Scottish Tabloid Spin Fails To Disguise The Ugly Reality Of Sevco On Their Travels.

The Scottish press is doing everything it can to blame the shocking scenes tonight in Copenhagen on the police. Of course they are. The Daily Record has even found the ubiquitous “disabled fan” caught in the middle of it. How often they play that same card.

Is it the same fan, do you think, or should their disabled supporters be warned before they travel; “If there is trouble you are likely to be truncheoned for no reason at all, so set off at your own risk.”

It’s amazing how often this happens to them in Europe.

Millions of holiday makers travel to the continent every year and seldom do you hear of them caught up in such mayhem. More importantly, football fans across the sport travel to cities in every country year on year; they aren’t routinely caught up in scenes of violence. More to the point, our fans – who have visited the same city in the recent past – don’t seem to.

Why don’t these other supporters inspire such hatred from the local constabulary?

What is it with them that police in every nation seem to regard them as a dangerous threat to the public order? I’ll tell you, I looked at that video footage and far from seeing unprovoked assaults I saw fat scum in blue jerseys attacking police and being repelled. I saw a line of baton wielding, shielded officers being taunted by neds.

Tell me this and be honest; if you were caught in the middle of that, and innocent, would you stand there provoking the guys in the riot gear, or would you head in the other direction as fast as you can? There is nothing in those videos to suggest that the police reacted aggressively for no reason; there is plenty that hints at provocation or worse.

All the headlines tonight are from “eye witnesses” who claim that the police charged in for nothing and started batoning people minding their own business. Police do not dress up in riot gear for no reason at all. Only the most rabid forces attack perfect strangers who aren’t breaking the law. The rest react to what unfolds in front of them.

They react to what unfolds in front of them.

I accentuate that point – I repeat that point – very clearly as it needs to be said.

I have my own suspicion as to why this so frequently happens on their travels; you look at the way they are treated here in Scotland, how far they are allowed to go before the actual enforcing of the law element of our unique policing kicks in and they believe they are entitled to do as they please and that the threat of consequences is somehow abstract.

But it’s not abstract on the continent, where people don’t give a shit how special the Peepul think they are, and over in foreign lands they get policed accordingly. And that’s what has happened tonight in Denmark, where they took a point to stay third in their group.