PN releases 6th recording: Sheehan tells Police Commissioner other driver is Maltese
There are my immediate observations of this latest recording, which is of the first time Sheehan speaks to the Police Commissioner after the incident.
1. Sheehan says he has already spoken to Manuel Mallia (before he spoke to the Police Commissioner).
2. Unless he is on Valium, the Police Commissioner’s flat reaction and lack of surprise/anger indicates that he has been briefed already, in the interim between calls, by Manuel Mallia.
3. Sheehan describes the other man (Smith) as somebody driving a foreign-registered car, “but he’s Maltese”.
4. Nowhere is there any mention of a Scotsman or even of a foreigner. At this point Sheehan says he is Maltese. So at which point did the Police Commissioner begin referring to him as L-Iskocciz and how did references to ‘Scotsman’ filter out to the press? I would say after the Police Commissioner spoke to Manuel Mallia.
5. Now this bit actually shocked me. A police constable tells the Police Commissioner “I shot at him twice. Not directly at him, ta.” And the Police Commissioner’s flat reaction is “U ijja, orrajt orrajt” as though a guest in his house has just told him he’s accidentally broken a wine glass.
6. This level of unprofessional is not just disturbing. It is dangerous.
7. Hadn’t the Police Commissioner responded to initial accusations that he had ordered Smith’s car to be removed immediately by protesting formally that he had not?
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Where is Sheehan’s telephone call with Mallia?
[Daphne – If it was mobile to mobile, we won’t be hearing it. All the calls the PN has were via the police control room.]
Special long programme on Net News Feed all conversations on Tel 112 will be heard. Lots more
Observe all those background noises in this call and compare with the call released by Malta Today. More evidence that that call was staged.
The Commissioner’s reaction is a non-reaction. I’ve just posted this comment on Facebook and The Malta Independent website.
On being told that the minister’s driver had just shot in a man’s direction (“tgħajtu ġiex tiri”), though not directly at him, the Commissioner of Police nonchalantly replies: “Never mind. Alright. Ok” (U ijja, Orrajt. Ok”).
Just another day at the OK Corral.
Forgive me, but I am getting confused about the chronology of all this.
The eye witnesses saw all this happening at 8:45pm. This phone call happened 30 minutes later. There was another phone call that happened at around 9:01.
So as far as I can tell there are 15 mins that are unaccounted for, as it were. Or have a missed something?
To my mind, Manuel Mallia had already instructed the Police Commissioner to kill it and play it down as if nothing had happened. The only other possible explanation is that the Police Commissioner has serious mental issues.
The police commissioner must have been briefed, because how would it occur to him to ask about Mallia’s daughter? He never acted surprised and why does the commissioner address Sheehan as ‘siehbi’?
Because he’s already run the consequences forward, taking everything he knows into account?
This too is shocking:
“Aqbad il-low loader… emmm sakkruha… u nizzilha l-garaxx”.
The Police Commissioner of all people should know that if there is a crime, or a potential crime that has occurred, then the duty magistrate is going to be involved in the situation.
The Commissioner is here giving an illicit and illegal order for his subordinates to remove key evidence from the scene before the duty magistrate could do her job and call a proper investigation.
The way PC1388 says ‘fhimtek Sir” at 1:58 says it all.
He knows it shouldn’t be done, but orders are orders.
Point No 5:
That’s a fine balancing act for an Acting Commissioner, cousin to the Minister.
These phone calls are starting to sound very stage-managed.
I’ll bet more spontaneous and authentic communication would have taken place on private mobile phones.
Is there any Gieh ir-Repubblika for stage-management?
U ijja..
OK siehbi..
Orrajt hija..
Don’t bother with the law, as long as you’re one of us.
There’s only one explanation. They never dreamt that they were going to be caught.
So everything was possible and they did whatever they deemed fit to cover their collective behinds.
How is Sandra Mamo?
[Daphne – How or who? She’s a police superintendent.]
Who!
That was quick – thanks!
Getting rid of Norman Vella from TVM has bit the PL in the arse.
[Daphne – Yes, he has way more freedom on NET and his programmes are even better.]
And the viewership of Net has increased. This story too has helped push up the numbers.
Two other observations of my own:
1. Commissioner of Police: “The (minister’s) daughter was with you?”. Sheehan never mentioned the minister’s daughter, so how did the acting commissioner come up with such a question?
2. Commissioner of Police: “Was the car hit?”, presumably by the bullets. The acting commissioner was seeking confirmation, from somebody on the ground, of something he already knew from another source.
Bang! Bang! Yes, that struck me too. How did the Commissioner think to ask about the Minister’s daughter? How did he know?
It’s not procedure that their minister’s driver’s act as baby sitters.
Sheehan says for the first time the shots were not in Smith’s direction ‘Mhux lilu ta’.
Previous calls, that’s 1 to 4, all ‘sparajtlu’ and ‘tghajtu’, even because he knew where those shots went.
This phone call however, no.5, was after having spoken to Mallia.
Absolutely no concern for the well-being of Mr Smith or even a simple question as to whether an ambulance is needed. These are not only incompetent, unprofessional and ‘hamalli’, but they are also extremely dangerous. Utterly preposterous. What a shame.
The first few phone calls are real and the others sound like a script written by Manuel Mallia.
So the police have been trying their hands at different jobs since Mallia took over. We have had them work as waiters, pizza delivery personnel, parkers and tow-ers so why not actors? After all it is the pantomime season.
All so very amateurish and unprofessional! Is this our 200 year old police force? Operates more like a Boy Scout Group, but with guns.
“L-iskocciz” must be Stephen Morrison Smith’s nickname, which Sheehan must have been aware of all along.