I suppose we have to thank the incompetent people at TVM for the latest attempt at mass insurrection.

You wouldn't find RAI, France I or 2 or any serious broadcaster running as its main news item that the local police had been beaten up.

Or the BBC. See when there were the riots in Manchester and the North after those two girls were killed just a few weeks ago. The BBC and indeed all the national networks worked very hard to reassure people that the police were on top of the job and that the people could sleep soundly at night.

That is what people expect from national broadcasters - to be reassured that the police are on the job.

Instead, these kids promoted far beyond their merits after the previous news managers had been pushed out, turned out to be the greatest argument in the hands of the forces of subversion.

The police were shown being beaten up. One had his shirt torn off his back as he was pulled down by the assailants. One was banged against the wall. One, we learned later, was seriously injured.

And all this because two cops decided to slap a fine on a badly parked car.

What happened in the next few moments put paid to all the government propaganda.

Some would argue that the clip showing the police being beaten would have invited a popular reaction against what happened but that's not the only reaction - some would be encouraged to imitate the lawless. Others would be encouraged in their low esteem of the police, an attitude popular among migrants, I hear.

Consider the following points jumbled together in no particular order.

First of all there are not enough police. The numbers have not caught up with the growth of the population.

And those that there are end up badly distributed and seem to spend most of their time in court, despite repeated commitments to the contrary.

They are badly trained.  At the Police Academy, said people on social media, most of the courses offered are academic subjects. The practical courses are said to be few. They and physical training ought to be on offer not just to raw recruits but to anyone who expresses a desire to self-improve.

There have been many complaints too that some of the equipment they use can be defective when as this episode showed, they need them all to be in top condition. From communications to body cams.

So this is Hamrun, which is not the worst town in Malta for law and order. Take Valletta for instance. Most of the residents live huddled down at the bottom of the promontory but the lack of law and order regards mostly the top part of the city with shops and restaurants with the tables and chairs issue (and loud music) now being out of control.

The latest scene of a patient on a trolley who had to be carried all the way down from Palace Square to near the Auberge d'Aragon because of obstructions on the way for the ambulance adds to so many episodes in recent times when the ambulance could not pass because of tables and chairs.

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