Is Kris Boyd’s Article On Griffiths Incitement To Hatred? Yes, I Think It Is.

It’s not going to come as a great galloping shock to anyone that I am not in the least bit interested in making excuses for Leigh Griffiths. That man should never be allowed to pull on the Celtic shirt again, and I don’t think that he will be.

Griffiths is a prize idiot, who’s conduct has gotten him into a world of trouble. I didn’t agree with him getting booed but I understood it and had expected it. I thought he should have kept his head down this week when the chanting started. His inability to do so is why he’s facing charges and what will almost certainly be a long SFA ban.

But Leigh Griffiths does not deserve – because no-one deserves – the outpouring of bile and hatred that will pour of the stands of the away support today at Dens Park and only a complete scumbag would be encouraging that savaging.

Step forward the village idiot reject, the one and the only Kris Boyd.

I read his piece today incredulous that it ever made a national newspaper. It crosses every line of good journalism and good taste. It reeks with open loathing, which pours off the page. That article had no place in a mainstream publication.

It incites hatred. That, actually, is a criminal offence.

It includes “threatening words, behaviour or material, and (is) committed where the offender intended to stir up hatred.”

You cannot read his article and be in the least doubt that this is precisely what he intends.

The opening line is “Karma has a way of catching up with people.” This is the start of an argument which says that Griffiths deserves everything he gets today, whatever that may be. “Leigh Griffiths is about to find that out the hard way at Dens Park.”

The gleeful tone in that is unmistakable. Boyd is willing something bad to happen, and worse, the rest of the article lays out the reasons why that would be alright with him.

“He was laughing when he tied that Celtic scarf to one of the goalposts at Ibrox a few seasons back. Grinning from ear to ear during an Old Firm game the day he waved his Irish tricolour from the Broomloan Road Stand. When he wiped his nose on a Rangers corner flag he thought he was being clever. Well, let’s see how smart he is when Rangers supporters tell him what they think of him. Griffiths is about to get bombarded with 90 minutes of relentless abuse and if he’s got a brain in that head of his he better be prepared to take it.”

What else is that but a justification for the most vicious behaviour? Why should Griffiths, or anyone, have to take some of what is going to be thrown at him today? Much of it will be sectarian. Why should anyone have to put up with that?

“Griffiths only has himself to blame — and the sooner he realises that the better,” Boyd goes on to write. I wonder if he’d repeat that sentiment if someone lunatic vaulted over the barrier and attacked him on the pitch?

This part made me laugh, in the context of the above. “Is he capable of accepting responsibility for anything in life? I’m not sure he is.”

If Griffiths is subjected to more than just taunting today then I would suggest Boyd would be at least partially accountable for that, and so would the newspaper that allowed his vindictive hateful spiel to run today. If anything happens, I hope they take some responsibility of their own.