[Albion] FAO PC Darren Balkham

Giraffe · Nov 29, 2017

Buzzer said:
Anyone else think the reports of a knuckle-duster and a knife being found on Palace fans is a bit unbelievable?

Carrying a knife to a football match? That's Go Straight To Jail and a lifetime ban. The Argus reports all the arrests and there were verbals, chucking something and someone being where they shouldn't have been. Where's the charge for carrying an offensive weapon? It doesn't just get confiscated like they do bottles of water outside the ground.

Can't help but think that Sussex Police are painting a story where they heroically battled against a huge army of Russian Ultras rather than 30 or 40 middle-class boys from Caterham and Dulwich.

I’ve just been told by someone that was there when they broke through the turnstiles that one of the reasons the stewards initially allowed this to happen was because some of those involved were threatening stewards with knives. I have no way to know if this is true other than the individual who told me has absolutely no reason to make this up. I trust them completely.

Bigtomfu · Nov 30, 2017

getreal1 said:
Balkham always has been next to useless. He loves to see himself on Twitter telling the world about his great work negating the type of abuse which has been covered a million times within these pages. Could he not also cover more traditional coppering too?

He’s been around and involved in successfully policing Brighton fans for a whole ****heap longer than Twitter has been around and should be applauded for his all round contribution to the Albion faithful home and away over the years.

Is he solely responsible? NO. Is he shirking from his and the police’s responsibilities last night? NO, he’s using social media to get out, ask opinions and confirm there will be an inquiry/debrief on what went wrong, what they could do better in future.

You can’t ask any more of anyone responsible for anything that went wrong last night.

This blame culture we live in makes me sick.

clapham_gull · Nov 30, 2017

Bigtomfu said:
He’s been around and involved in successfully policing Brighton fans for a whole ****heap longer than Twitter has been around and should be applauded for his all round contribution to the Albion faithful home and away over the years.

Is he solely responsible? NO. Is he shirking from his and the police’s responsibilities last night? NO, he’s using social media to get out, ask opinions and confirm there will be an inquiry/debrief on what went wrong, what they could do better in future.

You can’t ask any more of anyone responsible for anything that went wrong last night.

This blame culture we live in makes me sick.

****ing well said,

Hotchilidog · Nov 30, 2017

Bigtomfu said:
He’s been around and involved in successfully policing Brighton fans for a whole ****heap longer than Twitter has been around and should be applauded for his all round contribution to the Albion faithful home and away over the years.

Is he solely responsible? NO. Is he shirking from his and the police’s responsibilities last night? NO, he’s using social media to get out, ask opinions and confirm there will be an inquiry/debrief on what went wrong, what they could do better in future.

You can’t ask any more of anyone responsible for anything that went wrong last night.

This blame culture we live in makes me sick.

Agreed.

Harry Wilson's tackle · Nov 30, 2017

Buzzer said:
It's not a criminal offence to associate with trouble-makers though...except if you're a football fan. I'm not defending what he did at all. It was stupid, puerile and he deserves a punishment. What I am moaning about though is that it's just plain wrong and unfair that disorder, which in any other situation would be dealt with with a bit of common sense and is proportionate to the crime suddenly becomes Kafkaesque when it's football-related.

He is bang to rights but apply the law fairly is all I ask.

I accept what you are saying – that others caught in a parallel non-football situation should be treated the same. If you mean 'increase their sentence' I have no problem at all with that. However, the tricky bit is imagining what a parallel scenario would look like. We have a class A drug, we have minor affray (or whatever the beer throwing is called) and we have someone who regularly attends a public event. However that is not all of it. The public event would have to be one that regularly attracts a minority of trouble makers. OK, so I would suggest My Bloody Valentine gigs might fit the bill here. The extra factor is that the event has ‘followers’ who are known in society to be capable of causing affray (or whatever it is called) at ‘meetings’ in pubs prior to My Bloody Valentine gigs, and at the gigs themselves. OK, and this lad has been filmed on more than one occasion before MBV gigs as part of a group of followers, in pubs or on the street, acting in a lary intimidating fashion, followers who include people with previous convictions for MBV-related ‘trouble’. Hmmmm….so, it would not surprise me one tiny bit if this lad (well, middle aged twerp) when filmed with his lary mates, chucking beer over an ‘Emo’ then picked up on his way to the MBV gig is found to have some powders on him, finds himself banned from MBV gigs for a few years as the main part of his punishment. It makes perfect sense to me. The mosh pit is not a good place for a coked-up lary pillock. And if that happened I would be astonished if loads of outraged MBV fans came out of the woodwork to protest about the unfairness of it all.

The Clamp · Nov 30, 2017

Mods, any chance of merging a few of these similar threads?

Buzzer · Nov 30, 2017

Harry Wilson's tackle said:
The extra factor is that the event has ‘followers’ who are known in society to be capable of causing affray (or whatever it is called) at ‘meetings’ in pubs prior to My Bloody Valentine gigs, and at the gigs themselves.

That extra factor already exists in West Street. That's the reason for the huge police presence down there every weekend. Also in your analogy, the extra conditions would be banned from any music venue anywhere in the country and report to the police when your favourite band go on tour abroad.

Harry Wilson's tackle · Nov 30, 2017

Buzzer said:
That extra factor already exists in West Street. That's the reason for the huge police presence down there every weekend. Also in your analogy, the extra conditions would be banned from any music venue anywhere in the country and report to the police when your favourite band go on tour abroad.

Sounds fair enough to me :shrug:

But that may be because the analogy contest may have run out of hypothticals.

Back to the thing itself, I'm not bothered about the punishment.

I'm more outraged by the ludicrous light sentence given today for two oafs who drugged up a 16 year old then drove around happily with her dead body in the back of a van, getting nicked only when they crashed the van.

Sentencing is inconsistent and crap in the UK. But this 'ban' case is really not worthy of more than a raised eyebrow as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, we are beginning to sound like a pair of Trump supporters with all our 'whatabout?ism'

Take it easy :wave:

Mellor 3 Ward 4 · Dec 7, 2017

Mellor 3 Ward 4 said:
My thoughts exactly, as I said on another thread (shame there are so many threads covering last night)

IF, there were people carrying knives etc. why was there no mention of weapons when the the six arrests were announced?

So what happened, did the AU leave their weapons piled up outside thinking they could pick them up afterwards?

As for the video of them breaking through the turnstiles, why were no police there? I don't blame the stewards whatsoever, they are paid peanuts to do a crap job. The police should have been there to, well, police. The culprits are easily identifiable and let's see how many of them Palace ban.

I spoke to a Palace friend today, he didn't go last night, but said he, and most of those he goes to Palace with are fed up with the AU and thinks Parish has got far too close to them.

Looks like buzzer and myself were right.

Weststander · Dec 7, 2017

Buzzer said:
Anyone else think the reports of a knuckle-duster and a knife being found on Palace fans is a bit unbelievable?

Carrying a knife to a football match? That's Go Straight To Jail and a lifetime ban. The Argus reports all the arrests and there were verbals, chucking something and someone being where they shouldn't have been. Where's the charge for carrying an offensive weapon? It doesn't just get confiscated like they do bottles of water outside the ground.

Can't help but think that Sussex Police are painting a story where they heroically battled against a huge army of Russian Ultras rather than 30 or 40 middle-class boys from Caterham and Dulwich.

So your instinct about the weopons was spot on. Experienced campaigner!

SAC · Dec 7, 2017

Giraffe said:
I’ve just been told by someone that was there when they broke through the turnstiles that one of the reasons the stewards initially allowed this to happen was because some of those involved were threatening stewards with knives. I have no way to know if this is true other than the individual who told me has absolutely no reason to make this up. I trust them completely.

Think someone was pulling your plonker.

Hillian1 · Dec 7, 2017

Would love to hear what Balkham has to say about his chums now.

portslade seagull · Dec 8, 2017

Hillian1 said:
Would love to hear what Balkham has to say about his chums now.

More interested in easy targets

Arrid · Dec 8, 2017

portslade seagull said:
More interested in easy targets

He's ruthless with people throwing beer about!

getreal1 · Dec 8, 2017

Arrid said:
He's ruthless with people throwing beer about!

He's great with the beer and people saying beastly things, oh and Twitter.

Weststander · Jul 28, 2018

Just before this World Cup, on daytime TV I came across an interesting documentary following the cat and mouse games between English hooligans and police in Amsterdam this March when Holland played England.

The top bloke from UK police over there and all round security guru was ..... Darren Balkham.

I hadn't realised that he held such a lofty national position. I had. thought that he only had a parochial role, policing games at The Amex.

chimneys · Jul 28, 2018

Weststander said:
Just before this World Cup, on daytime TV I came across an interesting documentary following the cat and mouse games between English hooligans and police in Amsterdam this March when Holland played England.

The top bloke from UK police over there and all round security guru was ..... Darren Balkham.

I hadn't realised that he held such a lofty national position. I had. thought that he only had a parochial role, policing games at The Amex.

Do you have a link, as would be interested to watch our favourite bobby on international duty?

Hillian1 · Jul 28, 2018

He's a cüñt

LVGull · Jul 28, 2018

Hillian1 said:
He's a cüñt

I like the way to post naughty words.

Weststander · Jul 28, 2018

chimneys said:
Do you have a link, as would be interested to watch our favourite bobby on international duty?

I'll try and find something.

I should have told NSC at the time, but stumbled across it and got glued ... it was interesting.

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