FFS Give it a rest

[Ken L]

I can't stand football, don't give a toss about the jumped up overpaid teenagers that play it and am sick to the back teeth of hearing or reading about their alleged "racist" comments which are of all things involving the police and the judicial system.

The latest "shock horror" story to hit the headlines is one of these little tits daring to comment on some anonymous bloke's tweet that referred to another football playing tit as a "Choc ice".

This is apparently once again involving the police - at public expense.

 

Now I've met and spoken to real racists on numerous occasions. I even sort of get on with a couple in a rather limited way and you can be sure that they say things much harsher than Choc ice !

Not only that but they have real malice in mind and on occasion really hurt people.

 

Do our police really have nothing better to do than chase indirect name calling ?

[Dales]

Do our police really have nothing better to do than chase indirect name calling ?

 

Yes, they do fulfilling G4S's contract obligations.

[Emma two]

I can't stand football, don't give a toss about the jumped up overpaid teenagers that play it and am sick to the back teeth of hearing or reading about their alleged "racist" comments which are of all things involving the police and the judicial system.

The latest "shock horror" story to hit the headlines is one of these little tits daring to comment on some anonymous bloke's tweet that referred to another football playing tit as a "Choc ice".

This is apparently once again involving the police - at public expense.

 

Now I've met and spoken to real racists on numerous occasions. I even sort of get on with a couple in a rather limited way and you can be sure that they say things much harsher than Choc ice !

Not only that but they have real malice in mind and on occasion really hurt people.

 

Do our police really have nothing better to do than chase indirect name calling ?

 

 

Regardless of whether you like it or not, football is the most popular spectator sport in the world watched by millions. ( I love the club game). Footballers, as you point out are very well paid so they shouldn’t have the freedom to abuse each other in whatever ways they see fit. If someone insults another based upon their race, then they are not just insulting the subject, but their family and millions of others implying that it is a negative to be of that background. That attitude is liable to find it's way onto the streets through those who treat some players as heroes (role models).

 

I agree that perhaps the criminal justice system does (or should) have more important things to concern itself with than high cost court cases. I would rather see the sport policing itself more closely with, red cards and FA fines, fine the club heavily or deduct points. That might pressure those who can’t keep it shut to exercise some self discipline, for the clubs couldn’t afford to employ liabilities like that.

 

Conversely one of my oldest and closest friends is a self confessed racist, he is quite open about that, wears it as part of his identity , and argues that it is a positive trait and not a negative one.

[mr motorola]

May sound like a daft question but.............

 

If the authorities left the instigators to their own devices and name called on networking sites , what exactly would happen? Are the masses going to hit the streets baying for blood? public and social downfall because we , as a state are totally and utterly media fed trogs who can't / won't think for ourselves , lost all comprehension of common sense?

 

It's all media driven bullsh1t simply to sell news / newspapers. Ban the media and the problem would disappear overnight......a radical motion you might scream but very true!!!!!!

 

yours truely mr m

[Phone]

Ken,

 

I can only assume I know what FFS means - but probably. Not sure you are not being narrowminded or that you understand exactly how much money 2.237 BILLION dollars really is. That is the reported value of Man U. in today's Forbes mag. (FYI Real Midrid is only worth 1.88 billion dollars). It seems you are in a huge miniority and are not in touch very well with reality as to the importance of what these "tits" do and say.

 

Are you bitching about racism or millionaire teenage tits?

 

I would hope the cops are more focused. I would hope they spend time on "public figures" as a reminder to us all. (In the US every year the IRS "singles out" a public figure who's cheated - just as a reminder for us all.)

 

I hope the police are smart enough to do the same.

 

Phone

(sounds like you and "sports" and Phone and "music" are in the same uninformed boat). I feel about musicians like you must feel about sportsmen and their importance.

[Phone]

Ken,

 

On the subject of prejudice (while not exactly racism) it pains me your "off color" superstar soccer players may be more valuable than an "off color" superstar on the New York Yankee baseball team. That's just wrong.!!

 

In fact, that's REAL racism

 

Phone

[Ken L]

Phone.

 

You may be right that my utter indifference to the apparent significance of these people is predicated on my indifference to the games they play but that doesn't change the fact that the police are getting involved in what would pass off as a mildly inappropriate comment in any other section of society.

 

I work and socialise with people of all backgrounds and while there is perhaps a two tier level of banter that is acceptable in work and social settings, if someone ever comes out with something to strong (and we're talking from my black and Asian mates here), the furthest I've ever felt the need to take it was to raise an eyebrow and point out that they've now got no ground to stand on if I ever say something offencive without thinking. It has never come to the point where I or any of them have ever said anything with malice and certainly nothing appropriate for the police.

 

Is that an unreasonable model to expect supposedly grown men to follow ? That they should maintain appropriate levels of banter for their closest circle of friends and for their wider professional colleagues and the general public and that they self regulate (Maybe involving a professional code of conduct) without involving the police or lawyers unless there is malice ?

[Phone]

Ken,

 

""Is that an unreasonable model to expect supposedly grown men to follow ?"" YES.

 

Not on my part for I tend to agree with you, but is seems, at least in 21st century America, it is not the comment itself but the real or remote possibility the comment has "cash value".

Your example is correct in my circles also. No one I run with has a pot to pi$$ in or a window to throw it out of. Banter is cheap. If I were worth "a gazillion dollars" a 140 lawyers would be lined up to defend the poor "offended" persons honor (for cash).

 

It is a sad inditment of society that what was once called a stupid "not so well thought out comment" by a teenage "tit" is equal to winning the lottery isn't it?

 

Phone

What's a tit?

edit: it occured to me that why the title of the thread is FFS instead of spewing it out for god and country to hear like I would do face to face. (??)

Edited July 18, 2012 by Phone

[Sportsman]

The problem is that these people are role models to thousands of people who are not intelligent enough to differentiate between banter and malice. They just hear the words without understanding the intent, and having heard them, repeat them, but not as banter.

Football clubs are trying to eradicate rascist name calling and chants from the terraces and it is difficult to do so when it originates on the pitch.

 

Apart from that I agree with you entirely Ken about football. I wouldn't bother watching if the were holding the world cup final in my garden and I believe that a society has it values all wrong when a ball kicker can earn in a week what a registered nurse has to work for 5 years for.

[Now there's a right un.]

What has happened to the saying, " Sticks and stones may break my bones but names can never hurt me."

 

Everyone is capable of racism, black or white, and trust me I know first hand after spending six weeks in hospital following a racist attack.

The more we take notice of a few words the more will be done. If people just laughed and ignored the stupidity of others with their jibes or comments this kind of thing wouldn't even cause a ripple and perhaps may even become a thing of the past.

 

Only the insecure or insignificant are bothered by mere words.

 

Perhaps as has been said previously it is the Solicitors who cry the loudest for if we were disinterested in so called racist comments their incomes would be jepordised.

 

When I worked on a building site, in my late teens, I worked with a group of black lads, they were great lads to be around and we did regularly throw insults at each other that today would be deemed racist. They never batted an eyelid at what was said to them and were never worried by the reactions from what they said on site. I worked with them for six months and never had a day that didn't have laughter or merriment, they gave as good as they got.

 

Perhaps if people actually got on with living for a change??