The Police Commissioner should answer those questions – he owes it to the public
But then this is the flipside of giving me hell for every little thing – both are corrupt and abusive practices: pursuing those they dislike in defiance of the factual evidence, and failing to prosecute their good friends like John Dalli and somebody who assaults four policemen in a police station and then ‘makes the call’.
It was always bad – most of the trouble I had was under the previous government, which respected the separation of powers and left the police to their own devices, with the result that individual officers, including quite high-ranking ones, saw that as a licence to deploy their own personal agenda.
But now, it’s worse. The police under the previous system used a cloak of legality for their abusive behaviour. Now they don’t even bother with that. Failing to prosecute a man who assaults police officers – is that even allowed?
If it were a normal citizen who was assaulted, he would have been able to force the prosecution with a formal complaint. But those policemen are in a real bind. They are policemen themselves – how can they file a ‘kwerela’ with the Police Commissioner to force the prosecution when it is probably the Police Commissioner himself who has given the order for the man not to be prosecuted?
At least, that is what we have to conclude from the fact that he is refusing to answer the questions put to him by The Malta Independent.
I trust you understand the full implications of what is going on here. What we really need to know is the extent of the influence Police Minister Manuel Mallia has on the Police Commissioner. Does the Police Commissioner take orders from the Police Minister? If so, then things are set to get truly sleazy – or sleazier. Manuel Mallia, as one of Malta’s most prominent criminal defence lawyers for more than two decades, has a whole raft of Malta’s worst criminals as his (ex) clients.
If some unknown person has stopped the prosecution of this man who assaulted policemen, what else is he prepared to stop – investigation? Raids? Searches? Surveillance of known dealers?
This is not far-fetched. This is how we lived in the Golden Years of Labour: the police force with instructions that certain people (criminals all) were not to be touched, while the innocent were persecuted, locked up for 48 hours and roughed up for their political views or for putting up the price of commodities by five mils in defiance of a ‘price order’ from the government.
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http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-06-16/news/police-station-assault-charges-withdrawn-5489393664/
“For what I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me”. Job 3:25.
LET NOT THIS FEAR SHUT US DOWN; BUT WAKES US UP!
Could it be this one:
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/
This is terrible and scary.
Going fast back to Edward Scicluna`s Golden Years of Toto and Fusellu
16 il- Kazin PN u ( Eddie`s) dar privata jinharqu `minn`a few hot heads “– kriminal infahhar bhala eroj u “suldat ta` l – azzar“
`ton taz -zejt rahas 5mls.“ – “ petrol rahas 2c “
L – aqwa “ kontijiet orhos ghall – familja “
Quo vadis , Malta ?
Are those concerned nurturing a budding fusellu?
Some cases are more delicate than others.
“He confirmed that the charges were withdrawn but said he needed some time to decide what details could be released as this was “a delicate case.”
Mhux fl’interess tal-gvern, erm ups sorry, tal-poplu, no doubt!
What a farce.
“The Home Affairs Minister was not present in Parliament as he is abroad. As such, Minister for Tourism Edward Zammit Lewis was designated to answer his questions.”
And he did answer.
“Minister Zammit Lewis indicated that this question should be put forward to the Minister of Home Affairs.
Several other questions, including whether any quid pro quo has taken place in this case, or others like it, and reasons as to why this case was allowed to drop, were met with the reply “these questions should be put into writing and sent to Minister Manuel Mallia”.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-06-16/news/questions-regarding-dropped-charges-for-abuse-on-police-officers-remain-unanswered-5498634240/
With other business deals passing just under our noses, sanitising arrangements and totally unquestioned.
How utterly dead the Times of Malta and The Malta Independent.
How passive.
If journalism is meant to be what metacognition is to thinking, there is absolutely no journalism happening outside of Daphne’s blog and articles.
I am so disappointed with Malta.
Yes. My expectations are high.
Daphne surpasses them.
The rest is just a dulled circus.
A muted existence.
A voter mass numbed into a grinning silence.
There is a cog turning and what is visible is just the outer perimeter. The core, and all its links, is filthy.
I am totally disgusted at people’s lust, sloth, hypocrisy and greed.
And that is JUST what Joseph Muscat counted on:
people’s vices being stronger than any virtues.