Opinion: Angelo Gafa Must Teach His Officers The Meaning Of A Joke
There is one thing police commissioner Angelo Gafa’ must have forgotten to include in his five-year plan to reform Malta’s police force – teaching his officers the meaning of a joke and the importance of safeguarding free speech.
The decision to charge Bis-Serjeta’ founder Matt Bonanno represents a shocking intrusion by the police into people’s online discussions.
Bonanno’s “crime” was to write that the Christian fellowship River of Love should be relocated to Buġibba and carpet bombed. If the police consider that was a serious threat, it must mean they genuinely believe the Bis-Serjeta’ author was openly plotting one of the worst terrorist act the world has seen in recent years.
Almost makes you wonder why they only sent Bonanno a court summons, rather than have the anti-terrorist squad break his front door down to demand where he was hiding his military plane.
The 'threatening' Facebook post that landed Bonanno in court
But of course they don’t really believe that Bonanno is a potential terrorist. More likely someone attached his Facebook comment to a police report and the officers on duty couldn’t be bothered explaining to the complainant why the status was a joke and not a serious threat.
Far easier and cleaner to leave it in a magistrate’s hands, and to hell with the fact that Bonanno will have to spend years toing and froing to court as the court’s already stretched resources get stretched even further.
This isn’t even the first time in recent days that the police have displayed a stubborn inability or unwillingness to understand context either. Only a few days ago, content creator Sarah Grech revealed that police intend to prosecute her after she published an Instagram story in which she jokingly asked a dog if he would like to burn down a circus.
The police really need to start laughing these complainants out of the room and tell them to stop wasting their time because they have actual crimes to solve and help prevent.
If these complainants truly feel aggrieved or threatened, they should hire a private lawyer to file a civil libel suit on their behalf at their own cost, but the police shouldn’t be there to appease the desires of people who want to gain vengeance on those who offended them.
This is what it all boils down to – offended people who cloak their own feelings with a false fear that they feel threatened just because they know that making threats is against the law while offending others isn’t.
And since freedom of speech means nothing without the right to offend others, this tactic is nothing but an express disdain for free speech. And the police are playing ball.
Hopefully, the police see reason and drop the charges or the case is assigned to a magistrate who understands the importance of free speech and immediately throws it out of court while publicly discrediting the plaintiff.
Cover photo: Left: Angelo Gafa, Right: Matt Bonanno
Should police drop the case against Matt Bonanno?
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