Without prejudging whether those arrested and arraigned for Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder are guilty or not, it is incontrovertible that the technological advances in investigation which led to the arrests have changed the criminal landscape.
Maybe the general public is not aware of the technological progress that has been made in the world out there, or maybe such news and such technological progress had not yet arrived on our shores, but it has now been possible, so the reports say, to delve into mobile phone conversations of months or years ago, to triangulate the connections and so to uncover links that previously were hidden.
It would seem that the Maltese criminal world has been taken by surprise by this development and that previously, strong in its conviction it could not be found out, was rather lax and relaxed. Now, it seems it has been shocked into realization that its secrets, well some of them, are out and can be produced as evidence.
But we must not be lulled by this technological advance. Maybe the criminal world will now adjust to the new reality and find different ways of contacting each other or leave less fingerprints around. It has happened before.
It is important for society to tackle the hinterland of crime – what has been called the light touch – such as huge delays in court proceedings that get people forgetting what they testified in the first place, inadequate and inconsistent judgments, the extended use of suspended sentences, etc.
The people out there have long had to put up with such inadequate attempts to control crime. That is why people come to believe anything about the courts – that some lawyers seem to have advantage over others in getting their clients free, maybe the judge/magistrate had the accused as his/her client in a previous existence.
There are fine and upstanding magistrates and judges, to be sure but the whole court scene has long had a bad perception among the general public. If we want the criminal world to never again regain its former freedom, we must tighten up the whole justice scene.
It goes without saying that the security service, from the police to the armed forces to the secret services must be beefed up, better funded and trained and better organized. The infernal issue of promotions has wrought havoc on the efficiency of these forces. It is essential that they are free from any interference especially from politicians to be able to do their job properly.
There have been some comments made on the government’s recent announcement that soldiers will be helping police patrol tough areas because the two, soldiers and police, have very different roles.
But is useless to come up with such a drastic decision and then close your eyes to white collar crime almost as if this is not a crime at all. And keep people accused of such crimes at their post as if nothing has happened.
Otherwise, people will be justified if they consider the whole crime combating effort as a charade. This is precisely the charade which permitted the lax enforcement that has led to many murders and mayhem, not just Daphne Caruana Galizia’s killing but especially that horrendous crime.