Thursday 28 March 2024

It’s all about that gun

You know those exasperating parents who drive you around the bend because they will not, absolutely will not, tolerate any criticism towards their beloved offspring, no matter how obviously wrong their behaviour is? They persist in excusing, justifying and shrugging off all sorts of appalling incidents because they firmly believe that their precious darlings (who are actually brats and bullies) can do no wrong.

Well that is exactly what I was reminded of today on Facebook as the story unfolded of Minister Manuel Mallia’s driver, who last night shot at the car of a civilian after a minor altercation.

By now most of you will have heard about the twists and turns of this incident and the number of different versions which were reported by various media outlets. Trying to understand what really happened was like wading through a sandpit because the story kept getting bogged down in the contradictory statements (two bullets or three? Fired into the air or fired towards the car? Was it a hit and run or was it a man fleeing in his car when he saw the Minister’s driver had pulled out a gun?).

Ah, wait right there. There was a gun. And that is the crux of this whole matter.

People get into scrapes with others over car accidents all the time; windshields are smashed, doors are scratched, hoods are dented. And yes, sometimes it ends up in a heated argument and even a fist fight. But in this particular case, an admittedly reckless incident during which a car mirror was damaged could have ended up in tragedy because the Minister’s driver thought it would be a good idea to brandish a weapon and use it.

We’ve learnt a lot of things today and none of them put Minister Mallia and his increasingly worrying entourage in a good light. Telling us that it is “usual” for a driver/security guard to have a loaded gun in his possession does not reassure me one bit, especially when this man, Paul Sheehan, a policeman by profession no less, thinks nothing of shooting at another driver’s car over a damaged mirror. There was nothing to substantiate Sheehan’s version that the Englishman driving the other car tried to ram into him as the original official statement said.

But what really, really made me grind my teeth today (so much that I have ended up with a toothache) are those who persist in defending the indefensible.  Several were out in full force insisting that Mallia’s driver was “protecting society” because the fleeing driver was drunk.  Excuse me, did someone change the rules of law and order when we weren’t looking? When did it suddenly become OK to take matters into one’s own hands just because a driver takes off after an argument?

It’s just like those parents who rush to shout and yell (and sometimes punch) a teacher who has had the temerity to accuse Junior of wrongdoing, even though Junior is the bully of the whole school. And just like those parents who will live to see the day when they regret not disciplining Junior before he turned into an even greater terror, so too will these misguided people who today were blindly defending Minister Mallia and his men eventually rue the day that they did not speak up against what happened last night.

Meanwhile, PM Joseph Muscat needs to act fast and do the right thing before Minister Mallia ends up being the wall against which the entire government ultimately crashes.

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