So much, so wrong, so what?

It has taken me unusually long to update my blog, because I usually pick on the most annoying thing of that week and write about it, but this week was so tragic that I simply couldn’t decide what to take the axe to.

So, instead, I compiled my own dark comedy from this week’s series of errors.

Underwear shenanigans!

First there was the story about the young Spaniard who was essentially taken to court for prancing around drunk in his own balcony. Although the headline of the story read - ‘Caught with his pants down’ –showing off his private parts was not the reason why he was summoned to court. Since it was a friend who pulled the Spaniard’s trousers down, he could only be charged with offending public morals when he ‘uttered’ obscenities at a passerby. If this is the law, and if this is how seriously we take it, then how come we do not arrest at least 100 men a day? Or is it easier to pick on young drunk tourists whom we will never see again?

To park or to box!

Then there was the story of the 19 year old guy who was trying to park his car in Sliema and, who got into a brawl with the two policemen that were stuck in the car behind him. He was arrested for assaulting the officers, disobeying the police and swearing in public. In turn the driver, who was accompanied by his girlfriend, accused the police of allegedly beating him up and refusing to provide medical attention when he requested it. Whatever the true version of the facts is, the magistrate’s comments were most amusing. Apparently it was quite a hassle for the magistrate to come in to work that Saturday, so he reminded the police that such cases need not be arraigned with urgency over the weekend. Now I’m thinking that we should construct (legally of course) a few beach houses around the Valletta coast so that those who are paid to be on duty on the weekend do not go so much out of their way when justice calls!

DUI or DIY Law?

The story of Cliff Micallef and his fatal accident shocked us all, and because it was a case of hit and run people went mad with anger, and became desperate to find and punish the culprit. Granted, had you known Cliff at all you’d want revenge, and had you not known him you’d still want justice, but the power point email that is doing the rounds, together with the media’s slandering of the accused, is appalling on so many fronts. I am NOT in any way defending drinking under the influence (DUI), or driving dangerously and without insurance, but let’s call a spade a spade. Trying to influence an ongoing case via the media and viral campaigns, is just wrong. Even if the accused turns out to be as guilty as a Nazi it’s still wrong.

This very paper had a headline that read - ‘Unemployed motorist charged with manslaughter, drink driving’ – forgive my ignorance but how is the fact that he’s unemployed relevant to the story? Haven’t we all been unemployed at some point, especially when we were 21? And with a 24% increase in unemployment over last year, how is this important?

And finally, for those circulating the smearing email, please note that such vilifying speculation could work in favour of the accused in court. His lawyer is already hinting that he might use this to proof that his client will not be given a fair trial. In fact, as his lawyer, I would probably be thanking the heavens that someone was silly enough to conjure it up and circulate it. It will probably turn out to be the best defence that the accused could have hoped for.

The power point presentation that I’m talking about can be found here - http://www.alisonbezzina.com/diy-law/ but let it be known that I’m only providing it for information purposes and in no way endorsing. In my opinion this is an undemocratic Neanderthal form of judgement.