Plastic ‘racist’ Chelsea fans banned from football by anti-football bigots
Five Chelsea fans (all white) who shoved Frenchman Souleymane Sylla (black) off a train on the Paris Metro have been punished. The four chanted “We’re racist, we’re racist, and that’s the way we like it” on their way to watch Chelsea’s Champions League match against Paris St Germain on February 17th.
The judgement:
Richard Barklie, 50, of Victoria Street, Carrickfergus, Co Antrim; Joshua Parsons, 20, of Woodhouse Place, Dorking; Dean Callis, 32, of Islington, London; and William Simpson, 26, have been issued with football banning orders for five years.
Jordan Munday, 20, was banned from football matches for three years.
District Judge Gareth Branston told London’s Stratford Magistrates Court:
“This was an abhorrent, nasty, offensive, arrogant and utterly unacceptable behaviour and cannot be allowed in modern, civilised society. It must be stamped out.”
Branston said Barklie joined in the racist chanting of “John Terry is a racist and that’s the way we like it”.
Parsons shouted “where were you in World War Two?” and “F*** the IRA”, the court heard.
None of those chants are especially racist, are they? Stupid? Yes. Arcane? Yes. Hackneyed? Yes. The only hint of creativity is the one about John Terry, the Chelsea captain infamous embroiled in a racially-fulled row with QPR’s Anton Ferdinand. Terry was cleared by the courts and banned by the FA.
Aside from the pushing and intimidation on the Metro, you wonder if the boorish Chelsea fans have been found guilty to thought crimes. Surely they were just speaking freely. Yes , what they said was offensive, ugly and evidence of mental negligibility. But when we arrest people for saying things, we are in danger of becoming an illiberal mob.
As for the guilty, the Irish Times hears the pick of the excuses:
Munday, of Sidcup south-east London, is said to have joined in the racist chanting, an allegation he denied, insisting he was just “breathing”.
Mouth breather!
But this excuse, picked up by the Indy is also a cracker:
Mr Barklie, who is a former police officer from Northern Ireland, told the court that Mr Sylla was “the only person using aggression” and had tried to force himself on the train when there was no space. The Chelsea fan said: “I did push him, I put my hand out to stop him getting into this space.”
Mr Barklie said he had put his hands up to defend himself, in accordance with his public order training…
No rubber bullets were fired in self-defence. And that cultural sensitivity training let him down.
None stood in court, raised a stiff arm and declared his love for Hitler. This is modern Chelsea, not the 1970s headhunting neo-Nazi breed, wiped out by modernity, the prevailing culture, a Jewish owner, success, Sky Sports, a shifting culture, mockery, the fact that a quarter of Premier League players are black and to a much lesser degree anti-racism laws.
Racists words but not necessarily racists.
The one exception seems to be Simpson, of Ashford, Surrey, who previously been arrested twice before for race-connected crimes, including once allegedly calling a taxi driver a “f****** Paki”.
All men had denied being racist.
Posted: 22nd, July 2015 | In: Chelsea, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
