Let us not compare what happened in London with the protests happening in other parts of the world because there is no comparison. The death of Mark Duggan was simply used as an excuse for criminal activity. Do you think for one minute that the people on the streets knew Mark Duggan or cared what happened to him? Remember he wasn’t some innocent bystander in what happened, he was a known criminal associated with the Jamaican Yardies, and when he was shot he was in possession of a loaded firearm.

Whatever sort of life Mark Duggan lived, his death was still a blow for his family, yet were they out on the streets rioting and looting shops? No, they openly condemned what was taking place. The main reason for the rioting, looting and arson getting out of hand was the total lack of response from the British police. Do I blame the Bobby on the street for this? No, I blame the politicians for expecting these police officers to deal with a dangerous situation with one hand, if not two, tied behind their backs.

This was the same crazy situation in N. Ireland where the ordinary cop on duty had to operate under the green card system whereby three warnings had to be shouted at a gunman before he was allowed to open fire on him. Given that the gunman was firing at you with an automatic rifle or machine gun, he wasn’t going to hear the warnings anyway and by the time you got to fire back, if you were still alive, he was long gone. The law needs to be changed and changed quickly so that police throughout the UK have the powers to react quickly in situations like these.

People have talked of using taser guns but these are only really effective at close range and to deal with a single arrest. They would be no use in a full-scale riot situation. The British government has said that the police have been authorised to use plastic bullets but, having fired these baton rounds myself, I can say that they are totally inaccurate when used properly. The only effective way to deal with this type of public disorder is the use of live rounds that can be aimed accurately to take out a target. Some may say that this would be an excessive way to deal with rioting, but remember that when these people set fire to a carpet store there were 25 families living above that store in apartments. Therefore they were involved in attempted mass murder.

Could such scenes ever arise in Malta? No, I doubt very much if they could. Malta is such a small country that everyone knows everyone else almost. The property you were burning or looting would probably belong to someone you knew. However, all police forces should take what happened in London as a warning and prepare themselves. Lessons must be learnt and learnt fast!