Police deserve greater protection

Assault against a police officer while in the execution of duty is a serious criminal offence. The assault of police officers is a serious offence, primarily because of the vulnerable position police are placed in and also for the need to send a message to the community that assaults on police will be treated seriously by the courts.

Such assaults warrant a harsher punishment than that currently laid down by our criminal code.

In Australia, for example, an assault on a police officer refers to the criminal act of physically attacking, resisting or obstructing a law enforcement officer while performing official duties.

The law covers a variety of situations, including assaults related to a police officer’s execution of duty or those acting in support of an officer.

The minimum and maximum penalty for the offence of an assault on a police officer in the execution of his duty is five and seven years’ effective imprisonment, respectively. This applies even where the officer in question merely sustains slight bodily harm or hostile touching or even, in the absence thereof, where the officer sustains the slightest damage to his uniform.

To date, our courts have always treated assaults on police officers very seriously.

With the proposed amendments to the law to increase punishments drastically, one augurs that our judges and magistrates will continue to be severe with whoever is charged with such offences.

Our police deserve not only our respect but also that of the law and the judiciary’s solidarity.

We completely depend on them, as they are the first frontliners in upholding the rule of law.

Mark Said – Msida

Self-discipline

Sometimes, I wonder who is teaching self-discipline to today’s young people. Is it their parents at home or their teachers at school?

Is anyone teaching them how to cope with their teenage sexuality? In my youth, I learnt self-discipline through the personal guidance of an older generation of Jesuits at St Aloysius College in the 1950s.

How can teenagers and 20-year-olds concentrate on their studies and live their daily lives without self-discipline?

I watch young people glued to their smartphones as they walk down the street, oblivious to everything and everyone around them. At home, they probably do the same thing, and nothing gets done.

Will they end up lonely and depressed smartphone addicts and social ‘wrecks’ in their 40s and 50s?

John Guillaumier – St Julian’s