Dust under the carpet

The man did not put up a fight. He merely lay on the ground crying and screaming for them to stop, saying that he had done nothing wrong."

What a story to upset one's digestion on a Monday morning! The above was but one of the several eyewitness accounts of what appears to have been disproportionate manhandling by the police of coloured "miscreants" last weekend. We simply must tell Police Commissioner John Rizzo that enough is enough and that he had better do something to sort his force out before it gets totally out of hand.

Excessive force, as was claimed by Nicholas Azzopardi's family, still casts a sinister shadow over the police force, an entity that is paid with taxpayer's money and whose sacred duty it is to provide protection and maintain law and order.

Since the report that appeared on Monday morning and the growing chorus of disapproval along with a stream of right-wingers adding fuel to the fire, we have had the official press release from the Police Depot which sounds just like a whiney bully being drawn up in front of the headmaster claiming that he did not start the fight but that it was the victim who did. That is typical bullyboy tactics and fools nobody. Now tell me. The poor immigrant admitted in court that he assaulted three police officers and damaged the police van when he was handcuffed and beaten up by five of them. Was he by any chance The Incredible Hulk in disguise?

All eyewitnesses agree that excessive force was used that stank to high heaven of racism. Nobody but nobody deserves that sort of treatment by the strong arm of the law, which must perforce be a steel hand in a velvet glove. One may argue that policemen are ordinary human beings like us, however, their ongoing training should ensure that they can handle situations like this without causing a shocking and scandalous fracas.

There are in fact two lethal ingredients to the mix that the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition had better nip in the bud. Ignore them and hope they will go away and together they will become uncontrollable.

Frustration is a very dangerous situation to have in the armed forces and the police force both of which are sick to the teeth acting unwilling nursemaid to the detainees that were once irregular immigrants.

We have known this for years and, yet, when the same policeman and soldier are detailed to handle situations in Paceville of course cups will spill over and the pent up frustration will explode like Krakatoa. When the uniformed forces of a country are seething with discontent it takes nothing for a military coup to happen; something that would be applauded by the many racist right-wingers whose stomach-churning comments appeared on the blog under last Monday's news item.

These illegal immigrants, some declared so glibly, "deserved to be beaten to learn a lesson" and "need to be beaten to obey", statements uttered in a day and age when it would cost the job of any teacher in Malta and Gozo their livelihood should they lift a hand to discipline their pupils many of whom sometimes behave far worse than the immigrants!

This naked hatred for someone whose skin colour is different is just too horrible to contemplate and I strongly feel that neither the government nor the Church has done anything near to enough to educate the average Maltese about the reality of our situation at the crossroads of illegal human trafficking in the Mediterranean.

The onus on the government is great and the problem should be addressed speedily and pragmatically without fobbing us off with yet another judicial report and another magisterial investigation. There is far too much dust under the carpet as it is.

kzt@onvol.net