Full Force Of The Law

[emmie]

a complete nightmare earlier today, going home on the bus, i thought we were caught up in traffic, not unusual, suddenly cops everywhere, hi viz jackets, shiny caps and more of them than you can shake a baton at,
blocking off the entire area, and why, because they were herding a load of football supporters, which struck me as more like containing a riot than footie fans. a police van skewed across the path of the bus and there we stayed, no one could get off either as the police had told the driver to keep the doors closed. after 40 minutes and much argy bargy, people trying to get to work, get home, we were allowed off, then rudely corralled down side streets. i had to leg it, or hobble to the nearest tube station. i know that we need the police but this sort of overt aggressive, mob handed behaviour seemed so unnecessary, many parents taking their children to the football, if it had gone badly and some fans been a bit lairy, then this could have been so ugly. They weren't, just trying to get to the game
took me two hours to get home, not happy with that.

[black_cat51]

how do you know they weren't lairy?

[emmie]

because i was stuck on the bus watching it all unfold, as were other passengers, and besides, the police completely, from what i could see , outnumbered the fans -

[tonyav]

Sorry emmie, but what you saw is not that unusual these days I'm afraid, the cops seem to use overkill tactics these days with football fans. What match was it.

[wolf63]

In many situations the Police just can't win. I thought, wrongly it would seem, that the hooliganism in football had died down.

St Johnstone is playing in some football match or other next month. They are playing in Glasgow ~ I don't think that Perth is big enough to hold all the supporters.

[Peter Pedant]

.

altho I am blue eyed - I was clustered with some Arabs by the police and didnt like it much. Shouldnt look like an Arab - I dont - I am pink and blue-eyed.

also to amuse you:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/22/5641266/nypd-twitter-photo-contest-backfires

[Eve]

You see it a lot around Manchester, I'd rather have more police than less police and it kicking off. I remember one team being escorted by the riot police to the stadium not long ago.

Lessons were learnt after an incident some years ago:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_UEFA_Cup_Final_riots

I remember it well, lived and worked in the city centre and it was not pleasant.

There is also a ban on alcohol sales at some stores in the city centre while some games are on, at least to footballs fans anyway.

It may be the police presence which is stopping any fans becoming "lairy". You could have been held up by a parade of lairy football fans anyway, in some games here groups of fans often parade around the city centre chanting and such which can cause issues with traffic flow, especially around rush hour.

I was in York last week and saw a number of rather mouthy Bury fans being escorted through town by the police. Even had a large group of boys (around 15 apparently) thrown off the train for being drunk and abusive to the ticket inspector.

[joeluke]

So rather than a delay in your journey you'd have preferred the police not to have blocked the road and ran the risk of the football fans boarding the bus?