Not all Football Fans are hooligans

[RadioDept]

Away the on-the-pitch woes of Portsmouth Football Club, a friend sent this New Statesman article to me. It is a rather long read, but worthwhile.

There is an interesting story about a 15 year old Portsmouth fan getting roughly treated by the Police at the Shrewsbury game last year (a story I hadn't heard before) - if I was that kid's dad, I would've been livid.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/20 ... otball-fan

[Locky_McLockface]

Is there any difference between the police officer who deliberately gave false evidence about Kieth Culvin in that piece, and the police officer who deliberately gave false evidence regarding the actions of Andrew Mitchell? I don't see one, tbh. Thank goodness Culvin had the foresight to ask someone to video the incident for him.

I can understand that the officers, presumably, thought they were following orders when preventing the Liverpool fans from using the toilet, and I can also understand that they may well have been under stress when seeing that the crowd was getting anxious. Being under stress makes people make decisions without fully considering the consequences. So I have a certain sympathy with the officers. But it is still unforgiveable, and I would hope unlawful, for those officers to then falsify evidence.

HOWEVER

What if?

What if there had been some "iffy" Pompey fans, who had imbibed one or two shants too many? What if a passing Shrews fan had said something that the "iffy" fans had misinterpreted? What if that then led to a fight, perhaps one in which "John" had become caught up in, and what if he, an innocent by-stander, had been killed or seriously injured? And what if, in the ensuing enquiry, it came out that the police admitted they had considered this draconian action, and dismissed it, but admitted that had they implemented the action, "John" would still be alive today?

Damned if they do and damned if they don't.

[Pompey1985]

I was at that game i remember there being a relativly high number of 'charectors' about and there being a LOT of police around.

Me and the old man commented on both while sat in a rather nice pub.

[RadioDept]

Damned if they do and damned if they don't.

That covers my view too if I'm honest. I'd hate to be a copper trying to deal with it all.

The 'bubble' game thing is interesting - it feels like overkill to me, but (a) I've not actually experienced it as a travelling fan so probably shouldn't comment and (b) it does seem to work in terms of keeping violence and anti-social behaviour down.

[ddavis]

Damned if they do and damned if they don't.

That covers my view too if I'm honest. I'd hate to be a copper trying to deal with it all.

The 'bubble' game thing is interesting - it feels like overkill to me, but (a) I've not actually experienced it as a travelling fan so probably shouldn't comment and (b) it does seem to work in terms of keeping violence and anti-social behaviour down.

Mine too.

But, in this case, all it would have taken was 30 seconds for a copper to wait with him and verify his story.

He was a minor, they should have treated him as such.

If I was the friends Dad I'd have been in bits. He probably spent 2hrs thinking his sons mate had been kidnapped.

[Locky_McLockface]

Damned if they do and damned if they don't.

That covers my view too if I'm honest. I'd hate to be a copper trying to deal with it all.

The 'bubble' game thing is interesting - it feels like overkill to me, but (a) I've not actually experienced it as a travelling fan so probably shouldn't comment and (b) it does seem to work in terms of keeping violence and anti-social behaviour down.

Mine too.

But, in this case, all it would have taken was 30 seconds for a copper to wait with him and verify his story.

He was a minor, they should have treated him as such.

If I was the friends Dad I'd have been in bits. He probably spent 2hrs thinking his sons mate had been kidnapped.

You're right, of course, Dan, on both counts, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Again, as with the Kieth Culvin incident, the policeman has a split second to make a judgement call - he's been ordered to round up the Pompey fans, and herd them to this nightclub - does he wait however long it takes to verify the story (30 seconds if "John's" story is true, maybe 2-3 minutes if it's not) or does he just do as he's told. He's probably on-edge anyway, I can't see that Shrewsbury police are hugely used to teams (and therefore fans) like Pompey coming to town.

Sad story all the way around.

[Earl Grey]

Damned if they do and damned if they don't.

That covers my view too if I'm honest. I'd hate to be a copper trying to deal with it all.

The 'bubble' game thing is interesting - it feels like overkill to me, but (a) I've not actually experienced it as a travelling fan so probably shouldn't comment and (b) it does seem to work in terms of keeping violence and anti-social behaviour down.

Mine too.

But, in this case, all it would have taken was 30 seconds for a copper to wait with him and verify his story.

He was a minor, they should have treated him as such.

If I was the friends Dad I'd have been in bits. He probably spent 2hrs thinking his sons mate had been kidnapped.

You're right, of course, Dan, on both counts, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Again, as with the Kieth Culvin incident, the policeman has a split second to make a judgement call - he's been ordered to round up the Pompey fans, and herd them to this nightclub - does he wait however long it takes to verify the story (30 seconds if "John's" story is true, maybe 2-3 minutes if it's not) or does he just do as he's told. He's probably on-edge anyway, I can't see that Shrewsbury police are hugely used to teams (and therefore fans) like Pompey coming to town.

Sad story all the way around.

It strikes me that one of the most salient points about the story is that the adult who was responsible for the kid didn't seem to kick up much of a fuss. Did he report the kid missing to the police? I think his part in it needs some attention too. I bet if it had been his son rather than his son's mate who'd gone missing then his reaction would've been quite different to what appears to have been the case. What appears to have happened is that he gave up on the kid and just carried on to the match with his son. Of course I don't know what actually happened so I can only comment on the way the story has been told in the linked item.

[Locky_McLockface]

That is certainly how the story implies it, however I would like to think that the bloke was doing his nut in.