FREE THE ARCHWAY ONE - PETITION

[QuartzGooner]

Hmm so we should trust the police even though the court didn't think it appropriate to have a footy ban? The police are even now stitching up cabinet ministers let alone some poor gooner with a big mouth.

I do not think that on what the linked blog says, this bloke deserves a ban.

But a ban he has got, and there may or may not be more to it anyway?

Without being a lawyer I do not know if the club can overrule a police ban?

[Herd]

He doesnt work for a charity but has run no less than 5 Charity events at the Emirates without incident,with Arsenal charging full commercial rates .
He has NEVER been arrested at any football match .
He was arrested and convicted for affray after the Arsenal THFC match at Home last season about 7 hours after the match ended ,the fight was amongst our own in the Fonthill.
The Police who have carried out a relentless campaign against this LOCAL man for over 15 years ,attempted to get a banning order but the judge threw it out as it wasnt football related.
This man is a pillar of the local communty and spends countless hours helping local charities and gives his time and efforts freely to all .
Nervertheless Arsenal have banned him for life on so called evidence presented to them by the Police saying he represented a danger to safety however they fail to elaborate further or enter any meaningful dialogue with the man .
If the evidence is anything like that which the Police produced at his trial it is risable.
He drinks in the George was about the only fact contained in the evidence submitted.
The person doing this in the Police has a title "Arsenal Football Investigations & Banning Officer" so it would appear the point of the job is to get people banned.
The Job of the Police surely is to protect us and to charge and convict those guilty of Offences.
Their job surely finishes once the person is convicted of a charge ,it shouldnt be their responsibilty to seek other remedies if they dont like what the courts decide or to wage personal vendettas to those persons they do not like ...............and their families.
This mans wife has been subjected to Police thumping on her door many times ofver the years ,the latest with a van full of goons in tow, simply to gloat at the clubs banning order and despite being told the husband was at work they continued to harangue and harrass her.
Burglaries, Street robberies,Assaults on the public ,routinely go uninvestigated in Islington ,however Crack Dens flourish,whore houses operate freely , and you can buy anything from crack or smack to a tank in most pubs however Islington Police find it easier to hand out cautions and banning orders to football fans rather than do any real Police work which might require some application or gumption.

[goonersid]

Sounds like there is more to this than meets the eye, "fan x has never been arrested inside a football ground" most thugs and indeed football hooligans probably haven't maybe Herd could enlighten me on that
I doubt whether the head of Arsenal police intelligence took this into her own hands without good cause.
As for fan x' charity work wasn't Jimmy Saville involved in charity work, ie this doesn't stop you being a menace to society.

[cardinal2011]

I must admit that I am a bit puzzled by the reaction to stories like this. Sometimes people do bring about these consequences with their own actions. I must admit that I do not know this man or the events around it but the following is obvious -

The article claims that the man pleaded guilty to a public order offence (threatening words or behaviour). This makes you think that the poor man was just shouting a few swear words like we all do from time to time. This would be an offence under section five of the public order act. However this cannot be right as the maximum sentence is just a fine. Also the article states there were no witnesses or complaints, just CCTV footage and that the man was sentenced to 180 hours community service. Therefore that seems to indicate it was a much more serious offence like affray (as suggested by Herd, I don't know if he was just guessing?). This offence is punishable by a sentence up to three years in prison. The fact that the reported evidence was solely CCTV (and only visual) then you could guess that it captured him using violence?

The man also pleaded guilty to the offence so I cannot understand what the 'risable' evidence is? I also like going to football games, having a few beers & a laugh with my mates. However I have not had to suffer a 15 year relentless campaign from Islington police or any police to that matter. I wonder what could make them have such an interest in this man

As already stated I don't know the man or the whole story. He might be a really nice,innocent guy who for some reason has upset a hell of a lot of coppers over a 15 year period who are now persecuting him. Alternatively he could also be a violent criminal who people believe should not be allowed (rightly or wrongly) into the ground. It would be interesting to hear the whole story and the mans history from both sides but this is unlikely to happen. Without hearing the whole case then it would be easy to criticise the club.

[Herd]

Sid I dont think you know our OB very well. A lot of people have had serious inconvenience and harrassment over the years some simply stopped going because of it . You only need to rub them up the wrong way and you can be followed
searched on sight which can be tiresome however their favourite trick is to arrest people with tickets accuse them of stealing them and lock them up on game days only to release them without charge later on.
Confiscating season tickets and giving people the run aorund are just some of the ligther end.
Cardinal ,the evidence that he should be banned from attending football was risable ,the offence itself was straight forward a few bods got intop an argument and it kicked ,no one was hurt but since the OB have the place under 24/7 surveilance they came in to the pub within mins (the fight itself was very quickly stopped by others who stepped in ).
No one gave evidence against the only evidence was the cctv the Pub holds. The landlord of the pub got done too.
The incident was very minor and if happened elsewhere wouldnt have gone any further since the only person injured was the man himself.
My point is that it is surely it is beyond the remit of the Police to persecute or prosecute anyone beyond which that the law and the courts allow !
Arsenal FC has to be one of the safest places to visit in the country ,why harrass people more then required .
This person hasd not only attended matches without a problem for 30 plus years hehas held numerous charity events all without incident some of which at Arsenal .Such behaviour hardly requires a life banning order.

His current exploits include 2 charity events 1 of which is for a local Archway man Tim O'Donaghue who has been diagnosed with a vicious form of cancer and has to go to Germany for any operation that MIGHT save his life ! https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/dcMwc/ab/c23yCb
He does these things for nothing gets others involved and is a great organiser for events .
Hardly a danger to society !

[goonersid]

Sid I dont think you know our OB very well. A lot of people have had serious inconvenience and harrassment over the years some simply stopped going because of it . You only need to rub them up the wrong way and you can be followed
searched on sight which can be tiresome however their favourite trick is to arrest people with tickets accuse them of stealing them and lock them up on game days only to release them without charge later on.
Confiscating season tickets and giving people the run aorund are just some of the ligther end.
Cardinal ,the evidence that he should be banned from attending football was risable ,the offence itself was straight forward a few bods got intop an argument and it kicked ,no one was hurt but since the OB have the place under 24/7 surveilance they came in to the pub within mins (the fight itself was very quickly stopped by others who stepped in ).
No one gave evidence against the only evidence was the cctv the Pub holds. The landlord of the pub got done too.
The incident was very minor and if happened elsewhere wouldnt have gone any further since the only person injured was the man himself.
My point is that it is surely it is beyond the remit of the Police to persecute or prosecute anyone beyond which that the law and the courts allow !
Arsenal FC has to be one of the safest places to visit in the country ,why harrass people more then required .
This person hasd not only attended matches without a problem for 30 plus years hehas held numerous charity events all without incident some of which at Arsenal .Such behaviour hardly requires a life banning order.

His current exploits include 2 charity events 1 of which is for a local Archway man Tim O'Donaghue who has been diagnosed with a vicious form of cancer and has to go to Germany for any operation that MIGHT save his life ! https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/dcMwc/ab/c23yCb
He does these things for nothing gets others involved and is a great organiser for events .
Hardly a danger to society !

Fair enough, but looking at it from the outside it's easy to take the "everyone's a victim" stance.

[Herd]

I'm not outside,though I'm far away !

[Theoperator]

Sid I dont think you know our OB very well. A lot of people have had serious inconvenience and harrassment over the years some simply stopped going because of it . You only need to rub them up the wrong way and you can be followed
searched on sight which can be tiresome however their favourite trick is to arrest people with tickets accuse them of stealing them and lock them up on game days only to release them without charge later on.
Confiscating season tickets and giving people the run aorund are just some of the ligther end.
Cardinal ,the evidence that he should be banned from attending football was risable ,the offence itself was straight forward a few bods got intop an argument and it kicked ,no one was hurt but since the OB have the place under 24/7 surveilance they came in to the pub within mins (the fight itself was very quickly stopped by others who stepped in ).
No one gave evidence against the only evidence was the cctv the Pub holds. The landlord of the pub got done too.
The incident was very minor and if happened elsewhere wouldnt have gone any further since the only person injured was the man himself.
My point is that it is surely it is beyond the remit of the Police to persecute or prosecute anyone beyond which that the law and the courts allow !
.
This person hasd not only attended matches without a problem for 30 pluArsenal FC has to be one of the safest places to visit in the country ,why harrass people more then required s years hehas held numerous charity events all without incident some of which at Arsenal .Such behaviour hardly requires a life banning order.

His current exploits include 2 charity events 1 of which is for a local Archway man Tim O'Donaghue who has been diagnosed with a vicious form of cancer and has to go to Germany for any operation that MIGHT save his life ! https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/dcMwc/ab/c23yCb
He does these things for nothing gets others involved and is a great organiser for events .
Hardly a danger to society !

Perhaps the 2 are linked

There must be more to it surely, As others have said the working for charity bit is more than irrelevant, not all by a long stretch who work for charities are straight. Unless we live in the guys pocket we cannot be sure all has been swimmingly squeeky clean. Likewise we cant say the same of the police

If the Harrassment by the OB is as stated than seems there are cases for Human rights violations , would have thought the false allegations and locking up pre match as well as wrong is a breach of human rights. Perhaps contacting organisations like Liberty would make sense here.

As we all know too well fans have and are tarred with brushes of old, its up to us all to proove the image wrong, cant really be complacent though, I for one dont want it all to kick off again.

[arseofacrow]

I'm not outside,though I'm far away !

Herd the Puppetmaster

[safcftm]

As others have mentioned the charity bit is pretty much irrelevant. It does sound like there's more to the offence than meets the eye (I've had arguments with my mates in a pub before and none of us have ever done anything daft enough to warrant 180 hours of community service as a result of it) but that's not really the issue either. The thing that's more concerning in my opinion is that the club have decided to ban someone who has been convicted of something totally unrelated to football. It seems unfair that someone with a bee in their bonnet can get a lad banned when he's done fuck all wrong when following Arsenal.

I expect they're totally within their rights to do it (although I'd be interested to know how the "head of Arsenal police intelligence" got her hands on information regarding the incident if it wasn't ever anything to do with Arsenal) but where does it stop? Before long you could almost imagine fans having to submit to a disclosure check before being allowed into the ground. Clubs (not just arsenal, not by a long shot) seem to have a very itchy trigger finger when it comes to bans and the police support it (probably because if there's bugger all violence and bugger all bans they'll probably stop being able to claim shit loads of overtime for policing games in massive numbers)

[Almunia is a clown]

Plod really should be dealing with those serious lawbreakers & criminals who are a danger to society, including their bosses the politicians & their dodgy paymasters the rich elite.

This is nothing more than a stitch up by Plod, anything for an easy nicking & brownie points instead of doing some proper investigations & prosecutions catching real criminals.

Police are not fit for purpose & have abandoned their traditional role of protecting society from scumbags

[cardinal2011]

Plod really should be dealing with those serious lawbreakers & criminals who are a danger to society, including their bosses the politicians & their dodgy paymasters the rich elite.

This is nothing more than a stitch up by Plod, anything for an easy nicking & brownie points instead of doing some proper investigations & prosecutions catching real criminals.

Police are not fit for purpose & have abandoned their traditional role of protecting society from scumbags

Ahh right. So you know exactly what happened then do you? perhaps you can tell us exactly how this was a stich up (when the fella pleaded guilty) and also that he is not a 'real' criminal?

[Almunia is a clown]

I certainly know the local Plod are more interested in harassing local Arsenal supporters for years whilst failing to deal with much more serious crime in the area!

The only time they are ever seen on the streets is when there is an Arsenal game on, doesn't matter who we are playing, even when the opposition club has no history of crowd disturbances or there is no real chance of trouble they will be still present in large numbers, it's a cushy number for them & they don't have to work very hard most games.

Then they disappear until the next home game & let the local feral criminals act without impunity.

I find it amazing that some on this thread are quite content to let the Police issue bans from attending games & draconian travel restrictions to fellow supporters which can't be legally objected to & don't have the proof that would be necessary to achieve a successful prosecution in a court of law.

Some might welcome further restrictions on people's liberty but I find it all very sinister!!!

[Theoperator]

I certainly know the local Plod are more interested in harassing local Arsenal supporters for years whilst failing to deal with much more serious crime in the area!

The only time they are ever seen on the streets is when there is an Arsenal game on, doesn't matter who we are playing, even when the opposition club has no history of crowd disturbances or there is no real chance of trouble they will be still present in large numbers, it's a cushy number for them & they don't have to work very hard most games.

Then they disappear until the next home game & let the local feral criminals act without impunity.

I find it amazing that some on this thread are quite content to let the Police issue bans from attending games & draconian travel restrictions to fellow supporters which can't be legally objected to & don't have the proof that would be necessary to achieve a successful prosecution in a court of law.

Some might welcome further restrictions on people's liberty but I find it all very sinister!!!

I dont see anyone saying that on this thread

I certainly didnt, in fact I was in my newby way trying to point out that this all sounded like Human rights violations, certainly if what has been said on here is the only reason for it than that does sound like his as well as those "arrested" on the day of a match etc etc etc have good grounds for taking them to court for breaches of their human rights.

I cant bear the police much of the time, the harassment of motorists for going 33mph in a 30 zone or shutting a road for 20 hours after a collision, harassment of certain individuals for no clear reason as far as we can see, as well as the many cases that come to light, Hillsborough, Birmingham6 Mitchell plebgate, etc etc etc etc etc, when they dont seem to be bothered to do what they are meant to be doing and are hardly ever seen is despicable.

BUT surely they or at least some of them have had some sort of role in quelling the awful violence that was seen at and around matches in the 70s and 80s, though granted cctv has probably done as much

[Arsenal Till I Die]

Without being a lawyer I do not know if the club can overrule a police ban?

They can't.