Busuttil redoubles attack on 'puppet' police commissioner

Updated 4.35pm - Added Home Affairs Ministry reaction Simon Busuttil would remove police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar without notice if elected Prime Minister after next year’s election. Speaking at the Nationalist Party club in Birkirkara this morning, Dr Busuttil again described Mr Cutajar as “a puppet” of the government. The commissioner was there, not because he was competent, but to cover up for Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his government, Dr Busuttil said. As a result, organised crime was rampant. “We have one car bomb after another. People don’t feel safe driving down the street anymore, and we have a police commissioner who is more interested in defending Joseph Muscat, his Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, and Minister Konrad Mizzi,” he said, pleading with Mr Cutajar, the fifth police commissioner in four years, to resign if he was not fit for purpose. The latest media reports that unnamed Labour politicians had intervened into the arrest of two Gozitan youths arrested over alleged drug trafficking was symptomatic, he said, of the current state of the police force. “For honesty’s sake, if you can’t do your work, get out of here today," Dr Busuttil said.  The...