One step beyond?

The newspapers this morning, report a gang of youngsters ambushing other young passers-by on the Gzira-Sliema stretch.

This particular area of Gzira has always struggled with two festering sores; primarily the notorious red light district around Testaferrata Street, a bustling commercial centre by day, and a vacuous downtown by night, and then there's the stretch of public garden running along the marina seafront and around to Manoel Island. Insufficient lighting, the proximity to the red-light district, and a number of off-duty foreign yacht crews tossed in for good measure, are a good recipe for trouble. Manoel Island is currently undergoing transformation and development, but large swathes of the islet are in pitch black darkness by night. Nothing one watchman and a car barrier can solve.

And so we reap the latest crop of teenagers born and "bred" in these inept environs. Admittedly, this particular stretch has it's fine share of upmarket seafront apartments 'valued' in the region of quarter of a million euros each. But the latest and upcoming developments are incrasingly gated and closed, advertising security, seclusion, and exclusion from the public in general.

But how Maltese is that?

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