Justice For Football Hooligans
The last couple of weeks Football mania came to Swale but also Football Hooligans have been sporned from the area or has it? It was reported that a Football fan was stopped at Sittingbourne Railway station and had his passport removed. His offence was that he was a potential troublemaker, now I have no time for football hooligans or any other hooligan comes to that but I was under the misimpression that in this Country you were innocent till proved guilty! This is not the case with Football supporters if you are considered a potential risk you are labeled a hooligan and have the basic right to travel where you want when you want removed, without the right to defend yourself. Can you imagine the hue and cry if this happened to an illegal immigrant they would be swamped with the human pariah called Human Rights Lawyers. Where next will the thought police strike will people be banned from driving because they walked into a pub and were potential over the limit drink drivers? The reason for the infringement of one of our basic liberties is to stop violence abroad, well looking at last week that did not work.
Then we had the Faversham man convicted of being a leader of a bunch of hooligans in Portugal and given a two-year prison sentence. The newspapers, media and David Blunket loved it “ Justice at last” they all shouted. Justice! To be arrested, tried and sentenced in two days and they call that justice? How did he have time to organize a defense, do we know exactly what he done? Did he injure anyone? He called it a “fit up” maybe it was, maybe it was not surely he should be heard? What of his punishment 2 years prison! Lets be honest if he had been fighting in Faversham high street would he have been given a prison sentence I doubt it. Now he is back in England he has been released due to some cock up but still he has to be punished so the Fire Brigade who he works for are considering sacking him, putting him on the dole punishing not only him but his family more money for the tax payer to fork out and what about the cost of training his replacement? I have to work out what getting involved in a fight has to do with putting out fires?
I know what you are thinking “Martin has become a left wing softy” on the contrary if the Faversham man was guilty of rioting lock him up that will send a message to all football yobs but apply the same standards to all, irrelevant of colour, race or religion. Also allow all the access to the legal system not just ones where lawyers can make a lot of money.
Martin Clarke