The government is pushing for punishments against people who use violence against members of disciplined forces, including the police, to become harsher.
The amendments, which have been presented in Parliament, will see fines and jail-terms increased for such offences, while the option that a suspended sentence or conditional discharge is being removed.
The Labour government, it must be pointed out, was against an increase in penalties for people convicted of offences against public officers when this was proposed by the Nationalist Party 10 years ago.
It is good to note that there has been a change of heart. The PN, for its part, has already announced that it supports such measures. This means that there should be no trouble in seeing the changes to the law being passed by Parliament.
"We do not live by the law of the jungle," Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said when presenting the amendments in Parliament this week.
It is a question of respect and discipline and, we must say, these are concepts that seem to have progressively lost their value over the years. The respect we show each other and the discipline that we exercise in our daily lives are not something that should make us proud.
This is the way that society has become, and we all have to be blamed for this. There was a time when if a child was punished at school, there was a second punishment waiting for him or her when they returned home. Nowadays, it is common for parents to dispute that school punishment, indirectly sending the wrong message to their child.
Having said this, people in authority should be doing their utmost to earn the respect they deserve. There have been many occasions when their behaviour has left so much to be desired, and they unknowingly contributed to making people think less of them. In this sense, perhaps it is also time to increase penalties for public officers - yes, including police - who breach the oath they take by committing crimes, and also by not doing their duties properly.
To go back to the amendments being proposed these days by the government, we believe that the most important one is the removal of the option of a suspended sentence and conditional discharge. This, we hope, should serve as a deterrent. Over the years, society has become more merciful towards offenders and the idea of suspended sentences and conditional discharges were introduced to mitigate punishments for wrongdoing.
While giving second chances is a sign that society believes there is hope that people can change, the other side of the coin is that some could be led to take bigger risks, knowing that they will not be serving time for their offence. By removing the suspended sentence and conditional discharge option, society is sending the message that assaulting police officers, once the amendments pass, will lead to a stiff punishment.
Perhaps it is also time to consider removing these options for other offences, not only those related to violence against public officers.