New laws for football fans

[Sergei's Celebration]

I doubt it was thousands because watching the game on tv that was clearly not heard.

Well it was 999 then.

 

[Perfidious Albion]

Don't the Police have something better to do than target football fans engaging in the kind of banter that has been around for years?
Perhaps we are an easier target than real criminals using the net to groom kids....

 

[marshy68]

I heard Ms Costa on R5 this am and whilst she didn't claim to represent all BHAFC fans she certainly didn't point out that her organisation has a membership of less than 500, when we have 24K season ticket holders alone.

Her comment that "banter is bullying" is nothing short of ridiculous and whilst R5 played the "does your boyfriend know you're here" and "we can see you holding hands" Liz failed to point out our retorts to those chants. There are more than enough people and organisations, even within our club trying to "sanatise" football without Ms Costa jumping on the bandwagon.

A few months ago I read a blog by one of our esteemed members. I hope he will not object if I re-produce a couple of comments from that blog:

"The one set of supporters who experience this taunting most are those of Brighton & Hove Albion, and to their great credit, the overwhelming majority take it in their stride. Their attitude of ‘whatever’ does more to support the cause against homophobes than is fathomable."

"If anything it is the Brighton & Hove Albion fans who have stolen the march with their sticks and stones attitude, because they have demonstrated that they care little for such assertions-as if to say ‘so what if I was gay anyway?’ "

http://thepepperpotpost.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/yes-my-boyfriend-knows-im-here/

Thank you Baron. The voice of commonsense and reason.

Wise up Ms Costa. Just because you may have a stick it doesn't mean you have to stir every pot.

100% this

We fvck who we want
we fvck who we want
we're brighton and hove albion
we fvck who we want.

 

[chaileyjem]

For those that want to read these new guidelines in full then here they are
http://cps.gov.uk/news/assets/uploads/files/2013_14_football_policy.pdf

via http://cps.gov.uk/news/latest_news/...rom_world_cup_and_euros_under_cps_guidelines/

of which the key paragraph is

"there will be a presumption of
prosecution whenever there is sufficient evidence to bring offenders before a court
on appropriate criminal charges and where a Football Banning Order (FBO) is
considered necessary. As well as tackling violence, disorder and criminal damage
we will deal robustly with offences of racist and homophobic and discriminatory
chanting and abuse and other types of hate crime. We recognise, as do the
overwhelming majority of decent fans, that there is a place for humour in football but
where the line between humour and offensive behaviour is crossed then positive
action will be taken."​

 

[MICK PATCHAM]

Quelle suprise ...scratch a liberal and youll find a draconian reactionary, applauding the government clamping down on free speech .CONGRATULATIONS! I also find the homophobic chants distasteful but im sure that lefty **** that gets quoted about not agreeing with what people say but defending their right to say it ,would do a palace head in hands at the authoritarian bullshit the police, government and f.a are trying to enforce being supported by those from the left of the political spectrum . What next season ticket holders banned from the amex for standing up ....oh er...... SIT STILL .ONLY SING CLUB APPROVED SONGS.APPLAUD POLITELY ........

 

[dougdeep]

Don't the Police have something better to do than target football fans engaging in the kind of banter that has been around for years?
Perhaps we are an easier target than real criminals using the net to groom kids....

You didn't read it then?

 

[Baron Pepperpot]

100% this

We fvck who we want
we fvck who we want
we're brighton and hove albion
we fvck who we want.

I didn't realise my season ticket brought quite that many benefits....

 

[MICK PATCHAM]

indeed. I'm convinced it's what both labour and the tories want. Yet very few seem to care.

we are in agreement Notters

 

[MICK PATCHAM]

Load of nanny state poppycock in my view and why certain people perceive they represent all BHAFC is totally beyond me and more importantly very wrong in my view

 

[MICK PATCHAM]

Herr Tubthumper .....especially after the recent events where terrorist laws seem to be used to intimidate journalists. ....
you are kidding yes ? The Guardian that has been campaigning relentlessly for press restrictions yes ?!! you think journalists should be exempt from anti terrorism laws ? what a gonad!

 

[Creaky]

Quelle suprise ...scratch a liberal and youll find a draconian reactionary, applauding the government clamping down on free speech .CONGRATULATIONS! I also find the homophobic chants distasteful but im sure that lefty **** that gets quoted about not agreeing with what people say but defending their right to say it ,would do a palace head in hands at the authoritarian bullshit the police, government and f.a are trying to enforce being supported by those from the left of the political spectrum . What next season ticket holders banned from the amex for standing up ....oh er...... SIT STILL .ONLY SING CLUB APPROVED SONGS.APPLAUD POLITELY ........

Most people can understand the argument regarding 'free speech' and most, I would think, would argue that the principle of 'free speech' is a laudable aim. The problem lies in where to draw the line if any.

If you argue that there shouldn't be any line and people should be free to say what they like, where they like and when they like then for a start you are also arguing for the abolition of all libel and slander laws.

If however you are saying that there should be a line then you can't really complain when that line is drawn in a position you don't like.

 

[MICK PATCHAM]

Most people can understand the argument regarding 'free speech' and most, I would think, would argue that the principle of 'free speech' is a laudable aim. The problem lies in where to draw the line if any.

If you argue that there shouldn't be any line and people should be free to say what they like, where they like and when they like then for a start you are also arguing for the abolition of all libel and slander laws.

If however you are saying that there should be a line then you can't really complain when that line is drawn in a position you don't like.

interesting ....id wager libel/slander laws are basically only for a small rich priveliged section of society ...so yeah **** it ....free speech ...the irony of this being censored highlighting the ridiculousness of the situation!

 

[portlock seagull]

Here's a thought: sing songs in support of your team only if unsure what the difference is between abusive, racist etc chants?

Now, lets get behind the Albion....

Who do you think you are kidding Mr Archer?
If you think we're on the run
We are the boys who stopped your little game
We are the boys who made you think again
Cus who so you think you are kidding mr archer?
If you think old albion's doooonnnne!

I thank you - new song: out tomorrow! North stand to lead...as ever

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Don't the Police have something better to do than target football fans engaging in the kind of banter that has been around for years?
Perhaps we are an easier target than real criminals using the net to groom kids....

Don't the police have something better to do that target all those poor motorists, when they should be catching real criminals? It's the same argument.

Nothing has changed from last week, it's just guidance for the police and charging lawyers when abuse is online such as targeting players or fans on Twitter etc. I would imagine that Nsc would be up in arms if an opposition fan started racially abusing LuaLua on Twitter for example. Brighton fans or at least one of them has had racial abuse on Twitter. An Ipswich fan got a banning order for it. The homophobic stuff is being emphasised to remind the police. A Palace steward ignored complaints 18 months ago about abuse (not chanting) coming from a nearby stand. Palace acknowledged the complaint and suspended the steward.
Yesterday 2 Derby fans pleaded guilty to a public order offence involving homophobic abuse (not chanting in the ground btw) and were sentenced.

 

[Dandyman]

Quelle suprise ...scratch a liberal and youll find a draconian reactionary, applauding the government clamping down on free speech .CONGRATULATIONS! I also find the homophobic chants distasteful but im sure that lefty **** that gets quoted about not agreeing with what people say but defending their right to say it ,would do a palace head in hands at the authoritarian bullshit the police, government and f.a are trying to enforce being supported by those from the left of the political spectrum . What next season ticket holders banned from the amex for standing up ....oh er...... SIT STILL .ONLY SING CLUB APPROVED SONGS.APPLAUD POLITELY ........

So legislation bought in by a right-wing government is down to "lefties" ? How does that work exactly ?

 

[Dandyman]

Herr Tubthumper .....especially after the recent events where terrorist laws seem to be used to intimidate journalists. ....
you are kidding yes ? The Guardian that has been campaigning relentlessly for press restrictions yes ?!! you think journalists should be exempt from anti terrorism laws ? what a gonad!

It's about the misuse of terrorism laws to intimidate journalists or the case this week the partner of a journalist. If you are unable to distinguish that from not wanting a bunch of multi-millionaires (many of whom refuse to pay UK tax) to print whatever lies they see fit or carry out criminal acts with no restraint then you clearly don't understand the debate.

 

[MICK PATCHAM]

Here's a thought: sing songs in support of your team only if unsure what the difference is between abusive, racist etc chants?

Now, lets get behind the Albion....

Who do you think you are kidding Mr Archer?
If you think we're on the run
We are the boys who stopped your little game
We are the boys who made you think again
Cus who so you think you are kidding mr archer?
If you think old albion's doooonnnne!

I thank you - new song: out tomorrow! North stand to lead...as ever

IM AFRAID THIS WONT BE ALLOWED AS IT IS JINGOISTIC ANTI GERMAN THEREFORE POTENTIALLY RACIST -yours THE MANAGMENT

 

[MICK PATCHAM]

So legislation bought in by a right-wing government is down to "lefties" ? How does that work exactly ?

thats not what i said is it

 

[MICK PATCHAM]

It's about the misuse of terrorism laws to intimidate journalists or the case this week the partner of a journalist. If you are unable to distinguish that from not wanting a bunch of multi-millionaires (many of whom refuse to pay UK tax) to print whatever lies they see fit or carry out criminal acts with no restraint then you clearly don't understand the debate.

If there was a Nobel Prize for Double Standards, Britain’s chattering classes would win it every year. This year, following their expressions of spittle-flecked outrage over the detention of Glenn Greenwald’s partner David Miranda by anti-terrorism police at Heathrow airport, they’d have to be given a special Lifetime Achievement Award for Double Standards.

For the newspaper editors, politicians and concerned tweeters now getting het up about the state’s interference in journalistic activity, about what they call the state’s ‘war on journalism’, are the very same people – the very same – who over the past two years cheered the state harassment of tabloid journalists; watched approvingly as tabloid journalists were arrested; turned a blind eye when tabloid journalists’ effects were rifled through by the police; said nothing about the placing of tabloid journalists on limbo-like, profession-destroying bail for months on end; said ‘Well, what do you expect?’ when material garnered by tabloid journalists through illegal methods was confiscated; applauded when tabloid journalists were imprisoned for the apparently terrible crime of listening in on the conversations of our hereditary rulers.

For these cheerleaders of the state’s two-year war on redtop journalism now to gnash their teeth over the state’s poking of its nose into the affairs of the Guardian is extraordinary. It suggests that what they lack in moral consistency they more than make up for with brass neck.

Everything that is now being done to the Guardian has already been done to the tabloid press, a hundred times over, and often at the behest of the Guardian. For all the initial depictions of Mr Miranda as ‘just Glenn Greenwald’s partner’, in fact he was ferrying encrypted information from the NSA leaker Edward Snowden on flights paid for by the Guardian. That is, he was detained and questioned over journalistic material acquired through illegal means. That’s already happened to the tabloids. Over the past two years of post-phone hacking, post-News of the World harassment of tabloid hacks by the state, 104 people have been arrested, questioned, usually put on unjustly elongated bail, and sometimes imprisoned. These include many journalists but also office secretaries and other non-journalist types, like Mr Miranda, who stand accused of handling illegally acquired material. The 104’s crimes include ‘disclosure of confidential information’ – not that dissimilar to what Greenwald and Miranda have done in terms of getting hold of and publishing Snowden’s illegally leaked confidential material. Yet while the redtop writers rot in legal limbo, Mr Miranda becomes a chattering-class cause célèbre..... XXX IT IS QUITE CLEARLY YOU WHO IS CONFUSED

 

[phazza]

Load of nanny state poppycock in my view and why certain people perceive they represent all BHAFC is totally beyond me and more importantly very wrong in my view

i agree. most fans laugh and enjoy the banter at games. we try to wind up other fans in different 'out of order ways'. it's all harmless fun, i'm amazed people actually let it affect them so much.