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Not all cops are bastards. To the vast majority, it’s a badge of honour rather than a job.
But just like the niche group of football fans that threaten to ruin things for all supporters, a minority of those in power within the police force have other ideas.
What should have been an amicable meeting between representatives from the Red and Black Bloc and NSW Police at Tuesday’s ‘nanny state’ inquiry took a vicious turn.
First, Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford linked the behaviour of football fans to the Cronulla riots of 2005. Senator David Leyonhjelm then went into bat for the RBB, claiming “the police are not our masters, they are our servants and I think they should remember that”. And the grand finale to the worst conciliatory talks since Colombian officials negotiated for Pablo Escobar to build his own luxury prison: Police Association NSW president Scott Weber labelled Western Sydney Wanderers fans ‘grubs’.
This week was supposed to be about improving dialogue, bridging the gap between fans and police and finding a way to repair what has become a worryingly strained relationship.
This isn’t a fight about flares, it’s a fight about respect – currently a fight we, the fans, are losing. NSW Police demand respect but have done very little to earn it with the xenophobic attitudes on display this week.
An overwhelming stereotype has been created, one that sees football fans as the problem rather than the solution. The message on display this week is that the police are determined to adopt a one size fits all approach to football policing, using the few unruly supporters as the target of their strategy.
This minority should be treated as the exception rather than the rule. It’s clear that problems do exist in Australian fandom, as last week’s Sydney derby proved. It would be acceptable for police to adopt special measures for higher risk matches, but having 45 police officers patrolling Pirtek Stadium for Wanderers versus Perth on Sunday was simply a waste of tax payers’ money.
Perhaps the police were expecting an encore of Glory’s trip to Parramatta last season when they pepper sprayed a group of Wanderers fans, including a 13-year-old boy.
The siege mentality formed this week opens the door to the type of racial profiling that is still rife in nightclub culture.
It’s a mindset akin to UEFA president Michel Platini’s calls for a European police force to combat what he describes as a ‘rise in nationalism and extremism’.
The Frenchman has been pushing the policy since he was elected to his position in 2007, but has received minimal support.
In an interview with Newsweek, a member of Football Supporters Europe, Kevin Miles, slammed the decision.
“As a fans’ organisation we are much more in favour of spreading the best practice and keeping reactions in proportion, than in superficially attractive ideas like a European police force,” he said.
“There is often a big difference between sounding tough and delivering productive solutions. Far reaching measures which impact on the mass of fans have proven to be counter productive in the essential task of marginalising the very small numbers of perpetrators of violence.”
That all sounds pretty familiar.
Platini’s plan was also condemned by Paris’s deputy mayor for sports and tourism, Jean-Frnacois Martins, who claims “the evolution of the supporter business has changed” and “the way we have to approach these fans is different than it used to be.”
The general consensus across western Europe – with some countries in the east still burdened by heavy-handed tactics – is that a softer approach and self-policing is far more sustainable.
State Police across Australia clearly misunderstand football fans.
The war of words must cease, the fractures must be repaired and the FFA and all clubs must realise their duty in improving communication between the lines. The attack wasn’t just on the RBB, it was an attack on our game.
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