There seems to be an increasing number of reports, mainly of public disturbance, and perhaps mostly in Paceville, where police are called to an incident and the miscreants are arrested... for assaulting the police.

It could, of course, be the case that, especially when drink has been taken, some people simply become aggressive at – or maybe because of – the sight of a police uniform. But not all the cases involve drink; some people are simply angry for other reasons.

I write because I can’t actually recall a reported case of this nature that does not include an attack of some sort on the police – sometimes, by a single person against a number of officers.

Our policemen must be protected and defended, but has anybody ever looked at the way they usually approach and deal with angry people? Does their much-publicised training include how they should attend to them? In my own experience of such cases (elsewhere), I have noted that the appearance of a policeman on the scene most commonly has a fairly immediate calming effect, not a provocative or confrontational one.

And I have seen many instances (overseas), where a policeman has studied a drunken (or partially drunk, or simply angry) person, looked him up and down, checked that no actual injury or damage has been caused, ensured that he can walk (and doesn’t intend to drive), and told him, in effect, “On your way, sunshine”.

Alternatively, it might be a night in a police cell and release, with a warning, in the cold sobering light of morning.

But in Malta it usually seems to require an expensive and time-consuming court case and an utterly pointless suspended sentence by a magistrate.

Does the other option ever happen here?