Just read this shocking story of abusive wardens and one of their victims
The trouble with wardens – and this is a generalization which does not apply to every one of them – is that they tend to be pig-ignorant, have a low IQ and absolutely no knowledge of the law beyond their own narrow traffic sphere.
Yet many of them throw their weight around like nobody’s business, play the tyrant, and wield the power they don’t have with the attitude of Red Guards in China’s Cultural Revolution.
The abuse is such that people who know their rights (and their obligations) before the law, in situations where the wardens accosting them do not, have a choice between allowing themselves to be abused with no hope of redress or standing up for their rights and ending up in court on a trumped up report.
I have just read the shocking law report of Mario Mifsud (see link below) and his encounter with two clearly stupid, abusive wardens. Mifsud was wrong to admit to those charges and his lawyers gave him bad counsel if they advised him to do so. Once he admitted, the magistrate had no choice but to penalize him accordingly.
It is the wardens who were in the wrong here. They were worse than in the wrong. They perpetrated a gross abuse of power, and worse still, power they do not have.
Wardens do not have the power to detain people. They do not have the power to demand that people delete photographs, even if those photographs feature them. It is not against the law to take a photograph of a person in a public place. It is most particularly not against the law to take a photograph of a public officer (in this case, a warden) in a public place.
By chasing a man who had taken a photograph of them, forcing him to stop his car and then demanding that he deletes his photograph, it was the wardens themselves who broke the law.
When the man refused to delete the photograph, as he was within his rights to do, and they then tried to force him to wait while they called the police, those wardens abused their power in a far grosser way still.
It is they who should be arrested and charged. And they should be fired for incompetence, lack of knowledge of the law, abuse of power, threats, blackmail and chasing a private citizen who had taken a photograph which annoyed them for personal reasons.
This country is at times beyond belief.
What was Mario Mifsud expected to do – sit there in his car like a sucker waiting for the police to turn up, just because a couple of pig-ignorant, abusive wardens used this as a threat when he stood up for himself and refused to obey their abusive, illegal order to delete a photograph?
He was right to drive off. You don’t break the law by refusing to obey an official’s order that is in itself illegal. The illegality of an order renders it null and void.
That business about knocking a warden’s hand as he drove off is a farce. The woman almost certainly had her hand on the car trying to stop him from driving off – and again, that is abusive and illegal.
His defence on the spot was right: he had been given a ticket already for the contravention of driving while using his phone. He did not have to wait while the police were called.
Sickening. What is more sickening still are the unbelievably democratically challenged individuals commenting beneath the story on Times of Malta. Instead of recognising abuse of power by wardens and the police for what it is, they kowtow automatically to uniforms and officialdom, with a fulsome respect that is almost pathetic (and yet frightening) in its undertones of 1930s fascism.
Of course the warden must be right. She’s a warden. How dare a man know his rights, the law and refuse to give in to threats and abuse of power? The power of wardens and the police is absolute. Constitutional Court? What’s that for? European Court of Human Rights? Come again?
And most of them actually believe – like 18th-century islanders in some remote ocean – that when you take a photograph of somebody you have taken something from them and they have the right to prevent you/make you destroy it. They really do think that the law protects us from other people’s cameras in public spaces. Data Protection, they say, without even understanding the law. Unbelievable.
Let me spell it out, shall I? Anybody can take your picture anywhere. The only thing they can’t do is invade your home to take your picture, but if you invite them in and they take your picture, they’re free to do so. It is not against the law to take photographs of people, even if those people are private citizens.
The people commenting beneath this story on Times of Malta have clearly been unable to distinguish, as the law does, between the act of taking a picture and the act of publishing it. The law bars the publication of photographs of private citizens if they object to this publication. If a photograph of a private citizen is published and that private citizen files a complaint with the Data Protection Commissioner, the latter can levy penalties.
But it does not and cannot prevent those photographs being taken in the first place, as this is not a police state but a democracy.
And that is quite apart from the most obvious fact that wardens, more so wardens on duty, can in no way be considered private citizens. So not only can we take photographs of wardens, but we can also publish them.
29 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131217/local/popular-dj-accused-of-injuring-warden.499411#.UrYa8rB3sdU
Yes, and a great judgement to make the life of someone taking care of a person with special needs a little bit more difficult than it has to be.
So Norman Vella’s case has now set a precedent for the pig ignorant in this country to follow the undemocratic and abusive behaviour of their MLP mentors.
Peralta has also followed suit.
What’s with these people and their cover-up mentality? On a more alarming scale, we get Muscat & Co blaming the PN for the international humiliation caused by the sale of citizenship scheme.
It is truly a case of inverted morality where it is not the perpetrators who are condemned but the ones who catch them out. Scary.
Again, the only one who stood up to abusive Maltese law enforcement officers was our Daphne. She deserves a Gieh ir-Repubblika medal the size of a soup plate.
Not from Muscat & Co she won’t!
Not from any future NP government, she won’t, lest she be labeled ‘an extension of the NP’!
Too bad, she is owed so much more, but she deservedly has the highest award already, the endorsement of the sane minded public!
Naqbel 100% imma ma nafx kemm taccettaha kieku kellhom jaghtuhiela ghax nghiduha kif inhi Illum Gieh ir-Repubblika saret dahk fil-wicc.
Not a Gieh Ir-Repubblika as it is worth less, we need to invent a new National award that truly gives worth to those who have truly earned it.
I second that without hesitation.
I told you about 42 trillion times. Daphne should get the EU’s Sakharov Prize.
Brava, bravissima.
Pig-ignorant and often butt ugly, although they generally cannot do much about either.
Many tend to range between being overweight and grossly overweight and extremely shabby to look at, when they are not belching out cigarette smoke. They fail to command respect, but tend to instill fear in most just because they are seen as being obstinate SOBs who are more intent on dishing out fines than educating the driver.
This is however is to be expected when their employer, which may be one of several (three) private companies, probably takes a cut from each ticket that is issued. Please correct me if I am wrong.
I have known the police to be much fairer and more reasonable with minor infringements. Yet not the same can be said of the plague of green jacketed Wirdien that has been unleashed on Malta, and who mostly tend to get paid for doing nothing. The least they could do is try to look smart while doing it.
I understand that wardens have to sit for a very simple test when applying.
It appears that those who pass the test are failed.
I hope Mr Mifsud has the time and courage, and a good lawyer to help him, to follow up this incident with civil and constitutional redress proceedimgs in terms of Articles 5 and 10 of the Europran Convention on Human Rights.
It is only by vigorously pursuing these rights that such tribal attitudes to public office can be changed.
Baxxter, agree with you 100%
…so get out your cameras and fire away!
Persons in authority as wardens and police officers must be respected by everyone. Your comments are dangerous as they incite people to defy persons in authority. Obviously, like all other persons, they intentionally or otherwise tend to abuse their authority. However the remedy is to challenge or report those who abuse of their authority to the relevant higher authorities and not to “take the law in one’s own hand”. Besides taking photos of private persons without their consent can be seen as violating their privacy.
[Daphne – You’d have been a very happy man in Nazi Germany, David. I am not even going to bother with your fascist sentiments. I’ll just concentrate on the last bit: wardens are not private persons. They are public officers.]
So according to David, people should suffer the abuse and complain later. Screw that. Let the abusive party do the reporting. Nobody has to obey an illegal order. We are not puppets in a dictatorship, or at least not yet.
Respect has to be deserved by the person having the authority. It is not and should not be automatic at least if the person who is being espected to do the said respecting has a modicum of intelligence.
Additionally, this case clearly involves an abuse of authority, which is not infinite, even for persons having much more authority than wardens.
The fact that the accused here admitted to the offence is unfortunate as from the events it is pretty clear that if the wardens involved were abusing their authority and he was right to stand up to them initially.
Anyone who respects the authority of somebody who is abusing his or her position is obeying illegitimate orders and ultimately helping to create a monster.
The accused admitted all the string of charges including those of injuring the warden. So his conviction was justified. His punishment in this case was rather mild.
Oh God, I do not know you but you are a real know-it-all prat aren’t you? You probably go through life telling everyone that you told them so, even when you are patently in the wrong, and then wonder why people do not like you.
I tried to comment on the spelling and grammar mistakes in that article, but my comment was dismissed. More worrying is that the mistakes were not corrected and in one case changed to something even worse. I had remarked that:-
“Alicia Ciancio and Maria Mifsud had sropped their client” – originally sropped was dropped. What is the meaning of sropped anyway?
“He took a picture of one of the wardens using her mobile phone.” – Did he actually steal one of the wardens’ mobile and take a photo with it?
And then later ….. “He drove off, they chased him and asked him to delete his photo.” – So they chased him to have him delete the photo from their own mobile phone?
I had asked The Times if they have someone checking for spelling and grammar mistakes before publishing. It was obviously ignored.
My question is why do you bother with Times of Malta at all?
It has been months since I logged in to their site and I must say I’m all the happier for it. At the very least I avoid all the moronic comments and the shabby grammar.
The Malta Independent is a much better source of news than Times of Malta. Better written, more impartial and less stupidity.
https://www.facebook.com/mario.mifsud/posts/10151932772679480
Dear Daphne once was not enough. Two days later she came to my place of work to detain me as SHE HEARD ON THE NEWS that my licence was suspended. That is how the wardens administer justice. This time I called the police and she was detained. Now I am waiting to see what action they will be taking.
These people are exactly like that mass of ignorant hunters who assume they can break the law, while the law-abiding person taking their photo while in-the-act should somehow be punished, legally or otherwise!
Faced with a charge of infringement of the provisions of the law, the citizen IMMEDIATELY, there and then, has the right 1.to defend himself, 2. collect evidence intended to prove his innocence. This includes the taking of photographs.
The courts have accepted photographic proof, say in the case of a collision. So it will only be fair and just for the citizen to use the same medium of photography to “collect” evidence relevant to the proof of his innocence.
The attitude, behaviour and actions of certain wardens calls for disciplinary action, just to stop short of saying PROSECUTION.
Certain problems get worse. On two occasions I had reason to plead my case at the sitting appointed after I had been served with a traffic offence ticket. On both occasions the Lawyer conducting the proceedings confronted me with an arrogant attitude of “YOU KNAVE THOU KNOWEST NOUGHT. TAKE HIM TO THE PILLORY”.
These were the experiences of one versed in the proceedings, the subject and the law. I could only imagine what it is like for JOHN CITIZEN with no acquaintance neither to the law nor to the proceedings.
This happened under the PN too and it will continue to happen under any administration.
Unfortunately yes so long as the standard for recruiting wardens remain so low. In my experience, most wardens are would-be police officers who failed to get into the corp. You can just imagine what kind of qualifications they have.
Dear Daphne, I am Mario Mifsud’s father and I would like to say thanks for understanding and publishing your comments in favour of my son.
Actually Mario is a single parent and he does not only love but adores his children especially the one with special needs. When he was leaving the scene after he received the ticket from the warden he told her he had to go to bring his special needs son and was in a hurry and the warden replied, I do not care about your son, and so Mario said stand aside as you have already given me the ticket and you are calling the police which you have no right to do.
She said, I want my photo deleted as she had a mobile phone coming down her driving helmet in that photo.
At the law courts the magistrate, being a woman, should have at least some compassion after Mario asked her that his special needs son is dependent on him all the time and the magistrate said now I have given the verdict. I think the true justice is in God’s hands only.
http://www.facebook.com/maltawardens