Sunday, 6th July 2008 - 10:02CET
Police violence will not be tolerated - minister
Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici has insisted that there is no excuse for violence, and incidents of police violence will not be tolerated.
Speaking in an interview to Steve Mallia for The Sunday Times, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said people should feel free to come forward to report incidents such as those reported last weekend (when a migrant was allegedly beaten by policemen).
He said investigations into this case should be concluded as quickly as possible and he would not tolerate a situation where any policeman harmed the image of the Corps.
The minister said that he believed that 95 percent of the members of the police force were doing their duties, but the remainder needed to be addressed.
He admitted that the police training system needed to be revisited in the light of current circumstance. "Training is not what I want it to be, I want it to get better" he said.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici said he could not understand how the migrants who were allegedly beaten by the police said nothing about the alleged beatings when they were arraigned in court. Possibly, he said, the judicial system was not working as one would want it. But this could, perhaps, have been a cultural issue - the migrants did not feel they had the freedom to speak up - or the defence and the court were not yet aware of what had allegedly happened. Such matters, he said, should be brought to the attention of the court so that they could be examined. But the practice in court was that when there was an admission by the accused, no further evidence was heard.
With hindsight, perhaps the proceedings could have been halted while the issue on the beatings was investigated.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici stressed that he did not believe the police were racist, and there was no evidence this incident was actually founded on racism. He did not think racism was prevalent in the country.
He also felt the police had committed mistakes in the way they arrested eyewitnesses. The duty of the police was to collect evidence for the prosecution and the defence and no one should demand particulars in a way which amounted to intimidation, he said.
The interview is being published in The Sunday Times today. Excerpts on video are carried above.
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Comments
Malta needs such a system with an easy to remember telephone number which records the information, to uncover illegal activities and the persons involved.
I personally know a lot of other workers who '' are working under stress '' and who '' are being robbed of a fourty hour week like other workers''- most of the doctors at Mater Dei come to mind..
so- by your reasoning, these doctors should take it out on the patients! BAH!
Why do you so promptly contradict the Minister and freely state that “Malta IS racist” but yet, as the President of the Chamber of Advocates, you are not making any reference to what the Minister is saying in regard to the proceedings that took place in the Maltese courts?
For example, I would be interested to know whether or not
1) the accused was/were adequately represented and informed inside the Maltese courts before making the guilty plea,
2) the judge ensured, by directly asking the accused, that the accused had received legal advise and fully understood the ramifications of a guilty plea, before accepting the guilty plea?
Why would you not address these kind of questions rather than simply label us, the Maltese people, racists?
Something must be done ASAP in order to improve the facilities, conditions, shift and salaries of these people who overall are doing a great job. Let’s not blame all the force for a one off incident, and may the new Minister manage to deal with the difficult situation within the force.
On the other hand, you can check constructions sites, garbage collectors, and other related jobs, and all you see are refugees! Why? It is obvious that they are paid much less, and without getting any benefits!
Violence should be abolished, but obviously this has to be from both sides.
In my opinion crimes done by illegal immigrants should be reported and given as much importance like when a Maltese uses violence against immigrants.
If a Maltese bus driver uses vulgar words with an immigrant we are putting him on a front page (and it might be correct to do so). Yet if an illegal immigrant commits a more serious crime like rape etc etc, we will see only just a couple of lines in the newspapers
You claim that "Malta IS racist". That is all well and good if the statement were true, which I don't think it is, and certainly not relevant.
Considering your station in society, have you enquired as to whether the accused was adequately represented and informed inside the Maltese courts just before he made the admission? My understanding is that it is normal practice where the defense lawyer advises his/her client not to admit guilt, and place the onus on the arresting officer to provide the evidence. From all that I could read thus far on this issue, this advice does not seem to have been given to the accused in this case. It surprises me how you are not making any reference to this critical detail.
By the same token, the rest of us are being "robbed" of early retirement. Stress is no excuse for excessive use of force or outright violence.
That's your interpretation of my previous post. I was pointing out the disproportionate reactions(relative to other cases) on this side of the media to begin with. For out there in the
streets, out of the realm of the Times readers, this reaction seems not much shared.
And sometimes, wrong impressions are being given by omission in reporting, which I attribute to haste more than anything else. First we were given the impression that the injuries we all due to this mishap. A week later we are told that an amount of them were done by a foreigner, for that matter.
I agree, beating a handcuffed person should not be tolerated. Now this issue was exhausted and reported. Now let the police do their internal work and deal with it, instead of asking for the pound of flesh.
Also, Mr. Fiorini, if we agree that the above is not tolerated, so for any aggression on our order forces, including from detainees. And all forms of violence. Controlled restrain without proportionate punishment is useless. If that is what you are after. They keep repeating. That was my gist.
If you cant understand this, it's your problem.
You said "A certain MP J. Sammut was lambasted for highlighting the transport problem, later on. Though unrelated to the incident. " I seriously hope you realise that what MP J. Sammut had implied was an archaic measure of transport segregation... something reminding the world of the 1950s racist policies in the USA. If he was misunderstood, then he should have apologised and reworded his words to "we need more transport from the birzebbuga area since the rise in demand from migrants is not being met and is creating a problem to both them and the birzebbuga residents".
You also say that "Violence shall not be tolerated, from all sides". That's fair enough. But your implication is an eye for an eye mentality... immigrants-to-this-as-well, so why the fuss about the police officers? The fuss is that our police officers should be at those giving example of law abiding behaviour! If you don't get that, its your problem.
Police violence is not a byproduct of illegal immigration. Like any citizen, any law abiding legal or illegal immigrants or any visitor should be protected against any violence.
Those who are trying to justify or excuse (some members of) the police violence against immigrants or witnesses who have the courage to stand against such reprehensible acts by those who have in their attribution the duty to prevent them should remember that it is not long ago when there was police violence against Maltese citizens.
It took many years of political wisdom and hardwork to reduce the level of violence in late 70s and early 80s to the level of where it is today. By not tolerating the recent acts of violence against immigrants or witnesses, the Minister will be setting even higher standards of zero tolerance of violence against Maltese citizens.
Sadly Malta is an intolerant racist country, much more so than probably any other country in Europe per capita.If a foreigner is not on the lighter shade of pale and especially if he is Black or Arab he stands a very real chance of being ostracised.With few exceptions this 'hate' is evident in the young to the old whether it be at work,on the streets,in shops or places of entertainment. It is up to the schools,parents ,church and not least Government to change attitudes by Education and discipline. So far we seem to have failed .
It is strange indeed how proportionality is sometimes distorted. For example there were not as much words in newspapers when last year a soldier on his way to work on the Hal Far bus was beaten by one of the immigrants for recognising him in his line of duty. There were no ministerial interviews, no roamer columns mention, no editorials. A certain MP J. Sammut was lambasted for highlighting the transport problem, later on. Though unrelated to the incident.
More worrying is the underlying spark of all this, according to the article. Intra-African fights and racism, which our police will be facing if more immigrants are brought in.
Do you remember the Malta-Croatia match were some Croatian fans caused trouble and threw the seats towards the Maltese supporters' side? Do you know how the police handled that case? They threw the seats back in the direction of the Croatians!!! This was certainly not a case of racism, but a case of not having the least idea of how to handle the situation! If you do not believe me, check it for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aLx8T6eRWU
I do agree that the Police should be well trained in order to perform their duties satisfactorily