POLICE clash with BLACKPOOL FANS at EXIT CORDON

ShipstonMartyn said:
I agree
I was at the front of the crowd held back
It was largely good natured at first with most fans seeing a stream of blues fans passing and the logic of not allowing both fans to meet was plain for all to see , but when that cleared, there was no explanation from the police as to why we were still being held
Then a push started from the back and people at the front were shoved towards the police line which unless you were careful ( and big and heavy like me ) meant you inevitably barged into the cordon
The tall copper everyone is referring to seemed to be in charge and was just looking for an excuse and initiated an aggressive push into fans who had no where to go
Total farce
Click to expand...
Agree 100% it was a total farce
 
TANGERINETOWERPOWER said:
I believe some on here would love to blame this on our fans but that was not the case at all and the police were way too fast to draw batons and hit out and ask questions later. If the coppers at the front had been more friendly with banter and cracked a few jokes about how cold it was then there would have been no issues...instead they thought it would be better to smack a few fans for effect.
Click to expand...
Couldn't see everything from the back but the police attacking fans just seemed completely out of sorts with the general atmosphere of just being cold, wanting to get back to the car but just putting up with it in a good humoured way
 
What's the rationale for at least half a dozen flailing with batons then the crowd starting to go through on the left within 30 seconds? Total overreaction to absolutely nothing. Uniform, power and a stick do strange things to people.

Is it coincidence that those flailing were also the ones wearing masks?

After the shambles recently at Bloomfield Rd, it doesn't exactly fill you with confidence in our boys and girls in blue.
 
LeeCharlesTV said:
Couldn't see everything from the back but the police attacking fans just seemed completely out of sorts with the general atmosphere of just being cold, wanting to get back to the car but just putting up with it in a good humoured way
Click to expand...
This was a good five mins before your video starts and happened by the last coach nearest the gates and the minibus on the left...it did not show the old bill in a good light at all as I pointed out to one of the Blackpool Plod that were there...to be fair he wasnt lashing out at anyone and looked a bit embarrassed by it all.
 
I was quite close to it. 100% the police's fault. Not even a discussion to be had.

It was a complete shambles the entire day. I can't even believe there are questions from BFC fans about this. It was disgusting. Compare it to protesting in the middle of the M25 and that's a different world. Our police force are continuing to look like complete cunts and yesterday showed them up.
 
Remember one of the Barnet matches back in the day and it kicked off with the Met inside the ground; we eventually got an apology for their over zealous behaviour.

This feels similar.

One thing the previous owners did as a direct result of that incident, was to ensure we had a legal representative at away matches (it could just have been their mate, I've no idea and at the time didn't care). It feels as though we are getting to that point again.

We are being targeted and we need @BlackpoolSupportersTrust and @SLO_BFC to think about how we are protected when we are travelling.

We could have our own by official fan observers who report on stewarding and policing (vetted and trained by the club) with decent cameras; we could have legals, we might even take our own off duty copper. There has to be options.

Something needs to happen as policing this year has been at times incompetent to the point of being dangerous.
 
Bend it like Suddick said:
Im not disputing what you say, more the ID. A West Mids Police Badge/helmet is virtually the same (except for the obvious inscription). Was you within a couple of feet to decipher it, or was they wearing a Lancs Police jacket.

If the latter, then I can only think that involvement has changed in recent times. There is no way my colleagues would have reacted to a Sergeant from another Force.
Click to expand...
Lancs police don't wear helmets, they wear baseball caps.
 
LeeCharlesTV said:
Completely agree it was actually quite surreal, yes it was cold, yes we just wanted to get back to our car ASAP, the Blackpool fans were having a bit of fun, sure there was a chant of Birminghams s sh1te hole but I'm sure the police have heard worse? But the lashing out at fans at the front resulting in a crush as fans backed off seemed totally unprovoked and ultimately unnecessary as they started letting people filter through within seconds.
Click to expand...
My daughter's first away match. All it seemed to do was to give time for their "ultras" to have time to go go upstream to ambush our fans going back to the centre. We watched one particular "chase" which hopefully didn't end up in pool fan harm, or any body else's.
 
Dirky said:
My daughter's first away match. All it seemed to do was to give time for their "ultras" to have time to go go upstream to ambush our fans going back to the centre. We watched one particular "chase" which hopefully didn't end up in pool fan harm, or any body else's.
Click to expand...
Apparently somebody in a post above got attacked and really injured. Sounded horrific
 
TANGERINETOWERPOWER said:
This was a good five mins before your video starts and happened by the last coach nearest the gates and the minibus on the left...it did not show the old bill in a good light at all as I pointed out to one of the Blackpool Plod that were there...to be fair he wasnt lashing out at anyone and looked a bit embarrassed by it all.
Click to expand...
Glad I didn't witness that this was bad enough
 
Wizaard said:
What's the rationale for at least half a dozen flailing with batons then the crowd starting to go through on the left within 30 seconds? Total overreaction to absolutely nothing. Uniform, power and a stick do strange things to people.

Is it coincidence that those flailing were also the ones wearing masks?

After the shambles recently at Bloomfield Rd, it doesn't exactly fill you with confidence in our boys and girls in blue.
Click to expand...
Fills you with no confidence whatsoever Wizz -angry mob? That wasn't in the least and I was in it! Couldn't believe what was happening and what I was filming. I was thinking it was a perfect ending for the video summing up the day perfectly ie Blackpool fans still keeping upbeat despite being the best team and losing, half frozen, no hot water or hand driers in the loos, a grotty stadium concourse yet still we make the most of things and sing our hearts out
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
The police were a disgrace all day

Moving fans in the away end seats to stand in the gang ways was ridiculous

Were i was with my kids there were 2 people to each seat

Not a problem for me as my kids stood on their seats but why move people to stand in the gang ways causing over crowding

Then after the game as per video a line of police stopping fans from leaving.I pushed to the front to get out as i had freezing kids with me and at first they wouldn't let us out with raised battens

I actually had a police arm across my chest stopping me ...

Then the pushing and shoving then the aggressive police tactics

Apparently it was done to round up the young Blackpool fans who were on the train so they could get an escort back (not sure if the escort even happened in the end)

All the brain child of the Blackpool police according to a Birmingham copper who i spoke to at the secondary police cordon by the roundabout

** disgrace
Click to expand...
I was with my two lads, we asked the police what was going when we returned to our seats (20 mins to get a pint) the copper we spoke to was a decent guy to be fair, he was a Wolves fan! he told us that is was the clubs decision to move the fans due to the coin throwing at each other……. Make of that what you will. Spent the whole of the second half watching from the entrance /exit to the concourse. Utter ** joke. My eldest lad was walking back to catch his train to Reading with some others fans and they were basically ambushed by ‘Zulu’ shouting dickheads throwing smoke bombs and bottles - not a copper in sight!
 
911_Kirky said:
I was with my two lads, we asked the police what was going when we returned to our seats (20 mins to get a pint) the copper we spoke to was a decent guy to be fair, he was a Wolves fan! he told us that is was the clubs decision to move the fans due to the coin throwing at each other……. Make of that what you will. Spent the whole of the second half watching from the entrance /exit to the concourse. Utter ** joke. My eldest lad was walking back to catch his train to Reading with some others fans and they were basically ambushed by ‘Zulu’ shouting dickheads throwing smoke bombs and bottles - not a copper in sight!
Click to expand...
Doesn't sound like they protected Blackpool fans at all then. If the point of keeping us back was to provide a safe police escort back to the train station for those making that journey then that didn't happen so that has to be a total BS excuse.

The only thing they did was cause a lot of trouble and then attack people who just basically wanted to set off home.

I hope my video is watched by BST and the club as combined with the videos from others closer to the action (showing exactly the way that police were hitting fans who were not attacking them with fists and batons) confirms that the police were an absolute disgrace. Its been bad enough the way they have caused all the problems on Bloomfield Road when the simple solution to take them out of the North East corner whilst setting things up to prevent a North Stand clash meant they didn't even need anyone on Bloomfield Road whatsoever, no away fans, no trouble passing the Armfield just every day normal football loving people walking home or back to their cars
 
Dirky said:
My daughter's first away match. All it seemed to do was to give time for their "ultras" to have time to go go upstream to ambush our fans going back to the centre. We watched one particular "chase" which hopefully didn't end up in pool fan harm, or any body else's.
Click to expand...
Yes saw this as I was right in the middle of it as some brummy scallywags appeared from knowehere pushed past me and targeted a bunch of around 10 singing young pool fans, who got chased back towards the ground ..hope they didnt get a beating, but singing in the middle of Brum wasn't a good idea.
 
Circumstances definitely changed with their late goal, if it stayed 0-0 everyone would have trudged back looking for some warmth. They score and all of a sudden it gives their boneheads an excuse to throw abuse and missiles to antagonize us. Why does any club put fans above away fans is beyond belief, especially the creatures on Sat. Anyway this late point I can only assume the Police tactics changed and then it descends into chaos. Where was a tannoy if you are going to impose this? If people are talked to then they can understand, Pool fans having campaigned for away fans to be kept back and told it was against human rights etc then see it quite rightly as their rights being infringed. So UK Police forces get together and be consistent... The flare that went off didn't help but a couple of WM Police were clearly wanting to keep the cold off and lashed out indiscriminately. Like most things in life, if you don't communicate you are going to get confusion and frustration, WM failed miserably to communicate.
 
Plod were right out of order their actions could have resulted in panic and a stampede, you know if you hit the front line they will surge back, kids families also waiting to get out. Worst i remember is Bury away in the 80's i think, they kept us penned in a small area, was a serious crush and the brick wall came down at the side, madness.
 
LeeCharlesTV said:
Doesn't sound like they protected Blackpool fans at all then. If the point of keeping us back was to provide a safe police escort back to the train station for those making that journey then that didn't happen so that has to be a total BS excuse.

The only thing they did was cause a lot of trouble and then attack people who just basically wanted to set off home.

I hope my video is watched by BST and the club as combined with the videos from others closer to the action (showing exactly the way that police were hitting fans who were not attacking them with fists and batons) confirms that the police were an absolute disgrace. Its been bad enough the way they have caused all the problems on Bloomfield Road when the simple solution to take them out of the North East corner whilst setting things up to prevent a North Stand clash meant they didn't even need anyone on Bloomfield Road whatsoever, no away fans, no trouble passing the Armfield just every day normal football loving people walking home or back to their cars
Click to expand...
Hi Lee and others

My only suggestion is forward the video to the IPCC and ask them to account for the police’s behaviour I.e. would any reasonable member of the public think they used reasonable behaviour/force ?

Here’s where to send it -
send an email to enquiries@policeconduct.gov.uk(link sends e-mail) rather than posting us a letter
We’ll be able to deal with emails in a more timely manner than mail which may take 7-10 working days to process and respond to.

- call us on 0300 020 0096. Our lines are open 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday.

I would also cc it for comment to :
Head of security at Birmingham City FC and
The Chief of Police in Birmingham
Not forgetting; 12 Angry Men

Looks like you’ll get an answer in 10 days

Let’s see what they all say about the conduct of their / any officers - it’s quite clear from the video that some police officers felt the need to hit out at our fans for a reason only they will know but I think they should asked politely as should the guy giving the order to behave in such manner.

All I would say is you didn’t see what was going on at final whistle - fans (all idiots) goading each other in the corner and then wanting to fight each other over a huge fence - lots of stuff being thrown by them as I left the ground and plenty of thugs on both sides wanting to have some sort of fight (a large young lad in a distinctive Tangerine hoody being one) -one guy on our side by the fence, was caught by 3 policemen and several loons were trying to scale the fence (? Why) - it’s a footie match -if you want to be in a war zone guys join the army and go and fight out of the UK please

For all those who wanted atom fight - join a boxing gym and see how hard you really are as you spoil what should be a happy family day out for the majority
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top