Beyond shocking
Did they do this to arrest a murderer, a gangland criminal, a cocaine trafficker, a rapist or paedophile? No, they did it to arrest a woman of 67 who failed four times to turn up in court to face charges of having words with her neighbour.
She lives alone and must have been terrified out of her wits when she saw those policemen demolishing her wall to gain entry to her yard.
How in God’s name did they even think it reasonable or acceptable to demolish her wall to get in? Their IQ can’t be so very low that they thought it easier and more rational than climbing over it.
They could easily have climbed over it but instead demolished it, so the only conclusion we can possibly reach is that this is an act of malice against this woman who gave them trouble.
Labour policemen were behaving appallingly badly already under the previous government. Expect more and worse now that Malta is Taghhom u ghandhom il-power.
This report in The Times of Malta says that questions have been sent to the police communications office. Oh, indeed. If there has ever been a reason to get on the phone immediately to the new Commissioner of Police, Suor Emanuela Mallia’s personal appointee, the notary Peter Paul Zammit, it is this.
This is the first police catastrophe under his watch. He had better ruddy well do some explaining.
X’ARUKAZA. Breaking down walls to arrest old ladies who quarrelled with their neighbours. Whatever next.
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Did the policemen do that by banging their heads against the wall?
The police wanted to show this older French lady as to how tough they are and will take no “guff” from her.
This kind of act and behaviour reminds me of Monty Python’s legendary Spanish Inquisition skit for some strange reason.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixgc_FGam3s
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130601/local/Police-break-down-wall-to-arrest-Frenchwoman.472041
Today Edward Zammit Lewis launched the Global Residence Programme to attract foreigners to take up residence in Malta.
He should have mentioned that foreigners should not buy an ordinary house but invest in a fortified castle, just in case the police come knocking on their door.
This police aggression will surely strenghten the Global Residence Programme and attract large numbers of buyers of property in Malta, especially from France.
What do they learn at the Police Academy? Why there is no ongoing training for the policemen? Why no basic education is required to work as a policeman?
More fitting to a third world country.
There are bad policemen and there are good policemen.
But what about those who lead them?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130601/local/Police-break-down-wall-to-arrest-Frenchwoman.472041
“In 2007, a police sergeant had, on appeal, been sentenced to a four-month jail term suspended for a year for having slightly injuring in Paceville after she acted in an aggressive manner.”
Pay-back time ?
I think it’s not the same woman.
According to timesofmalta.com, she is the same woman.
Arukaza, tabilhaqq.
Imma, taf int, dik is-sinjura “barranija”. Jew taghmel li nghidulha ahna, inkella titlaq lura lejn pajjiza”.
Il-vera igeghluk tisthi tghid li int Malti/ja.
The beating they gave this same old lady in 2007 was even worse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hDMR2ABI_0
Tal-misthija.
Are you serious is this the same lady? What is her lawyer doing about it?
None of them were in shape so it was easier for them to go through the wall, rather than over it.
The shape of things to come.
It is incredible that the police are criticised for enforcing a court order against an accused person who repeatedly defied court summons.
[Daphne – David, if I were you I would test for Asperger’s Syndrome. You strike me as a classic case. And I am not being offensive here, just helpful. I know your literal comments are literally meant, because you make them regularly and I can work out when somebody is being facetious and when they are not, and that is exactly what strikes me as needing further investigation. You are deeply literal and you genuinely do not understand the nuances of context at all.]
The problem is not that they were trying to take her in. At the end of the day, she was summoned to court and failed to turn up four times, so obviously something should have been done. But knocking down her wall? When all they had to do was get a frikkin stool and jump over?
Do you remember The Fast Show? The ‘Fat Sweaty Coppers’ sketch? Jump? They were probably just taking a breather and leaning against the wall.
The Maltese version of the Keystone Cops. Just as incompetent – however, no humour and really vicious.
Gradually but very evidently we are going back to those terrible times where some people, including members of our police force, believed that they were above the law.
Let us not be fooled; it does not happen all at once. It is a gradual deterioration in the rule of law.
During the last two months we have seen the most outrageous public appointments were incompetent Labour supporters have been appointed in top positions not because of their experience or academic credentials but because of their political affiliation.
We have seen ministers bluntly breaking the code of ethics, continuing with their private practice and appointing relatives in their secretariat.
Meanwhile ministers were given a free hand, employing as many people as they liked from outside the public service.
We had one minster talking in parliament about the need to start “controlling the media”.
While this was going on there was some fuss but it soon dwindled. It seems that standards differ from what is acceptable under a Nationalist government and what is acceptable under a Labour government.
This might well be the beginning of a slippery slope which would take us back to the 1980s nightmare. We better wake up and do something today. Tomorrow might be too late.
Thugs. Same old same old.
Exclusive photo of the notorious Inspector who lead the police through the breach, chosen solely because he can speak French.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Louis_de_funes_1978_ws_1-zoom.jpg
I shall no longer comment as David S , so as to avoid any possible confusion with David
Behaving, in a way, like a dictatorship country. Whatever is next?
Occasionally I post some of the commentaries to FB. I have decided to stop doing that because my foreign friends really think that I’m coming from a third world country. This behaviour is shameful.
Our Keystone cops get their cue from uniform-wearing thugs in the US: Act tough with the weak so the strong may fear you.
As for IQ, the lower the better for cutting edge policing, what with the law being an ass ‘n’ all that.
I hope Peter the Paul dresses them up in balaclavas, apart from their Robocop attire – their safety and security is top priority: old ladies can be very vengeful.
Prosit Peter the Paul. Five stars, already.
These are the same officers who normally do not bother to serve summons personally but prefer calling people up and who regularly do not manage to find those accused (typically men) of reneging on their maintenance payments to their children.
You need only attend a sitting presided over by Magistrate Antonio Vella to see for yourself.
After many years working in court, all I can say is that the police are typically spiteful and vengeful to women who are not submissive when confronted by police authority. You should know …
[Daphne – Indeed, I do.]
Peter Paul Zammit is not a notary, he’s a Legal Procurator. Or PL in Maltese. That’s three years of law, not the minimum 4 years for a notary or 6 years for a lawyer – as in the BA LLD system.
This French lady should be thankful that in this tentative relapse to the methods in vogue during the MLP days she was not also tear gassed, shot in the back by SPAS automatic weapons, beaten up inside the Police GHQ and unceremoniously dumped dead in some valley after official lies under oath of “escaping from police custody”
Bulldozer tactics, which go hand-in-hand with a “bull in a china shop” mentality, have been the hallmark of this new administration.
Too fat and unfit to climb over the wall.
They should have waited for her to come out of the house. She cannot stay inside forever. This is even the way they catch criminals in the US. This episode is beyond shocking.
Now this is the sort of case which merits a press conference by the Commissioner of Police with the identikits of the policemen who carried out this act and lots of reassurances that what we have here is not a new way of behaviour by the Pulizija Laburisti of some Malta Tana Lkoll regime.
This is what really worries the general public, not some in-fighting and account-settling within gangs.
In my opinion the police tried to force open the gate by kicking it. The wall was not strong enough.
One can also observe that the residence’s boundaries and gate are all covered with some stone coloured “shading” screen.
Jumping a seven-course wall may end in a sprained ankle.
The police did the right thing, to a person who did not obey court orders, and did not open up to them.
Your “nick” suits your comments.
When the police knocked at Daphne’s door after sunset, she opened the gate.
Is this French woman special?
Does my “nick” fit my comment now?
[Daphne – If I had been alone, like that other woman was, I would NOT have opened the gate.]
Gahan is being sarcastic.
They could have simply used a cordless grinder to cut off the gate lock. It’s faster and cheaper.
Shocking to say the least.
Gas down gol hajt.
I too have experience of this kind of Fourth World policing. Whilst I admire you for staying, I found the departures hall at MIA to be the best solution.
Really, Wasn’t there any other means to get to her door without making all this mess? Sure there was. This attitude is really horrendous and does give really bad image of our police force. What a shame! And who will pay for the mess?
I do not know if Malta’s finest are idiotic Keysone cops, cunning like Baldrick or just Macchiavellian..
Where the brain cells fail, the muscles take over.
What a shame. Tal-misthija.