007; Van Craen, 2016). In this thesis specifically, the amount of trust that the respondents have in the police is tested within the Netherlands (even more specific, in Amsterdam). Research has been

conducted on this topic and a few clear variables stand out (van der Veer et al., 2013). First of all there is the willingness to comply, in which a civilian sees it as his or her duty to comply with any order the police gives, even when one does not agree with this order (p. 64). Secondly there is the perception of police performance, which generally comes down to whether or not a civilian believes the police solves crimes efficiently (idem.). Last, and this point has been discussed in detail above as well, there is the moral accordance that an individual has with the police. This means that the police has the same morals, the same values, as the civilian that is judging whether or not he has confidence in the police (p. 65). Having confidence in the police in this study was seen as equivalent to whether or not an individual legitimizes the role of the police.

2.1.2 Influence of police presence

Now that we have explored the concept of safety from the states’ point of view, it is interesting to look at the other side of the coin. While the police may be employed to be either ‘moral guardians’ or guardians of the physical safety of civilians, this still does not tell us anything about how safe the civilians feel because of their presence. The difference

9 | P a g e between the actual safety of an individual that is being guaranteed and the perception of that safety, is the difference between qualitative known risk (risk reality) and qualitative sense of risk (feelings) (Steinberg, 2010).

When it comes to feeling safe in an environment where police is present, one could argue the risk reality would be relatively lower than in an environment where no police is present, thus allowing an appropriate sense of safety (Steinberg, 2010). In a study in which students were shown pictures of a certain environment with and without police present, an environment in which students already felt unsafe, police presence did have a decreasing effect on the sense of risk (Doyle et al., 2015, p. 13 – 15). This is an appropriate response, but when police was present in an environment students already felt relatively safe, nothing about their sense of risk changed (idem.).

Furthermore, in a different study that was conducted in the environment of a mall, generally experienced as a safe environment by the respondents, women actually had an

increased sense of risk when police was present (Rowland & Coupe, 2013, p. 279). Thus,

when employing police to safeguard the security of citizens in an environment with low risk reality, citizens often perceive that environment with an increased sense of risk (Van der Veer et al., 2012, p. 3122) as opposed to the same environment without any police present. The same goes for other safety measures such as metal detectors at the entrance of a school (Gastic, 2011, p. 495).

2.2.1 The role of the vigilante

In the case of this thesis, however, police and state troopers are not the only actors providing security being present. The role of BLEW as a private security company is significant,

especially when taking into account that before 2014 they were the only security personnel on the ground at the location of the case study.

There are a few ways to explain the forming of vigilante groups that provide security in a certain situation. When a state fails to provide this security, for example, because the institutions are too weak and civil society needs to find an answer of its own (Meager, 2012). In Africa, for example, vigilante groups have made a shift from being feared by the

population and prosecuted by the state, to being a valuable source of information and security to both actors (idem., p. 1074). While the personnel of BLEW has never been feared or vilified by the Jewish community, there has been some negativity in press regarding the autonomy of the security personnel. Other than ignoring the negativity or using power to suppress the negative sources, as would have been the case in Africa (idem), BLEW chose to

10 | P a g e actively engage in contact with the press and make their image more positive (Lensink, 2010). Within modern societies with strong states, such as the Netherlands, private security provided by civilians for civilians, is mostly happening for commercial reasons only

(Arguetta, 2012).

In the case of the Jewish school in Amsterdam, vigilante security was provided because the state did not provide any additional security, however they do fulfill a role similar to the one the vigilantes in Africa fulfill nowadays. BLEW personnel is still deployed at the site and the police and state troopers use them for information on the people and the location. Meager (2012) calls this sort of co-operation ‘hybrid-governance’ (p. 1075). This hybrid governance, when it comes to the organization of security, is a relatively new form of security that has mostly been deployed in countries that are not at peace (Schroeder,

Chappuik & Kocak, 2014) in which domestic actors work together with private actors to stabilize the situation.

Hybrid security governance has two forms; there is the form of security governance with domestic and international forces working together (Schroeder, Chappuik & Kocak, 2014, p. 217) and there is the more relevant form of domestic and private security forces working together (Meager, 2012). However, an element that is essential to hybrid

governance, and also the reason for its existence, is the combining of strengths and specialties from the different parties (Schroeder, Chappuik & Kocak, 2014). In the case of the vigilantes this boils down to combining the actual legitimacy to use force (domestic forces) with

knowledge of the community as well as affiliation with the community (the vigilantes). This role of the vigilantes in hybrid governance is relevant to this thesis and will be tested in relation to the role of BLEW personnel at the Jewish high school. Confidence in BLEW by students will be tested with the same variables as the confidence in the police.

2.3 Discrepancy in security, the need for an interdisciplinary approach

Concluding, when reviewing the above notions of security, one is able to discover a certain discrepancy. Weber builds upon Hobbes’ idea of a social contract, which legitimizes the state’s monopoly on violence (Andersen et al., 2014, p. 1205), because it guarantees the safety of its citizens. However, the psychological sense of risk/ security are not guaranteed by enforcing the monopoly on violence (ie. employing police officers to protect citizens). Thus, one must integrate the perspectives of Weber and Hobbes on security and the perceived

11 | P a g e security by the citizens the state seeks to protect, as to be able to conduct research relevant to an interdisciplinary view.

If one were to simply review the two differences between the more politicological/ sociological view of the state with the psychological perspective of the citizens, one would end up with an analysis like many before (as mentioned in the theoretical framework above). This thesis however, will set out to integrate the different perspectives and thus form a new definition of the concept ‘security’, which is much needed to provide the citizens with a feeling of safety as well as actual security.

Researching an individual’s sense of security, in the case of this thesis as a reaction to several security measures and the sense of a threat, is not merely a simple task, because it’s not a simple problem. This thesis does not set out to ‘solve’ a problem, seeing as how this would not be possible within the situation. It simply serves as an analytical tool of the

perception of security regarding external factors and puts this into perspective with the states guarantee of security to the people. Seeing as how the problem is so fluid and has a lot of factors underlying, influencing each other, in this case for example the risks/ threats, the laws that the different types of security are bound to obey, makes the perception of security and the discrepancies within, a wicked problem (Menken & Keestra, p. 25). Wicked problems are too complex for a disciplinary approach and require an interdisciplinary approach.

2.4 The meaning of greeting

When the interviews were conducted, it was discovered that the respondents put an emphasis of the importance of greeting, thus making it necessary to provide some theory on the subject. Greeting is an opening face-to-face interaction, that is essentially a part of almost all social relationships (Firth, 1972). To greet someone, means to go from physically coexisting into a state of social co-presence (Pilet-Shore 2008; Pillet-Shore 2012).

There is a distinction between ‘small’ greeting behaviour and ‘large’ greeting behaviour. Large greetings consist of big utterings, prolonging your vocal greeting, and a response by the person you are greeting. These greetings mean that the person initiating the greeting has a positive stance toward the individual he or she is greeting (Pillet-Shore 2008, p. 384 – 386). A small greeting however, is short in length and does not necessarily trigger a response in the individual receiving the greeting (idem. p. 390 – 392).

Furthermore, with physical greetings, one can state that the length of the greeting and the amount of physical contact, are the main indicators for the closeness of the personal relationship (Astrom & Thorell, 1996). Longer handshakes mean more eagerness to engage in

12 | P a g e a close relationship, while short handshakes with fingers just barely hanging on, are a signal to not engage in any relationship at all.

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3. Problem definition

As described in the theoretical framework, there is a certain guarantee that the state gives to their citizens when it comes to security. However, this guarantee is currently being carried out on the street level by officers of the law, such as police officers and state troopers. But what happens when another player enters the field, being private security personnel, or as they are called in the literature; vigilantes.

Seeing as how the concept of just security has been widely written about, as discussed in the theoretical framework, this thesis will focus solely on the influence of police/ army presence as well as private security on the perceived security of the population. More specifically, it will explore the way Jewish students that go to a high school that is now heavily protected by the state, think about the role of the police/ army versus the role of the private security and about how protected they feel in their presence.

Therefore, the main question of this thesis will be: ‘How do the students of a Jewish high school in Amsterdam perceive the various ways in which their security is guaranteed?’ By answering this question, this research will explore and explain why certain measures of security are perceived as better or worse, or as more effective or less effective, by the students of the school. In doing so, a few sub-questions will be answered:

The first sub-question will set out to evaluate how the students think about the police in general, within Dutch society. Of course a general picture is not enough, or relevant for this thesis, but more specifically this question will focus on whether or not the students trust that the police is doing their job well and whether or not they protect the same morals as they do, as well as their security. Therefore, the first sub-question is: How do the students of a Jewish high school in Amsterdam view the role of the police in Dutch society?

Second, it’s a logical step to explore the role the students perceive the private security of BLEW, the shomrim, have. To do this, the respondents will first have to explain what the shomrim are doing there and how and why they come in contact with them. From there, the same indicators as with the role of the police will be used in discovering what students think of the shomrim. The second sub-question therefore will be: How do the students of a Jewish high school in Amsterdam view the role of the private security in front of their school?

Finally, it’s important to see the influence the variation between security measures has on the perception of security. In testing this, one can discover whether or not the earlier mentioned notions of roles of different actors actually conflict, intertwine or overlap with each other. Thus, the third sub-question that will be used to answer the final question is: How

14 | P a g e do the students of a Jewish high school in Amsterdam view the relation between the private security and the security personnel deployed by the state.

After collecting data by keeping these three questions as a guideline throughout this thesis, results can be formed that are of academic as well as societal importance, the exact way of data collection and analysis will be discussed in the Methodology chapter. In the theoretical framework, a discrepancy was discovered in the role of the state as a protector of the security of its citizens and the possible perception as such. This discrepancy, a gap in theory if you will, can be solved by forming a new concept of security, as it should be understood by both the citizens and the state. If, and when, the results from this thesis will achieve that goal, the sense of risk and the known risk of a population in a state can align again and there will be a much smaller chance of a state of paranoia, which is of much relevance to any functioning society.

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4. Methodology

4.1 Strategy

To conduct the research in this thesis and ultimately answer the question of the perceptions of security in the well-guarded zone of the Jewish high school in Amsterdam, a qualitative strategy has been chosen. A qualitative design lends itself excellently for going into depth and finding out the psychological processes behind the feelings of safety, the fear of crime and the risk assessment of an individual.

Since the thesis will be aimed at explaining social behaviour within a specific location and time-frame, and not at generalizing behaviour to a larger population, an interpretive epistemology (Bryman, 2008, p. 28) is used during the interviews. Without this

epistemology, the interviews and the stance of the interviewer would be too rigid.

By displaying the security situation in the case study and by describing the situation as constructed by different answers from the in-depth interviews, a constructionist ontology is used in this thesis (Bryman, 2008, p. 33). The social reality that is being presented is not definitive and has changed when more data was gathered.

4.2 Design

Earlier research on topics such as feelings of safety (Gibson et al., 2002; Boaz & Lynn, 2010; Veer et al., 2012) and the fear of crime (Boers, 1994) have been done both qualitative and quantitative. However, the goal of this thesis is to uncover psychological processes of risk assessment and the roots of fear (and whether or not these partially stem from the police presence in the locations). This is why the qualitative case-study was chosen as a research design. The case-study in this case is on the students of the high school and not specifically on the location, meaning there will be no participatory observation, but rather the location of the school will function as a ‘backdrop to the findings’ (Bryman, 2008, p. 68).

While quantitative studies have focussed over and over on the fluctuations in feelings of security with police present or absent at certain locations, or fluctuations in safety

perception when certain environmental factors are changed, this thesis does not aim to do so. The Likert-scales are, in my eyes, of less importance than uncovering the psychological construction of fear in an individual’s mind, and the contribution to this process that police presence has.

16 | P a g e 4.3 Method

To conduct the research best fit for the case study, in-depth interviews have been carried out with students of the Jewish high school in Amsterdam. The reason why this location has been chosen, is because of the daily interaction students have with the police, state troopers and the private security guards. Thus, when interviewing the school-going youth, we gained a better understanding of the feelings of security caused by the specific situation in and around

the school. Guidelines to the questions that have been asked can be found under Appendix I

and will be explained under the Operationalization section.

Furthermore, when researching psychological processes, in-depth interviews are often the best fitting (Bryman, 2008, p. 245). One could also argue focus groups would bring out the group-dynamics better when it comes to collective fear, but I’m not convinced of the added value. I would argue that within a focus group one stumbles upon a group-bias of social desirability (p. 227) too easily and cannot go in-depth about certain things individuals say, without having them fear reactions by the group.

Finally, when researching the theoretical framework and current state of debate on the presence of police and the influence it has on the feelings of security, it became clear that in many studies photos were used of locations with more or less police presence in each

photograph (Doyle et al., 2015, p. 13 – 15; Rowland & Coupe, 2013, p. 279; Van der Veer et al., 2012, p. 3122). For this reason, I have taken a screenshot of the school on Google Maps (Google, 2016) and have edited in the measures of security taken at the school. No real photographs were used, as to not compromise the actual security of the school.

The photographs, found under Appendix III, have been shown to the students during the interviews, to have them actively think and grade (on a scale from one to ten) how secure they would feel in the situation that was before them. The series of questions always started with a photograph of the school with no security measures in place and then varied from having just police there, just state troopers or just BLEW security guards to mixes of all of the measures (Appendix III).

4.4 Operationalization

Security is the main concept of this thesis, but of course one cannot simply ask respondents bluntly about security in an in-depth interview. As a guideline to conduct the interviews, the concept is split up into two dimensions: the psychological dimension and the political dimension.

17 | P a g e Taken from the theoretical framework, the political dimension will find its roots in research done on the role of the police within society. With indicators such as how much confidence people put in the police, how they view the role of the police and how the they think the state should go about securing the safety of its citizens, respondents will be tempted to elaborate on the role of the state in guaranteeing their security.

Specifically, taken from earlier research on confidence in police, there are three main variables that have been tested, being: the willingness to comply, in which a civilian sees it as his or her duty to comply with any order the police gives, even when one does not agree with this order (van der Veer et al., 2013, p. 64). Secondly there is the perception of police

performance, which generally comes down to whether or not a civilian believes the police solves crimes efficiently (idem.). Last there is the moral accordance that an individual has with the police, meaning whether or not the respondent believes the police safeguard the same morals as they do. These same variables have been applied when asking about the private security guards from BLEW.

When researching the relationship between the private security from BLEW and the state personnel, the perception of security as increasing or decreasing was used as main indicator (Van der Veer et al., 2012, p. 3122). Several situations were depicted as to get a clear sense of when there was an actual increase or decrease in perceiving how secure that situation was because of the addition or absence of a certain measure of security. An image of the operationalization scheme can be found under Figure 1.

18 | P a g e A final indicator that was added to the research after the interviews were held, are the length and intensity of the greetings the students initiate towards the different types of security personnel. These are split up into ‘large’ and ‘small’ greetings, large greetings indicating a positive relationship and small greetings indicating a neutral stance (Pillet-Shore, 2008).

4.5 Population/ sampling

The research population of this thesis is 10 high school students in the second to last (5th) grade of a Jewish high school in Amsterdam. This high school was chosen because the increased security measures are very visible within their vicinity and I could easily get in contact with the head masters of the school through my contacts in the Liberal Jewish Community (synagogue). Seeing as how this is a qualitative research, the results will not be generalized to a larger population and random sampling is not needed. However, the head master pulled his support in the process of setting up an appointment for the interview and so instead respondents were approached and interviewed with a snowball sampling (Bryman, 2008, p. 202) starting with the daughter of a woman I know personally. From there on I interviewed nine more of her class mates, 6 male and 3 female.

Out of all the respondents, 8 were 17 years old and two were 18 years old. By using the snowball sample, I first got the contact information of all the parents and through them reached the students, having the parents give permission for the interview explicitly before handing over the contact information of the actual respondents. In agreeing to be a part of the thesis, or in the case of the parents have their children be a part of it, anonymity was

guaranteed.

4.6 Data Analysis

The interviews will be iteratively coded, using a method of open coding (Bryman, 2008, p. 568). With this type of coding, concepts, for example security in the case of this thesis, are brought up during interviews and later turned into categories. After the open coding, comes axial coding, in which the interviews are split up into categories, which are then connected to each other. These axial codes were then used to analyse the interviews with

19 | P a g e more ease in the results section. An overview of the open- and axial codes, can be found under Appendix I.

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5. Results

5.1 Research Process

When this thesis was originally started, the planning process depended on the agreement of the Jewish high school that interviews would be conducted during school hours. However, as time dragged on, the realization of this agreement became more and more unlikely. Thus, as described in the methods chapter, getting respondents relied heavily on snowball sampling students from the same class. This resulted in no longer being able to interview the highest grades, but instead having to interview students from the grade below (5 VWO), seeing as how the students in the higher grade were already preparing for their final exams and the fact that I did not know any of their parents and/ or friends personally.

In total 10 students were interviewed for this thesis, each of the interviews lasting from 30 to 45 minutes and with their ages being either 17 or 18 years old. All of the students live in Amsterdam and even more specifically, they all live in the neighbourhood of

Buitenveldert and Amstelveen, which are located on the south side of Amsterdam and houses a relatively large Jewish population as well as the school the students go to. The proportion of males to females in the group of respondents was surprisingly well balanced (six males as opposed to four females), whereas I expected males to be less eager to participate (simply because I would not be as interested in participating at that age), they turned out to be more than willing.

Seeing as how the respondents will remain anonymous, they have been given the following fake names: Sarah (female, 17), Naomi (female, 17), Hannah (female, 17), Rebecca (female, 17), Jake (male, 17), Sam (male, 17), Zach (male, 17), Joel (male, 17), Michael (male, 18) and Daniel (male, 18). All of the interviews were carried out in the homes of the respondents’ parents, except for Michael’s interview which took place in Daniel’s parents’ home at which they were both present; however they were not both in the same room while the interview took place.

Because the interviews consisted for a big part of scenario’s in which the respondents had to think about what they would do, it was important to set picture scenarios in

recognizable locations. This is why at the beginning of the interview, after asking them about how they liked their school, I asked about their activities outside of school. Most of the respondents had jobs, while other had certain sports they practiced, and thus I painted the scenarios in correspondence with those activities.

21 | P a g e the students that they, when asked about their relation with the private security guards

(shomrim) often said that they greeted them when going to school. This stood in contrast with the state security personnel, whom they did not greet. Because of this finding, I added one more method to this thesis and more theory to the theoretical framework about the meaning of greeting. The added method was an observation of one morning and one afternoon (same day) about how often the students going into the school greeted the private security, the state security or nobody at all and can be found under Appendix IV, the transcribed interviews can be found under Appendix V.

5.2.1 “I mean they could hit me, but they probably couldn’t kill me”

In every interview, the first scenario given to the respondents was a scenario in which they saw a person getting mugged by two men. When asked about what they thought they would do in that scenario, almost all the respondents started by asking more specific questions, ie. whether they had weapons, were there other people around etc. However, when I explained to them to just think about the scenario as they would normally experience that situation, but this time with a robbery occurring, most of the respondents were very firm in their answer on what they would do (instead of answering hesitant or with doubt like one might expect when first asking a lot of questions about the specifics of the scenario’s).

The reason for this scenario question was to see whether or not someone’s first reaction would be to call the police and interestingly, this was almost never the case.

“I would just ride my bike into them, just go and hit them as hard as I can and then they would be shocked and run away or at the old woman could get away and then I could also ride away still maybe” (Rebecca, 17).

What Rebecca expresses is not unique in the sense that she would not call the police as a first reaction, but one might be surprised at the audacity that a 17-year old girl would approach two muggers with. When asked further, respondents often explained that they would want the mugging to stop, or at least make the situation safer for the person being mugged by yelling or approaching, before calling the police. This was especially the case with Daniel, the only respondent who actually had experience with a situation like this and who did act himself before calling the police.

22 | P a g e around, so I yelled to them I screamed stop it, piss off, and I screamed I called the police, but I didn’t call them yet and then they ran off” Daniel (18).

So even though Daniel acted himself before calling the police, he did threaten the guys harassing the other guy by saying that he had already called. Thus, in understanding the answers from the respondents about them acting first to stop the situation, one cannot simply conclude they do this because of a lack of confidence in a positive outcome when they would firstly call the police.

More so, Naomi stated that she would call the police, tell them where the mugging was taking place and then attack the muggers herself, saying that she would be confident that the police would get there before the muggers would be able to kill her. This of course reflects a very extreme way of thinking about danger and putting yourself in danger, but was not an uncommon way of think among the respondents and represents an almost altruistic way of regarding one’s own safety. This way of thinking even went as far as Michael stating that it would be ‘faya’ (a word from Dutch street-language meaning as much as ‘messed up’) to just leave someone being mugged and not do anything about it yourself, even when that meant becoming the one being attacked. Joel even went as far as literally calling it taking on the role of the police, saying:

“If the cops aren’t there, and you are there, what you’re just gonna let it happen? You have to do what they would do, because they are not there, they are never there when it happens haha” Joel (17)

Which shows that not only does he take matters into his own hands, he feels a responsibility to do so, because that is what the police would do when they would be at the scene. However, he also says that they never seem to be at the scene when something happens and further elaborates later on in the interview that he thinks that is a problem with the police, they always arrive after the fact.

Thus, when looking at the respondents confidence in taking matters into their own hands, as opposed to leaving it to the police, one can conclude that when it comes to putting a stop to the mugging the students trust in their own ability to do so. This trust does however come from a place in which they believe it is morally the right thing to do, and at the same time also believe that the police would do the same thing if they were present at the scene. So how about when police are present at the scene, and command the students to do something without any explanation?

23 | P a g e 5.2.2 “There’s nothing going on? Then what is his problem?”

In researching the confidence the students have in the police, another indicator is whether or not they would follow instructions from a police officer without explanation. In the scenario’s this was tested by having the students think about a situation in which they would stand outside a bar/ other location they would visit in their leisure time. A police officer would come up to them and a friend, telling them to go inside immediately. Surprisingly enough, almost none of the respondents would do this without at least questioning why, with answers ranging from questioning the officer while walking inside to getting outright angry at the officer.

“Why does he tell me that? And there’s nothing going on? Then what is his problem? If there’s anything going on I would see it, right? Why does he just tell me that with no explanation, it makes no sense, screw that, I’m not just gonna go inside if there’s no reason.” Michael (18).

Clearly, this means that not only would Michael not follow directions from the officer, he would get angry at the absence of an explanation when being told to do something. Jake, Sam, Rebecca and Naomi all share similar views on the situation, saying how they would get angry at not knowing what is going on and directing that anger towards the officer. Naomi even goes as far as, when asked, stating that she would not feel respected by the officer telling her to go inside. She states that she’s not a child anymore and thus would expect to be treated as a peer by the officer, therefore having a right to know what is going on. In getting angry at the officer, the respondents would not only disobey the order, but they would also disregard any danger they would be in, simply because they are not being told what kind of danger that is. Rebecca even takes the standpoint of saying that if the officer would not explain the situation, then clearly it must not be a dangerous situation.

Others however, like Joel, would be immediately interested in what the situation is and therefore still disobey the order, but because they would want to be able to help. He says:

“I would want to know what is going on, I think I could help him, I can help him get people inside or maybe help with what is going on. If he still can’t explain what’s going on if I ask him, I’m gonna go inside and will calm down the people there” Joel (17).

So while disobeying the order, Joel does this out of again some sort of altruistic motive of wanting to help the situation. However, this still shows that he does not completely trust the police as being fully competent in doing their job and handling a situation, without having to

24 | P a g e explain this situation to the people they supposedly protect. At the same time, when viewing the police as moral guardians, the students should trust that the police always protects and upholds the same morals as the population does. The fact that they feel the need to question and even intervene with the activities of the police, shows that they don’t trust this at all. This is of course not the case with all the respondents, for example Hannah feels that you should obey the order, perhaps ask about the situation on the way in, but first and foremost listen to what the police says.

Hannah’s view however is not shared by the majority of the respondents but when asked about what the students think of the police in general, this is not reflected in their answers. They generally describe the police as useful, good and even necessary when talking about their role in society. Joel even continues on his earlier statement about the police not being there, by stating that in the events that they are there, for instance when providing security at events, they do their job well and he feels safer because of them.

5.2.3 “If I wouldn’t trust them, who would I trust then?”

Thus when reviewing the scenarios and the answers the respondents gave about what their reaction would be, one can conclude from the answers above that they do not have full confidence in the police as being competent to handle every situation. However, an image does emerge of the students trusting the police to do their jobs according to the same morals the students hold themselves. Michael, perhaps the student with the most critical view on the police’s actions in the scenarios, says:

“M: Yeah well of course I don’t think they’re evil, why would they be evil, that doesn’t really have to do with if I would call them right, what do you mean?

I: No, haha, true, but I mean, you wouldn’t call them and you would even get angry with them when asking you something, right?

M: Right, yeah

I: So then do you trust them, you know to handle situations, to do their job well?

M: But, yes, but of course, if I wouldn’t trust them then who would I trust then? They are here to protect us and they catch the bad guys, we can’t catch the bad guys but they can and I would get mad if they just tell me to do something but I don’t think they do anything wrong or anything” (Michael, 18)

So in this lies a certain distinction that was visible in most of the students’ answers. While they do not obey the police without any questions, they do think that the police is doing an

25 | P a g e important job and is making the right calls, at the right times. Simply put, they would just like to have a clearer picture of what the police are doing and they would even prefer if the police would be at the scene more often, giving them more confidence that they could intervene and not having to do that themselves. Hannah , who is herself interested in joining the police after she graduates high school, but is questioning whether or not she could do field work because of her height, even says:

“Well so yeah, I guess they will be intimidated [by me] because of the uniform, I mean the uniform is just, even now, like when ehh you see it in the streets, you admire it a little right? If I see someone in that uniform I trust them, don’t you? The uniform means he is doing the right thing.” (Hannah, 17)

Now while her view may be influenced by, of course, the fact that she is interested in joining the police herself, her view of the uniform and what it represents was shared amongst the other respondents. Zach described the uniform as awesome, Sam made a remark about how it looks cool and makes you want to obey faster, not because it’s intimidating, but because of how cool it looks. Naomi even went as far as calling the uniform sexy, while giggling, and when asked to elaborate said that while she would call it sexy, it also just made her feel positive towards the person wearing the uniform.

When it comes to Daniel’s story about how he came into contact with people

harassing a guy in the city centre, two respondents brought up this anecdote, seeing as how it happened quite recently. Michael and Jake said that because of that story, they felt like in the scenarios they would probably act in the way Daniel did, because of the outcome his story had. What is interesting about this, is that because of this story, their confidence in their own agency surpasses their confidence in the police, but meanwhile Daniel, when telling the anecdote in the interview, said:

“I: But you did yell to them you already called the cops, why?

D: Because I hoped they would believe it, if they hadn’t believed it and would have continued or came towards me, I would have ran like hell and find the nearest cop haha, like there is a station not far from there, I would be there in a second and start screaming”

This hypothetical storyline, however, did not make it into the anecdote when he was telling it to his friends, thus creating an almost false confidence in one’s own agency that his friends blindly copied.

26 | P a g e 5.2.4 Redefining the police

Finally, when exploring the students’ view on the police and their role in society, they were asked to redefine the police. While this was mostly meant as a fun exercise to further discover whether their feelings towards the police were more positive or negative, it turned out to be quite surprising and sometimes in contrast to the feelings worded above.

“So another word? If they are not the police? Jews? Hahaha, that’s what they call them right, in Utrecht and Rotterdam, they call them Jews because they hate them, haha the police is giving us a bad name” (Zach, 17)

This all of the sudden brought up a whole new topic, a whole new way of viewing the police, seeing as how they are in street-language made part of the same demographic group as the students themselves. Zach brought this up as a joke, but elaborated further on that he actually did think that he thought this was a huge problem and that something should be done about it:

“Haha no it was a joke, but I mean yeah what the hell, it’s weird right, I listen to rap sometimes and they keep saying Jews this, Jews that and I think no man you don’t mean Jews you mean the damn police and their stupid actions that are screwing you over” (Zach, 17)

It was quite unfortunate that Zach’s interview was among the last interviews I held, thus not being able to incorporate this issue into my questions in most of the interviews, but when reflecting upon what he said and how he earlier voiced mostly positive feelings towards the police, Zach explained that he didn’t mean that the police screw people over, he meant that they screw over criminals in the eyes of the criminals. Joel and Naomi did not seem bothered by this name in street-language at all, as they both made clear that they found the people saying that as being clearly stupid and not understanding what it meant at all.

For many of the respondents, it was quite the task to come up with words that would replace the word police, or even describe them. While they were thinking, most of the time out loud, it became clear that they were looking for positive words the majority of the time, murmuring about protectors, guardians or security, but in the mean time joking about terms like annoying, in the way or too strict. Zach for instance, said that while he would describe the police as guardians, if he had to think of a new name for them, but he could also think of some new rules for them. This included him thinking that maybe they should lighten up some more while on the job, and not be as strict about everything as they are right now, especially when it came to children.

27 | P a g e Zach was not alone in this, Sarah for instance said that the she would call the police ‘mosquitoes’ because they hover and sting everyone, including innocent people or people that are just hanging out with friends. Rebecca came up with calling them niksen (nothings), explaining that really they are not people, but completely neutral beings carrying out the law. Michael jokingly said that there was no other word to describe the police, because they are just the police, but when talking with his friends would call them po-po. In explaining the acronym, he said that it came from rap songs in which the police is never portrayed

positively, thus making po-po a swear word of sorts. Sam explained that if he would have to think of other words for police, he would just think of aspects the police has now:

“So maybe like ehm, uniform? Or guns? Gun-shooters, haha, handcoughs maybe, handcoughs users haha something like that? Clowns maybe? They also dress up haha, or maybe thiefcatchers yeah, thiefcatchers.” (Sam, 17)

Thus while first being unsure of another term, Sam went from describing the looks of a police officer, even going as far as comparing them to clowns, to ending up describing a positive part of the job of an officer, being catching the thieves in society. Sarah also came up with words describing this particular activity, calling them boevenjagers (thief-hunters) and, half-joking, protectors of old ladies.

This segment shows that while the students might have confidence in the police, and express that they feel that the police follow the same morals as they do, they implicitly do not just have such a positive image of this institution and its officers. Thus, when talking about the police and their role, the students show a conflicting opinion in which they do feel the police are a useful institution, but at the same time do not fully support everything they do and how they operate. With that knowledge, the next step in this thesis will be to put this view the students have on the police in perspective with the view that they have on the private security that stands in front of their school every day; the shomrim.

5.3.1 “Of course I would listen, he’s there for a reason”

When confronted with the same scenario as previously stated about a police officer telling the students to do something, without any explanation, but this time the police officer being replaced with a shomer (a Jewish private security guard, stationed outside Jewish locations), the answers of the students were quite different:

28 | P a g e “Yes I would [obey the shomer], because yeah well that’s what you do, right. You know what I mean, it’s just the way things go, they know when something dangerous is going on, they’re not there for fun, it’s what I’ve been told a million times and I know it’s true.” (Michael, 18)

This statement shows that, while he would get angry at a police officer for asking the exact same thing of him, Michael would respond to and obey the shomer without hesitation. In almost all of the students’ answers, there was this sort of naturalness about the obeying of anything a shomer said. Nobody hesitated in stating that they would go inside, or when asked by a shomer would watch a bag. When asked to explain why, Zach for instance stated that it would simply be the logical thing to do, because the shomer is there for a reason. Jake elaborated on how he has been told since he was four, because he went to a Jewish primary school as well, that one should always listen to the shomer first and foremost. He even recalls the teacher saying that in any situation, the shomer overrules what your teachers say, what your parents say and even what the police says:

“I: What the police says? Those were the instructions? But how, like did they give an example? J: Yeah you know, I mean no not really an example, just I mean when something happens, you should look at the shomer for what to do, he knows the place but this was before everything there is now you know, the police wasn’t standing there all the time.

I: So now it’s different?

J: Maybe, I mean I guess, I don’t know, when we have an exercise or something you still look at them first, because they are there for the security you know and then I know if it’s real or an excercise, the police is just there I think for when something really happens or to scare people off with the weapons I guess.” (Jake, 17).

Now here is something interesting going on, Jake was actually told when he was little that the shomer overrules everyone, including the police. While this was said to him in a time where the police was not stationed outside the schools yet, he still upholds these values today. A similar feeling was voiced by Naomi, when asked about the shomrim (plural of shomer) and how she felt about them in front of the school. She told an anecdote about a shomer actually getting into a verbal argument with a police officer and she remembered feeling very much annoyed at the police officer, thinking that he was getting in the way of the shomer doing his job: making sure the students were safe. The relationship between the police and the shomrim was also something Sarah brought up in talking about whether or not she would obey the shomrim; she said that of course she would and made the connection between this question and the question earlier about the police, saying that this was a weird

29 | P a g e question because the two were so different:

“It’s just really not the same, they are not the police, they’re here just for us, they’re not some random people, when they tell me something I know it’s for real because I know they are for real.” (Sarah, 17).

What this statement shows is that, while respecting the police, they are there for everybody. The shomrim, so Sarah says, are there just for the students and their safety and this makes them ‘for real’. This is a sentiment that more of the respondents had, Daniel for instance said that he saw the shomrim as friends and even looked up to them like older brothers. While this may sound strange, it’s less odd when keeping in mind that the boys in the group of

respondents are likely to become shomrim themselves, if they choose to do so. Joel pointed out in his interview that he was already training to become a part of the shomrim, learning combat skills at a special training for Jewish youth that is being taught by shomrim. This already made him very confident in his own abilities to protect people and when he spoke of the shomrim it was with an admiration and a full trust that they could handle practically any situation.

This admiration was not just reflected in answers the boys gave, for example Rebecca said that she always tried to greet the shomrim to let them know she thought they were doing a good job, but also to later talk with her friends about how a certain shomer laughed at her and that definitely meant he was flirting with her. As with the answers about police uniforms, the word sexy was heard more than once in the answers the girls gave about the shomrim. However the admiration goes further than just a crush, it seems, because the girls also expressed an ambition to work alongside the shomrim, being able to help them do their job from a far by for instance controlling the cameras that hang around the school.

5.3.2 The importance of acquaintance

“He’s my brother’s friend, of course we say hi or he yells at me heeey how is <brother>” (Hannah, 17) For almost all of the respondents, the shomrim have become a part of their life and almost a social group that intertwines with their other social groups. For example, Hannah’s brother is in the shomrim, while Joel himself is already being trained by the shomrim, which is also the case for Daniel and Zach. Sarah’s sister is dating a shomer and Rebecca’s father has a leading role in the BLEW organisation. When asked about the distinction in seeing the shomrim as peers or as security personnel, the respondents often had difficulty wording their exact

30 | P a g e relationship. Almost all the respondents started out by stating that they saw the shomrim as security, standing in front of the school every day to protect them, but then while explaining started shifting towards explanations that made them sound more like peers. In describing how she saw a shomer, Sarah said:

“Yeah a guard, definitely haha he is literally standing in front of the door, he makes sure nothing happens, he guards the school right? And he stands there every day and he knows us, he even knows most of us by name and I have never heard the police say hi to me once, so the shomrim are you know, they’re nicer and I want to talk to them if it wouldn’t mess with their job and I see them sometimes at shul [synagogue] and then we chat.” (Sarah, 17)

Similar answers to the one above were given by almost every respondent, which paints an interesting picture of personally knowing the people that are responsible for your security. This personal connection however, did not seem to diminish any confidence the students had in the fact that the shomrim would be able to protect them. On the contrary, Sam for example stated that he knew the shomrim and therefore knew that they would do anything to protect him. Michael made the comparison with being out at night and getting in a fight with strangers, you might expect the police to break up the fight, but you can fully expect your friends that are with you to protect you against the strangers, even if that means fighting back and putting themselves in danger.

Zach, who is training to become a shomer, talked about his relationship with the shomrim as if he was already their co-worker, using ‘we’ instead of ‘them’ in his answers. He explained how they were standing there for their little brothers and sisters, for their friends and for the people they knew. He even went as far as saying the shomrim are keeping the Jews secure, because they actually care about the Jewish community, indicating that this was not the case with the police officers or state troopers.

It is also interesting to note that Sarah, when describing the police as ‘mosquitoes’, was then asked to describe the shomrim in relation to those ‘mosquitoes’:

“I think then hmm haha, if they would be mosquitoes I guess the shomrim would be the bees, because they don’t go around stinging everybody, they just get supermad when somebody messes with us or with them, right.” (Sarah, 17)

In sum, the shomrim are viewed as both security personnel and as almost friends by the respondents, or at least friendly. This however does not make them feel less safe around

31 | P a g e them, or make them diminish their role as security personnel. Surprisingly it has a

contradictory effect to that, making the respondents feel safer and feel like they are being protected by people that actually care about their safety.

5.3.3 “Well this might sound weird..”

Although the respondents talked quite positively about the police and even more,

overwhelmingly positively about the shomrim, this did not yet reflect on how they perceived their security as being guaranteed by either. To reflect on this, the respondents were given various photographs of different situations, in which police, state troopers, shomrim or a combination of the three were present. They were then asked to grade how secure they would feel in that situation from one to ten and explain.

Interesting was, that almost all of the respondents rated the situation in which no security personnel at all, as quite safe. They thought they would be secure, because if there were no people there, the risk of something happening would probably be extremely low. They even compared it to the situation at their school, Sam for example stating that if there’s no security at all, like the case is at normal schools, then the risk must be even lower than on regular schooldays for Maimonides. Joel had a similar view, even rating the situation in which there was no security personnel as a zero out of ten.

However, when shomrim were placed into the picture, and no other security measures, the grades the students gave variated heavily. Sarah explained:

“Okay so there’s just shomrim here right? I mean then yeah, I would feel good here, yeah yeah secure, I would feel like it’s just a normal day and they’re there, so nothing would really bother me you know? So eh yeah a ten I think?” (Sarah, 17)

This statement shows that just the presence of the shomrim invokes a certain feeling of security, almost a sense of normalness in the way that to Sarah it just feels normal that the shomrim are there. But when presented with a picture of the shomrim and the police being present, Sarah thought for a while and said that while it may sound weird, she would actually feel like that situation was less safe than the situation with just the shomrim. She said that the police made her feel like something was wrong, whereas the first picture just seemed like a normal situation to her. Jake elaborates on this same feeling:

32 | P a g e with the shomrim you just showed me, I said a 9 right? I mean yeah I think maybe that’s also an 8 then, or maybe just the 9, it’s weird because with the shomrim it just feels like there’s nobody but also that there’s somebody protecting me, if you know what I mean.” (Jake, 17)

What becomes clear from this statement, and from other statements the respondents made, is that it’s difficult for the students to distinguish the situation in which no security personnel is present and one where there is just shomrim. Naomi described the situation without any security personnel as nothing special, grading it with a seven out of ten, and the situation with just shomrim as safe, grading it an eight out of ten.

When adding the state troopers to the pictures, a whole new response emerged, in which the respondents often started out by mentioning that this is how the situation is right now:

“M: Ah yeah so this is what I see every morning haha except for the police car, the car usually doesn’t stand on the curb like that, but yeah I guess this is normal and if I would have to say how safe I felt normally it would probably be a high number because I don’t feel scared.

I: Okay, but if you approached this situation and had to grade how safe you felt and not how un-scared you feel, let’s say if you compare approaching this situation as compared to going to the Jumbo [supermarket].

M: Well then yeah there are no people like that there haha so yeah no I would be a little shocked by all these people and the state troopers with their uniforms, yeah that would be like a four or a three probably.” (Michael, 18).

Thus, Michael showed that he had become used to the situation being the way it is, but apart from that he did elaborate on the fact that the state troopers presence would make him question how safe he would be in that situation. When asked about just the shomrim

however, he did not exhibit feelings like that and, even more interesting, when the shomrim were taken out of the picture he was talking about in the quote above (in which all three security measures were present), he rated the situation as feeling ‘a lot less comfortable’ than before. The reason for this, he said, was that if the shomrim were there, at least he could ask them what was going on and expect a real answer, the shomrim for sure being the first people he would approach in such a situation.

Zach and Sam both separately said that the situation with just the state troopers being present, made them feel opgefokt(not at ease) and gestressed (stressed out) and that they would rate it as a one or two. When shomrim were added to the picture, Sam still said he would feel opgefokt, but immediately remarked that he would ask them for an explanation,

33 | P a g e something that he did not bring up as a possibility with just the state troopers being there. Zach even said that he wouldn’t feel gestressed anymore when the shomrim were there too, but could not really explain why he felt that way, saying that he just thought that if the

shomrim were there, they would be people he knew and also knew what would’ve been going on.

5.3.4 “The only difference is…”

When elaborating on the role of the state troopers and/ or police in the pictures, and why the respondents grading them as they did, it became clear that they almost all made one specific distinction: weapons. Rebecca said about this subject:

“R: Yeah okay so both the situations [with just police & with just shomrim] I would rate yeah as pretty chill haha, but yeah also like safe you know, the only difference is if something happens I mean, the police have guns right, the shomrim don’t.

I: So does this influence how secure they make you feel? Do you think they’re still able to protect you? R: Ehh yeah, well a little, I think maybe I wouldn’t have noticed it if the police wouldn’t also be there and when I was younger I never looked at it, but yeah now I think about it maybe it is safer that the police have guns, but it doesn’t really feel that way, you know what I mean?” (Rebecca, 17).

This was a thought that more respondents voiced, Joel even reflected on his own training, talking about how they were learning combat skills and even how to disarm people, but not how to use weapons. When the subject was brought up, Daniel, Naomi, Michael and Rebecca each suggested very easily that the shomrim should have weapons, going as far as arguing that that would make the police or state troopers obsolete. It’s interesting however, that even without weapons the respondents still saw the shomrim as guaranteeing their feeling of security more than for example the state troopers, but with weapons they viewed the shomrim more as actually being able to protect them in every situation.

The issue of the shomrim not being able to wear weapons, due to the law, was pointed out by the interviewer, but this did not seem like a very large issue to the respondents. They responded by saying things in the nature of so what and they questioned why no exception could be made to the law if it would benefit them. Naomi even said that the shomrim should just do it and that the police cost so much money, so why would the government want to waste that if they could just let the shomrim do the job.

In sum, the presence of the shomrim, the state troopers and the police, was regarded by the respondents as highly influential of their perception of security. The state troopers