It is not often that the courts speak up against the police and other law enforcement agencies. But yesterday, a magistrate thoroughly blasted two police officers who had strip searched two Swedish football supporters of Chilean descent who were celebrating Chile's victory over Spain.

Their crime was ‘heinous’ – they had a flag that brushed against an officer’s face and caused him to “bend his head back”. The same officer snatched the flag off them and, admittedly, one of the girls pointed a finger at him and told him to stop being an “ass***e”. Touche`- we could think of a lot worse to call him.

At that point, one of the officers wrestled one of the girls to the ground and they were then both strip searched. The magistrate in question, thankfully, cleared the girls of any wrongdoing and gave them their passports back, which the police had also seized.

He said that the two officers dishonoured the force and should be “made to sweep the streets” and recommended that disciplinary action be taken against them.

We could not agree more. Let us put it into perspective. These girls were visiting our country, friendly Malta, and their crime was to brush a police officer’s face with a flag – which was not even on a stick. Quite justifiably, one told the officer what she thought of him and that led to a violent arrest and a strip search. Our man in court saw the girls in question and they were described as normal young girls... so how does that warrant one of them beign pinned to the floor? And a strip search? For what exactly? To see if they were concealing weapons ?

This sort of behaviour is outrageous and should be tackled in the police’s disciplinary arm as soon as possible. The court is right, these two officers do not deserve to be in our police corps. What is even more surprising is the police’s decision to prosecute the two girls, and the charges that were pressed against them were completely trumped up. And it begs the question, how on earth did the ‘investigating’ inspector justify the drafting of charges against two twenty-something year olds whose flag brushed the face of a police officer. If it were not so serious, then it would actually be quite funny.

We understand that the vast majority of our police officers are good men who are dedicated to the service. But there are obviously some very bad apples that are in the mix. They need to be weeded out – and quickly at that. Such behaviour is atrocious and should not be seen on our streets.