I found the article Police Complain About Miserable Refreshments (July 18) to have been written in very poor taste and unworthy of a prestigious publication such as The Times. The officers who were quoted in the article were made to sound like a bunch of whiners. It was demeaning to the Police Corps.
The majority of the Maltese empathise with the police officers' plight. The resolve and discipline officers displayed in the face of the near breakdown of the rule of law during the transport strike earned them the respect and gratitude of the people. However, the proper airing of grievances of the nature contained in The Times article should have been presented by the rank and file through the chain of command right up to the Justice Minister.
On the other hand, given the climatic conditions and the potentially long duration under which police officers were expected to be on duty, attention to their basic needs should have been made a priority and planned for accordingly.
For a great many years, the Malta Police Force has been seen as a fine, disciplined, and upstanding law-enforcement unit. The mere presence of uniformed officers and motorcycle-riding traffic police commanded the respect of both the ordinary person in the street, and the motoring public as well. The Mounted Police Unit and the Police Band were the pride of Malta. All of this changed after Independence, when governments started interfering in the running of the force. The corps lost the prestige it once enjoyed as it gradually became more and more politicised.
Instead of being a servant of the people it became a tool of the government that happened to be in power at the time.
Over time, from the absence of any vestige of traffic rule enforcement on Malta's roads to the recent (and not so recent) events, more than a few glaring shortcomings in the way Malta administers law enforcement have been brought into focus. Arrests and prosecutions are made regularly but our liberal judicial system makes a mockery of the hard work the police put in. Theirs is indeed a thankless task. Law enforcement units, at times supported by members of the AFM, put in many man hours tracking down and prosecuting bank robbers, burglars, human traffickers and trafficked humans, pimps, drug dealers, pushers, child molesters, rapists, etc., only to have the courts let these criminals off with a mere slap on the wrist and a suspended sentence.
The onset of the very real threat posed by human trafficking and illegal immigration has left the police, together with the AFM, inadequately prepared to deal with this type of criminal activity and the problems this brings in its wake.
The almost daily illegal immigrant landings and "rescues" have stretched police and AFM resources far beyond their limits.
Whether because of previous experiences or because they were told so by irresponsible parties, certain of these individuals have an utter disrespect and harbour an abject loathing for anyone in uniform.
This aggravates an already bad situation and renders the task of establishing the rule of law even more difficult. In the face of these added responsibilities, the police and AFM personnel have become frustrated and demoralised. They have on occasion been accused of using excessive force and even brutality to assert their authority.
Law-abiding citizens should support and appreciate our men and women in uniform. The government should invest in their empowerment and recognise their dedication to duty. Given the state of affairs in the Mediterranean and the divisions and lack of cooperation among European Union countries in facing modern-day threats to our national security, Malta has to fend for itself more than ever before. Our first and only line of defence, after all, is the AFM and the Malta Police Force.