Another top comment
Posted by La Redoute:
Another point that seems to have been missed: the Police Commissioner was on the phone with the minister’s driver, who happens to be one of his constables, and with the prime minister’s communications man at the same time.
Which cap was Sheehan wearing – that of police constable and subordinate to the Police Commissioner, or that of minister’s driver and subordinate to the minister?
And who did the Police Commissioner think he was speaking to – a colleague on the same team, his cousin’s driver, one of his subordinates in the corps (for whose behaviour he is accountable) or a criminal suspect?
The three-way conversation should never have taken place.
The Police Commissioner should have spoken to Sheehan strictly only as one of his constables who had become involved in a suspected crime: “I’m placing you under arrest.”
Yet the Police Commissioner spoke to him as an equal and Constable Sheehan did too. Not once do we hear him say ‘Sir’, which is the standard obligatory form of address in every sentence that a subordinate says to the Commissioner.
The prime minister’s communications man should not have called the Police Commissioner during what should have been an investigation. It was completely out of order.
The Police Commissioner should not have taken that call from the prime minister’s communications man, but only from the prime minister himself, and Kurt Farrugia, if he had any understanding of the separation of powers, would have rung off once he understood that he was intruding on a conversation between the police commissioner and a criminal suspect.
The prime minister’s communications man wasn’t trying to establish the facts. He and the prime minister were trying to find a storyline that fits Muscat’s agenda (mhux jien; tort ta’ l-ohrajn), just as they did in their time at Super One and Maltastar. They know no better. This country is in serious trouble.
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Which reminds me:
“Opposition leader Joseph Muscat this evening demanded the resignation of Edgar Galea Curmi, the head of the prime minister’s private secretariat, after the Commissioner of Police revealed he had received a phone call from him about the arrest of Chris Engerer, Cyrus’s father.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110726/local/galea-curmi-explains-as-muscat-demands-his-resignation.377456
Remember we are talking about a government and its entourage who do not see any conflict of interest for themselves but are always vigilant to find it in others. They have made hat juggling an art.
It is clear that by becoming the minister’s driver PC Sheehan was a cut above the rest and the Police Commissioner demonstrates this even by the fact that he does not seem to be verifying anything Sheehan says with the police in charge of the scene.
This is gross misconduct and utterly irresponsible.
The Police Commissioner sounds as if he had already spoken to Sheehan. He does not sound surprised.
He was just confirming what was said probably in a call made earlier.
He did not question what Sheehan meant by “tajtu zewg tiri”. If someone told me that, I would imagine that the guy was shot twice.
As things happened, Kurt Farrugia was acting as the Department of Information of PC533 Paul Sheehan.
La Redoute has made a very succinct analysis of a situation which has gone out of control.
Was this the first time that the police commissioner spoke to Sheehan that night? My impression is that the police commissioner had already spoken to him Sheehen for a sequence of events. Why did he need to set up a simultaneous conversation with both Sheehan and Kurt again?
Was Manuel Mallia next to him when this conversation took place?
This stinks.
Yet another point that’s been missed: the police minister has no business giving a press conference about a crime, more so when his own driver is involved, and even more so when his minor daughter is a bystander.
Communcation with the media about criminal activity should be handled by the police and not by the government – especially when a minister’s driver is involved.
Manuel Mallia has usurped the role of the police. Zammit cooperated openly with him and with the prime minister’s tool. All of them should go, taking that stunted jerk of a prime minister with them.
No one has yet explained why Sheehan was not handcuffed immediately when the police arrived at the scene of the crime, and taken to the police lock up.
The press footage shows him wandering about, smoking a fag, removing things from the boot of his car (after having presumably first removed the GM plates), chatting to his girlfriend’s brother Inspector Gabriel Micallef (head of the Drug Squad) and to Pawlu L-Machine Gun, talking on his phone, and God knows what else.
Cool and relaxed after shooting at somebody, while no one dares to even touch him.
Then he is out and about before public and media pressure lead to his arrest after seven days, arraignment and being held on remand.
Is this normal? Would it have been the same if the perpetrator was not Mallia’s driver? Is it a case of Only in Malta?
The feeling from this phone call is that the Police Commissioner (in the possible presence of Mallia) AND Kurt on the other line, contacted Sheehan again with the aim of getting him to mention the words “warning shots”.
When Sheehan didn’t mention anything of the sort, the police commissioner went on to add those words himself, and Sheehan didn’t correct that statement. Possibly he thought that it was in his interest not to do so, and probably to the delight of both Kurt and the police commissioner.
Kurt then went on to release the statement.
Malta is, was, and remains Malta.
Liberalism? Anarchy?
Informazzjoni daqshekk sensittiva u important jmissha harget waqt interrogazzjoni u mhux fuq fuq it-telephone.
Hawn l-Agent Kummissarju wera li ma ghandux ideja ta investigazzjoni u mhux professjonali. Il-Malti jghid life qatt ma ghandek tisma qanpiena wahda.
This is an excellent comment. It reveals that the country is not run by a disciplined chain of command but by an amateurish group of people not fit to run a club, let alone a country.
Wisq nibza li ha naraw li diga bdiet mil-lum ‘spin’ minghand il-Labour li ha dur kontra Simon Busuttil u l-PN li ha titwemmen. This makes me sick.
Naqbel perfettament mieghek u nzid li blog bhal din li tghid kollox kemm jista jkun ghandna nuzaw il-Malti biex tilhaqq il-popolin.
Wisq nibza’ li dak li int issejjah ‘il-popolin’ mhux il-problema ta’ b’liema lingwa jaqra’, imma l-problema tal-pregudizzju.
Naf hafna nies mhux ‘tal-popolin’ li l-isem biss ta’ Daphne jweggaghhom. L-iktar li jaslu dawn in-nies hu li t-tnejn ma fihomx x’taghzel.
Minn gewwa jafu x’ghandhom jaghzlu, imma minn barra m’ghandhomx il-kuragg jew l-onesta’ jammettuha.
Sheehan did say ‘sir’ once. Listen again to the conversation carefully and notice that PC533 said to the Commissioner of Police: “AW SIR”.
David Thake played a great clip this morning where he asked for Edgar Galea Curmi’s head on a plate for allegedly interfering with police work by virtue of a simple phone call of enquiry to the Police Commissioner.
It would be good if you can get hold of the clip and allow readers to listen to it.
Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh5P_FuYEZY
This is a rare introspection on the direct intangibles that make corruption easier.
The facilitators of corruption that the press should be concerned with.
Precision in this regard is very valuable.
Can you imagine a common person going to lodge a report, knowing that these intangibles are messed up but not able to include that focus in a report or proceedings?
_______
The same with Toni Abela.
When he goes to find any policeman, what hat is he wearing?
Or say a request comes from one magistrate on duty instead of another, the intangibles are liable to override the reason for urgent recourse to the Police.
When Toni Abela looks up a policeman, it does not matter what hat he wears: lawyer, Labour deputy leader, or member of cabinet.
The reaction of the police should be to caution him against trying to pervert the course of justice and proceed to arrest him when he inevitably persists.
Anything less is a dereliction of duty.
You and I know that.
But that is not how it’s processed in real situations, in real life.
The proper chain of command never existed during Labour Party years in the Malta Police Force since the days of Mintoff.
There was a select nucleus in the security section of the DIK (CID) who were not answerable to senior police officers outside their section and who acted directly with the political power at the Auberge de Castille.
I was never able to induce any Commissioner of Police to take action against them even for brash criminal acts inside the Police GHQ itself. I was victimized for trying to do so.
Something keeps nagging at me that the version that we heard on Times of Malta this morning was not the first call between Sheehan and the Commissioner of Police.
The three-way call seems more of a story-building exercise than fact-establishing. The Commissioner of Police was feeding something that Kurt wanted to get published and in parallel making sure that Sheehan learns the script.
In Maltese we say ‘qishom kollha jieklu l-kirxa flimkien’ and that has made necessary the adoption of the ‘mhux xorta culture’.
Joseph Muscat says he will decide without fear or favour in the best interest of the people. Does he expect anyone to believe that is possible in a world where the Minister calls his driver ‘siehbi’ and babysits his daughter?
The recording is supposed to be a three-way conversation. Voices of Commissioner of Police Zammit and Sheehan are very clear, but has anyone heard Kurt’s voice?
La Redoute’s comment is spot on. Nobody needed to call anybody, and everybody should have just done his duty.
The red light was already glowing just before the election , covering up the white block substance with ‘blokka silg’.
These words were mentioned by the then opposition leader Mr Muscat.
Remember the billboard showing his nose. By now the nose has reached a point that it is getting entangled with his feet and he is tripping.
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/02/oh-so-thats-where-its-gone-michelles-been-looking-for-it-all-over/
It is ok to lie sometimes according to Joseph Muscat – remember during the pre election debate when he was asked by The Times? Unlike Dr. Gonzi who answered with an assertive no, we should always speak the truth.
Does anyone know where Sheenan is now? In hospital? In custody as mandated by the court?