' Police Chief wants Fans to Report on Fans '
Sat Jan 16, 2016 8:17 am
Police chief urges football fans to report all abuse
16th January 2016
Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins believes fans have a role to play in reporting unacceptable behaviour.
Football fans should combat abuse by reporting "anything which makes them uncomfortable", a senior Police Scotland officer has said.
Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins said fans should report incidents to officers or stewards.
Mr Higgins told BBC Scotland bigotry was no more acceptable in a football ground than anywhere else.
And he warned that someone could be seriously injured, or even killed, by fans setting off flares at matches.
Speaking to BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme, Mr Higgins said: "This season so far, we've had 32 incidents of pyrotechnics or flares being thrown or discharged at matches. Some of the incidents it's been three, four, five, six flares that have been thrown.
"That's a real danger, someone is going to get hurt. We've had a couple of real near misses. But it is potentially really quite life threatening.
"It compromises the safety of the event."
Speaking about sectarian incidents, the senior officer said: "Somebody once talked about the 90-minute bigot, but there is no such thing."
"If you are sitting at a game and you're uncomfortable because of something you see or something you hear, the reality is people around you will probably be uncomfortable as well.
"That's unacceptable. What I would urge you to do is go and report it to the steward or go and report it to a police officer."
'Eroded trust'
Much of the abuse heard at football grounds is a potential breach of the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.
That legislation was introduced in 2012 in a bid to clamp down on sectarianism.
Earlier this week, the Scottish Parliament's public petitions committee heard calls for the law to be scrapped.
The Fans Against Criminalisation campaign group argued the legislation had eroded trust between supporters and police and had failed to tackle bigotry.
But Mr Higgins said a report of offensive behaviour need not lead to heavy-handed action.
He said: "We don't necessarily have to arrest everybody. We've got a whole range of options available.
"The stewards can go and warn an individual to calm down - as can my officers - right the way through the whole quantum of stewards deciding to eject the person and, as an ultimate sanction, my officers arresting them."
In the BBC interview, Mr Higgins said offensive behaviour was not just a problem for Celtic and Rangers.
"We've arrested people associated with 16 different clubs in Scotland," he said.
"So it's not exclusive to the Old Firm, it's not exclusive to the top flight. That's 16 clubs right the way through all divisions."
16th January 2016
Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins believes fans have a role to play in reporting unacceptable behaviour.
Football fans should combat abuse by reporting "anything which makes them uncomfortable", a senior Police Scotland officer has said.
Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins said fans should report incidents to officers or stewards.
Mr Higgins told BBC Scotland bigotry was no more acceptable in a football ground than anywhere else.
And he warned that someone could be seriously injured, or even killed, by fans setting off flares at matches.
Speaking to BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme, Mr Higgins said: "This season so far, we've had 32 incidents of pyrotechnics or flares being thrown or discharged at matches. Some of the incidents it's been three, four, five, six flares that have been thrown.
"That's a real danger, someone is going to get hurt. We've had a couple of real near misses. But it is potentially really quite life threatening.
"It compromises the safety of the event."
Speaking about sectarian incidents, the senior officer said: "Somebody once talked about the 90-minute bigot, but there is no such thing."
"If you are sitting at a game and you're uncomfortable because of something you see or something you hear, the reality is people around you will probably be uncomfortable as well.
"That's unacceptable. What I would urge you to do is go and report it to the steward or go and report it to a police officer."
'Eroded trust'
Much of the abuse heard at football grounds is a potential breach of the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.
That legislation was introduced in 2012 in a bid to clamp down on sectarianism.
Earlier this week, the Scottish Parliament's public petitions committee heard calls for the law to be scrapped.
The Fans Against Criminalisation campaign group argued the legislation had eroded trust between supporters and police and had failed to tackle bigotry.
But Mr Higgins said a report of offensive behaviour need not lead to heavy-handed action.
He said: "We don't necessarily have to arrest everybody. We've got a whole range of options available.
"The stewards can go and warn an individual to calm down - as can my officers - right the way through the whole quantum of stewards deciding to eject the person and, as an ultimate sanction, my officers arresting them."
In the BBC interview, Mr Higgins said offensive behaviour was not just a problem for Celtic and Rangers.
"We've arrested people associated with 16 different clubs in Scotland," he said.
"So it's not exclusive to the Old Firm, it's not exclusive to the top flight. That's 16 clubs right the way through all divisions."
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Re: ' Police Chief wants Fans to Report on Fans '
Sat Jan 16, 2016 11:52 am
They're here they there they are every Fooking where grasses grasses.
Re: ' Police Chief wants Fans to Report on Fans '
Sat Jan 16, 2016 11:56 am
i will not report you annis even if your with the Frontline 
Re: ' Police Chief wants Fans to Report on Fans '
Sat Jan 16, 2016 8:09 pm
These killjoys can f**k of