Do you remember the episode with the elderly lady and the 2-kilo Yorkshire terrier at the beach last August?
Grace Scicluna, 66, has now been charged with refusing to obey the orders of police officers, resisting them, and obstructing them in the line of their duty.
She was summoned to the Courts of Justice for the first hearing in her prosecution on 6 February. She is due back in court on 10 April.
This is the case in which, last August, she was swimming with her two-kilo Yorkie on a board, when a warden rushed (waddled?) to the water’s edge to order her up because no dogs were allowed on the beach.
When Ms Scicluna pointed out that she was not on the beach but in the sea, and the Yorkie wasn’t even in the sea but on a board, and carried on swimming, the warden radioed for police back-up. A car-load of police officers arrived and Ms Scicluna and her Yorkie were hauled out of the sea and over the rocks. Ms Scicluna fainted, but not before she heard one of the police officers say, “U ejja, issa b’anzjana u nofs kelb se naqbdu?”
An ambulance was then called and Ms Scicluna was given assistance by the paramedics.
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http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/08/the-police-have-given-their-side-of-the-old-lady-yorkie-story-they-didnt-attack-the-old-lady-the-old-lady-attacked-them/
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/08/dora-the-yorkie-police-attack-an-update/
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/08/please-read-this-the-lady-with-the-yorkshire-terrier-writes-in/
The police state is creeping in once again.
Friday night I was parked in front of a hotel waiting for colleagues from a conference. A traffic policeman comes up asking me to move the car because taxis should wait in their bay.
When I explained I am not a taxi he demanded I move otherwise he will issue a ticket for offering a taxi service without a licence. If I drive a 1979 Mercedes I must necessarily be offering a taxi service.
Police state alright. We are again in times in which a uniform can mean a licence for abuse.
Domine dirige nos et cave canem dominusque.
Shouldn’t that be dominumque?
Assuming you mean “Lord direct us and beware the dog and master”, master is also in the accusative.
You just reminded me of the old RCA Victrola ad, with the dog listening to the music of the victrola, captioned ‘His master’s voice’. (Surely dates me)
Hope I haven’t demeaned your intellectual comment.
Thanks for that.
But then the police and wardens block the Mriehel By Pass for the horse races and that’s just fine and dandy.
The police are just silly stooges of the regime.
It is mission accomplished for Astrid Vella.
Good to know that wardens are well trained and know to call for backup in such dangerous situations rather than attempting to deal with it on their own.
We should count ourselves lucky half our police force wasn’t mauled by the ferocious two kilo yorkie.
Lucky it didn’t happen to be a five kilo poodle, otherwise they would have had to call in the armed forces to help defuse the situation.
A 100kg poodle is running the country.
Heqq, what do you expect, her arrogance was supreme and the wardens did their duty. It’s when you bribe civil servants to tamper with your electricity meter that the police don’t prosecute you because the prime minister intervenes.
We’ve become an “Alice in Wonderland” country but without the fun.
What arrogance? I was prudent enough NOT to swim in the swimmers’ area and went away from the people and beyond the prohibited zone. I had a nervous breakdown. My brother was murdered and in the year BOTH my parents died and when this incident happened I had just buried my father.
I was trying to keep away from the police so my little Yorkie will not bite them. I was more scared for them than for myself. What if she bite one of them? They would have put my precious dog down.
Dora [my dog] never bit anyone but at that moment she wanted to tear 4 police apart to defend me. That’s her instinct. She didn’t care how small she was. She felt danger, she felt my fear and my little dog wanted to protect me.
What’s all this fuss? I promised the police inspector I will never go swimming with my dog again, ever.
So the police won’t let this go, but they will close an eye for the 1,000 or so criminals who corrupted Enemalta officers, because “Jo” told them to.
Thanks, Clueless, let’s see what’s going to happen in court now. Really ma niflax ghal dan l-inkwiet u spejjez legali.
And John Dalli BA, got away scot-free. What a country!
The police force has been reduced to waitering and to chasing Yorkshire terriers.
Is this the warning for the coming summer?
Yes, to all little old ladies who dare to stand their ground against the out of control authorities who only go after the weak and powerless.
Another episode worth noting is that on April Fool’s day the police will be taking to court, on behalf of some FKNK hunters, about half a dozen people who commented on Times of Malta’s comments board, expressing an opinion against someone taking the law into his own hands and destroying a CABS drone seeking evidence of illegal hunting and trapping to assist the police.
These brave “men with a gun” felt threatened by this expression of opinion that they considered abusive. And the police force obliges them by issuing summons.
[Daphne – To say nothing of the way Times of Malta cooperated by giving the police their IP numbers so that they could be traced, which it should never do unless the police have a court order. The police no more have a right to demand IP numbers from Times of Malta and websites like this than they do to demand phone numbers and related info from telecoms providers without a ruling from the court. Times of Malta should take the rap as the publisher and be sued itself, rather than handing out the IP numbers of the people who write comments which it publishes. When the police tried the same thing with me, also on behalf of the hunters who were offended by a comment posted by a reader, I politely sent them to hell with an explanation of how the law does not permit them to arbitrarily request IP numbers from the owners of websites/Internet service providers on the strength of random complaints from members of the public, that this is OBVIOUSLY abusive, and that there is no way the request for such information can be justified without a court ruling and proper justification. A hunter feeling offended is no such justification.]
Manwel Mallia had an extra ‘tofija’ at the Police Headquarters when Pietru Pawl ‘il-laqghi’ informed him about this unbeatable catch.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/comment/blogs/37287/when_all_fails_it_is_time_for_the_maltese_to_speak_up
Your comments about the EU being a failed experiment may be true, Saviour Balzan. But we are also aware that that short, fat Portuguese man sent your friend John Dalli packing, and if the European Commission had its way Dalli would now be the subject of a police investigation and not in the process of ousting a cabinet minister.
So much for all your ranting about corruption!
The upright Saviour Balzan had to mention Kessler of course.
Pity he did not comment on the sale of passports scheme and its ‘approval’ by the toothless EU.
Was his hero John Dalli part of the ‘theatrics that is the European Union’?
I wish someone would try hauling me about one day.
Will the Yorkie be called in court to give his evidence?
When Norman Vella was arbitrarily arrested and went to court against the authorities, the prime minister’s lapdog went to court to defend the case in person for the police force.
It’s a Yorkshire terrier. Court officials and Police officers find it hard enough to understand English. Can you imagine Tyke?
Police officer – “You confirm det you were on beach when sequent events heppin – woman take you to sea, woman resist police, woman faint?”
Yorkshire terrier – “T’beach y’say lad? I saw nowt, I ‘eard nowt, and I didn’t do owt.”
P.O. – “But you confirm you are woman’s dog?”
Y.T – “Right, sherts off, woof woof! I’ll knock yer ‘ead clean off yer ruddy shoulders, woof woof!”
This lady would have been better off corrupting 10 Enemalta officers to steal Euro 30 million worth of electricity per annum for the last two years by having a tampered smart meter installed on her property, because the prime minister himself would have given her an amnesty against any criminal prosecution.
Oh what brave policemen we have. What valiant heroes against dangerous criminals and lapdogs.
Other great recent achievements by the police force and the judiciary:
A football commentator is found guilty of defamation for calling a referee a ‘figolla tas-sena’.
And a 16 year old was found guilty of defaming Silvio Zammit for calling him a clown during a protest. The teenager was eventually acquitted on appeal.
We really have no idea what freedom of speech is in this country, and the police seem to really have nothing better to do other than persecuting people for taking full advantage of their rights.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-03-24/news/football-commentator-fined-for-calling-referee-figolla-tas-sena-4366860289/
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140324/local/teenager-acquitted-after-calling-circus-organiser-a-clown.512019