Police over reaction at end of today's game

[Dave Clark Five]

My son and I were very angry last night.   We have both calmed down now.   I shall say nothing more about it but one final comment.

Suppose that lad they piled into and stood on and squashed and heaved every which way had been an epileptic, or had a heart condition or had recently had major surgery or was a chronic asthmatic or had osteoporosis or any one of a hundred conditions which made him vulnerable to physical violence?

They asked no questions, their punishment was instant.   Wallop.

Then that's completely out of order.  I hope you can see that a few of us were just trying to find out a bit more info last night Brian, and weren't siding with the stewards/police.

Then he'd be even more stupid for going to a football match, and even more for smoking. ;-)

Nice one PMcG.
Back to the serious side, we saw a bloke get sat on by loads of Police at Southampton many years ago. He had done very little wrong but would have stood a better chance with a python.
You quite often get people gesturing to opposing fans and being obnoxious to all around who just get left alone, despite being in clear view of Police and stewards.
Thankfully, they don't appear at games that often.

[Pat McMahon]

Brian, you have made some really clear and lucid points re what you saw on Sunday.

I really think you should send a letter to Arsenal about this, simply stating  the facts and leaving aside your anger.It won't help the fella who was aggressed on Sunday but I would like to think Arsenal would take steps to ensure this doesn't happen again.

Good luck

[Dave Clark Five]

There is something about 'prone restraint' in today's Independent. It is used quite a lot by the Police, sometimes completely out of proportion to the reason for the arrest. I can only advise not getting into a situation where they need to do this to you as it seems quite a few die as a result of it.

[Risso]

Yes Jon, they were talking about all the "restraint" related deaths on the radio this morning.

[Aston Manor]

i'm generally sympathetic with the police, but that looks outrageous. there was a headline recently saying public safety was at risk because there are now 6000 less police in the force than last year - but there's always dozens of em about to deal with nonsense like this. Or to stand there pointing video cameras at a load of lads stood watching the game. And as for those orange jacketed, head phone wearing idiots - don't get me started. fair enough the lad shouldn't be smoking but why didn't one steward just tell him to put it out

The force gets paid by the club to lay on coppers for a footy match. So they need to justify the pay in some way otherwise the clubs might decide they don't need as many / them at all.

It's the police that decide on the policing and numbers of police needed. They then in turn charge the clubs. The clubs have no say so whatsoever.

[dave.woodhall]

i'm generally sympathetic with the police, but that looks outrageous. there was a headline recently saying public safety was at risk because there are now 6000 less police in the force than last year - but there's always dozens of em about to deal with nonsense like this. Or to stand there pointing video cameras at a load of lads stood watching the game. And as for those orange jacketed, head phone wearing idiots - don't get me started. fair enough the lad shouldn't be smoking but why didn't one steward just tell him to put it out

The force gets paid by the club to lay on coppers for a footy match. So they need to justify the pay in some way otherwise the clubs might decide they don't need as many / them at all.

It's the police that decide on the policing and numbers of police needed. They then in turn charge the clubs. The clubs have no say so whatsoever.

Not entirely true. Clubs pay for the police inside the ground, which is a matter of police 'advice'. Not that police advice is ever ignored.

[amfy]

The only place I've ever seen people flouting the smoking ban is at football matches. It's like people thnk it's ok because of the circumstances.

Really - not at gigs (especially large gigs), or in clubs? I've see people thrown out for smoking from lots of different places, it's never taken that many people to do it though.

Generally I thought with the numbers travelling it went off pretty well and policing was pretty low key. Maybe they got bored.