Kevin McKenna - Offensive Behaviour Act

[Big Al 55 9,275]

A good piece from Mr McKenna 

Football Act is a law for those more offended by dodgy songs than poverty
Kevin McKenna
19 April 2016
   
As a Celtic supporter, I'd been relishing our Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers as soon as the draw was made.

I've missed the drama and passion of these fixtures since Rangers' four-year absence from the top division of Scottish football following administration and liquidation in 2012. And so, we sauntered up to Hampden Park, my pal Tam and me, expecting a Celtic victory but just glad to be part of the occasion again.

At the end of Sunday's extraordinary game we were disappointed at the score-line which saw Rangers, against the odds, progress to the final. Although the margin of victory was slender the Ibrox side were worthy winners, having outplayed their much more expensively-assembled opponents in every aspect of the game. I wouldn't have said it was a joyful occasion; after all, my team had been well beaten by our oldest rivals, but it had been an excellent football match full of drama and played in a fine spirit.

Later there were drinks in the city centre and a pleasant chat with a group of Rangers fans who politely refrained from making our pain any worse than it was. Then we quietly retreated and left them to it; to the victors the spoils and Glasgow was theirs for the night. The same scenes were probably being played out in bars all over the city.

The strategy deployed by Police Scotland for the biggest event in Scotland's sporting calendar was to treat this football match as if it were a war.
Kevin McKenna
Our enjoyment of the occasion was in spite of the extraordinarily foolish and intimidating behaviour of Police Scotland in the weeks before the game. As we have seen over the last few years this is a gonzo police force which has become a law unto itself. The catalogue of failures currently lying at its front door would have resulted in an independent inquiry in most other liberal democracies but not, it seems, in fair, equal and enlightened Scotland.

The strategy deployed by Police Scotland for the biggest event in Scotland's sporting calendar was to treat this football match as if it were a war. As each week passed in the countdown to the match the police announced another diktat which they insisted was to ensure everyone's safety but which actually amounted to a mini-state of emergency and curfew conditions being imposed. The hysterical nature of their approach merely turned an already highly-charged situation into an inflammable one. It amounted to a presumption that everyone attending the match is a potential criminal.

First, they announced that the behaviour of supporters watching the Old Firm semi-final in pubs would be closely monitored. Moreover, for the purposes of temporarily extending the scope of the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act, the police said that the conduct of fans in pubs who were watching the game would be treated as if they were actually at the football ground. Anyone who was subject to a football banning order would be barred. Furthermore, anyone deemed by the police to have committed an offence which could attract a football banning order while watching the match in a pub could be banned from attending games.

The meaning of these sinister statements was clear. The 'Offensive Behaviour' Act only applies to behaviour at or in the vicinity of a football match. This means that, if you use certain vocabulary or sing certain songs pertaining to the politics of Northern Ireland, you risk being arrested and charged under the Act. Yet if you give voice to similar sentiments away from the vicinity of a game you are free to do so. Espousing the same sentiments or singing the same songs at a rugby match doesn't count. (Rugby fans though, especially our 80-minute patriots, have their own ways of being offensive).

Then it was revealed that police would be equipped with specially adapted cameras to record the actions of supporters attending the game. This, of course, occurred following the now familiar social media warnings favoured by Police Scotland. "Big Brother is watching you," is what they are effectively saying here.

We'll leave aside for the moment that the conviction rate for offences alleged to have been committed under the Act is low or that police officers, when properly challenged, have been proven to have been adventurous with the truth (now there's a surprise). What is truly depressing about all of this is that Police Scotland and the political classes who encourage them conveniently use bad behaviour surrounding Celtic/Rangers games as a way of averting our eyes from the real source of the problem.

In an enlightened Scotland there will be no religion or arguments about cultural identity (unless, of course it's the state-approved cultural identity).
Kevin McKenna
The sort of people who end up in court after matches like these tend to be from postcode districts which possess some of the worst deprivation in the United Kingdom. In some of these places all that remains after hope, jobs, health and dignity have been taken away is allegiance to a football team and the values that reinforce an identity under attack by the libertarian hand-wringers of civic Scotland.

Of course, in the absence of any other data, it's difficult to argue with police statistics that point to a sharp increase in domestic abuse offences when Celtic play Rangers. Football though, isn't responsible for abuse; men are. And if the government was genuinely serious about tackling this issue it wouldn't be hanging around waiting for another Old Firm game.

On social media leading up to Sunday's game you could observe the usual smart-ass postings of the "a pox on both your houses" type. These are clothed in a supercilious tone designed to elevate the user to a station above the ignorant oafs who support Celtic or Rangers. These reflect the over-riding contempt that Holyrood has for poor, West of Scotland working class men. In their version of an enlightened Scotland there will be no religion or arguments about cultural identity (unless, of course, it's the state-approved cultural identity).

We're happy to tolerate 130,000 foodbank-users; 250,000 children living in poverty and a 20-year mortality gap between Glasgow's most affluent and most disadvantaged communities. But God forbid that any of them should start singing dodgy songs about Ireland and King Billy.

[dummiesoot 16,006]

Excellent article, even finds time to praise Rangers.

[Inigo 32,534]

Great article overall.

[Fred H Crawford 1,182]

Decent article , take away the references to following them and it could easily have came from one of RM's better posters .

Is this the same guy who described the Enniskillen bomb as a legitimate act of war ?

[JamieD 18,982]

1 hour ago, Fred H Crawford said:

Decent article , take away the references to following them and it could easily have came from one of RM's better posters .

Is this the same guy who described the Enniskillen bomb as a legitimate act of war ?

It is indeed. 

Guy is a cunt but a stopped clock and all that.

There are few things more worrying than when a police force starts creating the laws rather than enforcing them.

[Straight-Edge-Loyal 6,696]

aside from his liquidation part not the worst.

[reallyruff 622]

don't agree with much (anything?) else he's ever written but 90% of that is on the money.

[Dutchy 1,200]

I think it's a decent enough article, besides some of the references to our liquidation.

Mainly, I don't agree that it's only lower working class that are targeted by this infuriating piece of legislation which is just not true.

It's true that the working class always get the rough end of the stick in the law and the rich get off with a lot more, like not paying any tax.

I just think it's wrong to equate all this with the establishment as they septic supporters think/feel that the Scottish Establishment is protestant and Church of Scotland inspired.

I know it's not the same law, but it was the labour party that started bringing in extra sectarian laws with that arse Jack McConnel