Coventry Protest Turns Sour

M-50 · Post by **M-50** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:12 pm

The man being handled at the start of the video voiced his concern to the coppers about how people above him in the stands were being treated. He goes to games with his son. The coppers were having none of it and you can see yourself how he was treated. Reminds of a vid posted on here recently about the City Fan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZhI4LQn ... r_embedded#!

Irish Gooner · Post by **Irish Gooner** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:17 pm

Policing in England is supposedly so modern, but yet still corrupt and unjust.

While the gardai in ireland are backward and alot are power trippers, most of them are fair and the coppers shouldnt get away with shit like this.

I've always thought there should be minimal police at low risk games anyway. Just another cushy number for them.

SurreyGooner · Post by **SurreyGooner** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:23 pm

Good on Coventry fuck modern football

Dan_85 · Post by **Dan_85** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:24 pm

Posted my thoughts on the video. Great to see fans sticking up for each other & chasing cops off the terraces, doesn't happen enough in this country. I notice that tensions only flared once the cops went wading in, making a situation out of nothing.

M-50 · Post by **M-50** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:26 pm

Irish Gooner wrote:Policing in England is supposedly so modern, but yet still corrupt and unjust.

While the gardai in ireland are backward and alot are power trippers, most of them are fair and the coppers shouldnt get away with shit like this.

I've always thought there should be minimal police at low risk games anyway. Just another cushy number for them.

My personal experience with police in the UK (I lived there for 9 yrs) is one of respect. Never had one issue with them and to be honest they helped me out big time once upon a time.

However, policing at football in the UK is an entirely different ball game. Everyone is treated as suspect #1 and change is desperately needed.

mcdowell42 · Post by **mcdowell42** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:30 pm

Irish Gooner wrote:Policing in England is supposedly so modern, but yet still corrupt and unjust.

While the gardai in ireland are backward and alot are power trippers, most of them are fair and the coppers shouldnt get away with shit like this.

I've always thought there should be minimal police at low risk games anyway. Just another cushy number for them.

And you are basing that on what

Irish Gooner · Post by **Irish Gooner** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:39 pm

mcdowell42 wrote:
Irish Gooner wrote:Policing in England is supposedly so modern, but yet still corrupt and unjust.

While the gardai in ireland are backward and alot are power trippers, most of them are fair and the coppers shouldnt get away with shit like this.

I've always thought there should be minimal police at low risk games anyway. Just another cushy number for them.
And you are basing that on what

Living here

Funny you picked out that but not powertrippers which is arguably worse, but even more true! Its just my opinion on seeing them in action, obviously some are good and some bad, but the bad ones are very bad.

safcftm · Post by **safcftm** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:52 pm

Regarding the first bit its hard to tell who is in the wrong as it doesnt show any of the lead up to it. The video suggests that the fan has been targetted for no reason and is pulled out but they obviously had enough evidence to get him a 3 year banning order so there must have been more than simply the police thinking "lets randomly target this bloke and pull him out of the crowd".

The bit I found worse tbh was the bit where a steward was quite obviously pulling at someones flag and putting his hands on the bloke while he does it. Someone might need to clear this up for me but I know that stewards have next to no power- they can ask you to leave but they shouldnt be putting their hands on people, that should be left to the police. I find it disgusting that so many clubs (Arsenal included) seem to think they can restrict freedom of speech as one of their entry conditions. If a banner isnt inciting violence, it doesnt have swearing and it isnt racist/ homophobic etc it should be allowed in. Clubs seem to think their ground is the hub of a totalitarian society where they can dictate what is and isnt expressed.

As a Sunderland fan I've got no sympathy for Coventry or their supporters in football matters, I hope they go to the fucking wall, bunch of *word censored*, but they should still be allowed to protest when they want without fucking stewards getting involved and trying to act like the police. The police also need to watch themselves because they often seem to think its okay to overreact because "its football fans"

Dan_85 · Post by **Dan_85** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:55 pm

safcftm wrote:I find it disgusting that so many clubs (Arsenal included) seem to think they can restrict freedom of speech as one of their entry conditions.

This. I find it staggering more isn't made of this issue.

Post by **brazilianGOONER** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:56 pm

safcftm wrote:Regarding the first bit its hard to tell who is in the wrong as it doesnt show any of the lead up to it. The video suggests that the fan has been targetted for no reason and is pulled out but they obviously had enough evidence to get him a 3 year banning order so there must have been more than simply the police thinking "lets randomly target this bloke and pull him out of the crowd".

The bit I found worse tbh was the bit where a steward was quite obviously pulling at someones flag and putting his hands on the bloke while he does it. Someone might need to clear this up for me but I know that stewards have next to no power- they can ask you to leave but they shouldnt be putting their hands on people, that should be left to the police. I find it disgusting that so many clubs (Arsenal included) seem to think they can restrict freedom of speech as one of their entry conditions. If a banner isnt inciting violence, it doesnt have swearing and it isnt racist/ homophobic etc it should be allowed in. Clubs seem to think their ground is the hub of a totalitarian society where they can dictate what is and isnt expressed.

As a Sunderland fan I've got no sympathy for Coventry or their supporters in football matters, I hope they go to the fucking wall, bunch of c**ts, but they should still be allowed to protest when they want without fucking stewards getting involved and trying to act like the police. The police also need to watch themselves because they often seem to think its okay to overreact because "its football fans"

sorry 'bout the ignorance mate, but what is it with you and coventry? not the first time i hear it

safcftm · Post by **safcftm** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 8:00 pm

brazilianGOONER wrote:
sorry 'bout the ignorance mate, but what is it with you and coventry? not the first time i hear it

Story is here mate http://www.sunderlandecho.com/sport/sun ... _1_1054248

Fuck Coventry, Bristol City and Jimmy fucking Hill

Anyway, thats a quick aside, back to the matter in hand

SWLGooner · Post by **SWLGooner** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 8:01 pm

safcftm wrote: The bit I found worse tbh was the bit where a steward was quite obviously pulling at someones flag and putting his hands on the bloke while he does it. Someone might need to clear this up for me but I know that stewards have next to no power- they can ask you to leave but they shouldnt be putting their hands on people, that should be left to the police. I find it disgusting that so many clubs (Arsenal included) seem to think they can restrict freedom of speech as one of their entry conditions. If a banner isnt inciting violence, it doesnt have swearing and it isnt racist/ homophobic etc it should be allowed in. Clubs seem to think their ground is the hub of a totalitarian society where they can dictate what is and isnt expressed.

Unfortunately legally they can restrict freedom of speech as much as they want on public property, if you do it in the form of banners, and they can ban anyone if they want to.

Although stewards do have very little power.

I do expect to hear about that Coventry case through the FSF soon.

MK Gould · Post by **MK Gould** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 8:02 pm

safcftm wrote:As a Sunderland fan I've got no sympathy for Coventry or their supporters in football matters, I hope they go to the fucking wall, bunch of c**ts.....

WHAT??? I don't think I've ever heard anyone have a bad word to say about Coventry. Good day out and harmless as f*ck....surely? Had only one bad(ish) experience on the way to the old Highfield Road but even that was caused by the gooners I was tagging along with.

What they do to you?

mcdowell42 · Post by **mcdowell42** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 8:03 pm

Irish Gooner wrote:
mcdowell42 wrote:
Irish Gooner wrote:Policing in England is supposedly so modern, but yet still corrupt and unjust.

While the gardai in ireland are backward and alot are power trippers, most of them are fair and the coppers shouldnt get away with shit like this.

I've always thought there should be minimal police at low risk games anyway. Just another cushy number for them.
And you are basing that on what
Living here

Funny you picked out that but not powertrippers which is arguably worse, but even more true! Its just my opinion on seeing them in action, obviously some are good and some bad, but the bad ones are very bad.

I live here too

3 of my brothers in law and a sister in law are guards and i can ensure they are far from backward and are in no way powertrippers,Of course you are going to come across a bad element there will always be a miniority in any section of society who let down the majority,but to come out with a sweeping statement labelling them all backward and powertrippers seems a bit naive but at least falls into line with your usual crap.

And looking at that video footage it probably doesnt tell the the whole story,you cant really see what led up to the copper trying to remove the fan.

SWLGooner · Post by **SWLGooner** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 8:04 pm

MK Gould wrote:
safcftm wrote:As a Sunderland fan I've got no sympathy for Coventry or their supporters in football matters, I hope they go to the fucking wall, bunch of c**ts.....
WHAT??? I don't think I've ever heard anyone have a bad word to say about Coventry. Good day out and harmless as f*ck....surely? Had only one bad(ish) experience on the way to the old Highfield Road but even that was caused by the gooners I was tagging along with.

What they do to you?

Sunlun and Cov hate each other....

...off RTG...

The year is 1977. Sunderland, Coventry and Bristol City go into the last game of the season battling against relegation. Jimmy Hill was the chairman of Coventry and had his game kick off delayed by 15 minutes because of "crowd congestion." As the second half began at Highfield, we were getting beat by Everton, I think it was, Mr Hill announced our score throughout the second half and as the game wore on had a message sent on the pitch that Sunderland were getting beat 2-0 (iirc) and Coventry and Bristol only needed a point for both to stay up. The end result was farcical with both teams just passing the ball about between each other and not bothering to get into each others box. Sunderland got beat and Coventry and Bristol ended their game 15 minutes later fully aware that they were safe.

Sunderland went down and Bristol and Coventry stayed up by cheating.

Read more: http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread ... z1gRmBtqEb