The incident where two police officers were ganged up on by a group of people in Hamrun, quite understandably, shocked and angered the nation last weekend.

Soon after the incident, five people - all Maltese nationals - were arrested and charged in connection with the incident, which left one officer with grievous injuries and the other with light injuries.

The outrage was palpable, perhaps more so because the incident was caught on camera and shared to social media and then by the media: condemnation was widespread, and some even went as far as calling for a boycott of restaurants which are owned by two of the accused.

Others were quick to point out that all of the accused were Maltese, and that Maltese nationals were in fact capable of (allegedly) doing things such as this - and that such incidents were not just down to foreigners, as some like to make us believe.

But as the days went by and as the dust began to settle, some others tried to shift the narrative, saying that we shouldn't be generalising based on an isolated incident allegedly committed by an isolated group of individuals, who just so happened to be Maltese.

Indeed, we absolutely shouldn't be generalising - but the irony is that the sentiment was placed by the same people who would be very likely to be the ones generalising against foreigners when something wrong is in fact done by a foreigner.

It's been interesting to see the response to this incident: yes the outrage has been near universal and yes the condemnation has been extremely far and wide - as it well should be. 

But knowing how certain groups think, one wouldn't be blamed for speculating that if the incident had to have been committed by a group of foreigners, the response may well have been a bit harsher from certain quarters.

For instance, it wouldn't have been at all surprising to see certain groups or people organising some sort of demonstration or protest disguised as a 'Solidarity March' for the police, had the alleged crimes of last Saturday been committed by a group of foreigners.

That's because this country does have a problem with generalisation - but it's selective.  People buy into racial stereotypes against certain nationalities or ethnicities, but then preach the need for understanding when it's one of our own committing the wrongdoing.

The fact of the matter is that there are good apples and bad apples in everything - every nationality, every race, every group, every set of political beliefs, and so on, so forth. The fact is, as well, that by and large - the good apples far outweigh the bad apples; yet it is the bad apples that always get the most attention.

It's up to the people to resist generalising a whole group of people based on the actions of a few bad apples.

So yes, let's not generalise - but that has to count for everyone.