GUEST POST: Why is everyone dissecting that recording about warning shots?
The Commissioner of Police
The Prime Minister
Why is everyone dissecting that recording about warning shots?
The prime minister’s communications man phones the Police Commissioner to pump him for information and the Police Commissioner obliges by calling PC533 Paul Sheehan as his superior (“Irid ikellmek il-kummissarju”).
The Police Commissioner then questions his subordinate as if he himself is just another of Manuel Mallia’s drivers, who needs to collect information from another driver so that he can pass it on to their boss the minister.
He is not calling him as a Police Commissioner ringing a police constable to find out exactly why and how he shot at somebody so that he can take immediate disciplinary action.
This recording is supposed to be the first conversation the Police Commissioner had with his subordinate about that subordinate’s involvement in a crime, and he had it not to investigate the crime and to discipline his subordinate, but to help the government and more particularly his cousin Manuel, who appointed him, to absolve themselves of culpability without bothering to find out what happened.
It is quite clear that the main issue in this conversation is how to face the media and not the more pressing priority of dealing with a police constable who has just shot twice at a man.
And everyone takes this as the normal course of events and spends their time discussing whether there was any cover-up.
If the fact that that conversation took place at all doesn’t ring any alarm bells, there’s a detail that should have rung them, and it isn’t the words “warning shots”.
When the Police Commissioner asks his constable how many shots he fired, that constable’s response is “Tnejn…ghandu jkun” and the Police Commissioner, instead of reacting with steely-cold anger towards the constable, relays that information to the prime minister’s aide without question, as though this really isn’t anything to do with him and not his responsibility. Malta Today carps on the words ‘warning shots’, deliberately missing the real story.
“Tnejn… Ghandu jkun.” And the Police Commissioner accepts that, when in a normal situation a Police Commissioner, on being told by his constable that he ‘thinks’ he shot twice, would explode with “WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU THINK? DO YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT YOU WERE SO FAR GONE THAT YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW MANY TIMES YOU SHOT AT HIM? I’M PLACING YOU UNDER ARREST RIGHT NOW.”
What happened to the responsibility of bearing arms and the obligation to account for every bullet or wasted cartridge? What happened to the police’s primary duty to uphold the law?
The Police Commissioner didn’t even ask his constable to definitively state how many shots were fired, nor did the prime minister’s communications chief bother to ask.
All this recording proves is that all of them, from the prime minister downwards and sideways to the Police Commissioner, should go. They aren’t just corrupt. They’re frighteningly incompetent. They have zero awareness of the obligations and duties that underpin the rights and powers they are so quick to exercise.
When the Spouse of the Prime Minister, as she likes to style herself, said that she is thrilled at how their position means they get “more treatment”, she spoke not just for herself and that lazy lump of a husband, but for the whole stinking lot and the way they understand power and style of government.
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There is no question that the police commissioner was speaking to his subordinate about a crime. Shots were fired. The man who fired the gun was either the perpetrator of a crime or a key witness.
Both the commissioner and the prime minister’s aide would or should have known this. Whether they chose to ignore that or it didn’t occur to them at all is a secondary detail. The fact remains that they prioritised their personal interest above their professional obligations even as they used their professional powers to do so.
Knowingly doing wrong is corruption. Not knowing the difference is the point of no return.
The prime minister the minister for home affairs, the prime minister’s chief of communications and the police commissioner are way past the point of no return.
They released that recording to Malta Today to prove their innocence. Instead, they have denounced themselves ass corrupt, inept incompetents.
The transcript published by the government is only one of several conversations that took place that fateful night. To find out what was said in the other conversations one has to refer also to the transcripts published by the PN.
Putting all these conversations together one finds out that:
Manwel Mallia and the Acting Commissioner of Police both knew immediately that the shots had been fired at the car, not in the air. Mallia is even heard asking where the car had been hit.
From the conversation published by the government, it is obvious that the minister’s driver was not in danger when he fired his gun. In fact, his victim was in his car and driving away. Everybody involved knew this.
Later, after he fired at the victim’s car, the minister’s driver used his gun to threaten him again, this time personally.
From all this, it is clear that when the government issued statements saying that the minister’s driver had fired in the air in self-defence, they were lying. This is the famous cover-up everyone is talking about.
It is highly unlikely that Manwel Mallia and the Acting Commissioner misled Kurt Farrugia and the Prime Minister. However, should this have happened, it is all the more reason why Joseph Muscat should sack the pair of them.
Joseph Muscat knows exactly what happened and does not need a board of inquiry to do his job for him. His stubborn, futile defence of Mallia can only mean that Muscat himself was aware of the cover-up and part of it.
Why is that the recording of the conversation that took place on the night of the Sheehan shooting incident between the Police Commisisoner and Mr Farrugia not being published?
Stockpiling on kool-aid.
http://maltarightnow.com/news/2014/12/07/alexandra-mamo-tmissu-xejn-mix-xena-ghax-il-kummissarju-jrid-li-ssir-inkjesta-bil-magistrat/
The impression I get is that the farmhouse bunch do as they please and both the minister and his moronic cousin let it pass.
What’s clear is that Muscat must wait until he can justify his decision to remove the rot. If he ever does.
As if he’s wary of the consequences; this would be equivalent to what, 1981?
You’re assuming Muscat is not involved.
The Commissioner of Police can be heard practically prompting PC533 that there were two shots and not three.
The government’s press statement, written by the Office of the Prime Minister and released through the OPM-controlled Department of Information, followed this recorded exchange by one hour.
So will someone explain why the government persisted with the first version of events, rather than giving the correct story?
What was the hurry in calling in the low-loader? That tunnel has two lanes for traffic going in just one direction.
Goddam, you’re good.
No wonder these people hate your guts.
You have enough material in this whole affair to write half a book. And there are enough other affairs since this lump installed himself for another three halves.
[Daphne – That’s a guest post. I didn’t write it.]
Reading the ‘ Sunday Times’ script and cant help but to spot that there is something wrong with what the PC 533 said and what the COP wanted him to say.
PC533: Kif rani warajh għafasni mal-ħajt.
COP: kif x’għamel?
PC533: kif rani ma wa
COP: eh ijja għidli Sheehan.
COP: Hello
COP: Sheehan
PC533: Aw Sir
COP: Sheehan għidli kif wasaltu l-pixxina x’ġara?
PC533: Għafasni mal-ħajt.
COP: kif waslu ħdejn il-pixxina għafsu mal-ħajt, ijwa.
How is it even possible that you are following a car and the car you are following forces you against the wall:
‘PC533: Kif rani warajh għafasni mal-ħajt.’
but after that it seems that they noticed that something is strange and changed it to ;
”COP: Sheehan għidli kif wasaltu l-pixxina x’ġara?
PC533: Għafasni mal-ħajt.
COP: kif waslu ħdejn il-pixxina għafsu mal-ħajt, ijwa ”
In the transcript sent by the government to certain media, there is a detail that is actually damning for the government itself.
At one point Sheehan says “tgħajtu żewġ tiri” and later the Acting Commissioner asks him: “kemm-il tir tgħajtu?”. The Commissioner then tells Kurt Farrugia: ” . . żewġ tiri li jiftakar tah, żewġ warning shots”.
A native Maltese speaker will invariably understand “tgħajtu żewġ tiri” as “I shot him twice”. Malta Today translates it as “I fired twice” but it is obviously wrong.
Now, you don’t say “I shot him twice” if you fired in the air. The Commissioner is clearly telling Kurt Farrugia that Sheehan fired two warning shots directly at Morrison Smith, not in the air.
Jista xi hadd hemm barra jghidilna x`gara mil l`iskocciz/Malti?
[Daphne – Hawn xi hadd qieghed jiddeskrivi lil Sheehan bhala l-Irlandiz/Malti? His name is Stephen Smith.]
I can’t understand why everyone is saying that this conversation is the first between Sheehan and the Police Commisioner. No newspaper is claiming that.
I think it’s quite clear from the way the Commissioner speaks to Sheehan, that they had spoken about the incident before. Why would he otherwise ask about two or three shots? And what did he mean by “issa naslu ghaliha f’minuta”?
Sheehan doesn’t sound apprehensive either when talking to the Commissioner as if he’s already been through the whole story with him. I would expect Sheehan to be a bit worried about how the Commisioner will react to the whole story, but I can’t find any trace of worry in Sheehan’s voice.
It’s as clear as day that Sheehan and the Police Commisioner had already spoken to each other before this conversation. Besides, I don’t think the government is denying this.
tend to agree with Natalie.
And after the confession “tajtu zewg tiri” made directly to the Commissioner of Police, he was arrested only three days later.