Naughty Copper

What happened to Naz Gulzar, that PC who was suspended for making derogatory comments about Barnsley people?

 

Got transfered to the Nottingham force I believe

 

https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/crim...r-sheffield-wednesday-v-barnsley-game-1394278

The excuses have started. No context is needed to know the copper was in the wrong.

 

The thin blue line closes ranks and protects their own..... whatever the cost to their reputation and hence their ability to do their jobs properly. Come a long way since Sir Robert Peel wrote his principles of law enforcement, he must be spinning in his grave.....

 

Add freemasons into the mix too and some of them are untouchable.

 

i quite agree but things have to cut 2 ways the police arrested a person for hurting an officer but i bet officer 3139 has not been arrested or even suspended. you can see in the videos he had completely lost it, and he is supposed to be there to defend the public. i know i would'nt trust him in any situation

 

So the Police were facing extreme violence. Must have been a similar situation to when I was assaulted on Sheffield Railway station by one of SYP finest. The PC said he was dealing with rowdy football fans, I was walking on my own to the train and stopped to have a drink of my coffee when I got a wack in the back. I complained to the Chief Constable and was interviewed by a Superintendent and an Inspector. The Superintendent admitted SYP had a problem with policing football matches and told me he had been assaulted himself on Sheffield Station whilst travelling back to Doncaster with his Wife. He said his Wife had to pull him off the Copper. I wish I could have seen that one. This was at least 15 years ago and not much seems to have changed.

 

Just been featured on Calendar on ITV.

 

How did they portray events?

 

Surely there is cctv all over the town centre?

 

They stated that the matter had now been referred to the IOPC and that a member of the police force had been admitted to Hospital for treatment, as well as the 16 year old lad who was struck over the head. They then said a 47 year old man was arrested for offences committed during the affray.

 

no doubt the civilians arrested will be prosecuted and the police officer given a verbal warning
how many people can honestly say they trust SYP as a whole?
yes they're good coppers out there but too many bad apples from the top of the tree to those rotting on the ground

 

After the usual farce of fans crossing over each other on Schwäbisch Gmünd Way, which is admittedly difficult to handle but certainly didn't need the constant shoving and screaming in faces from SYP, we followed the group of Barnsley fans who were being escorted into the town centre. By the time we reached Eldon Street, there were hardly any Wednesday fans about and as such I expected the police to stop and allow everyone to walk up into town, whilst stopping any idiots trying to get back to taunt the away fans on the train platform (at this stage loads of Wednesday fans were climbing on the walls gesturing). Up until this stage I genuinely thought it was all very tame, the usual verbals and gesturing aside, most fans were more critical of the organisation of fans rather than actually trying to fight each other. Then under the railway bridge on Eldon Street all hell broke loose, batons being swung everywhere, fans scattering, kids being protected etc. I couldn't work out what had been the catalyst but the police seemed to be trying to force everyone up the narrow footpath rather than the road (closed to vehicles as always). I'd call the baton wielding indiscriminate and the officers took a lot of criticism.

We then walked up and stood at the bottom of Regent St South to wait for friends. A second wave of baton wielding followed in order to disperse the crowd. Anyone and everyone was getting aimed at so we left as quickly as possible. At this point a good number of officers ran down to where it seems the lad got hit. We went to the pub.

I certainly didn't see any extreme violence against the police. I did see some pretty extreme baton wielding. Dozens of fans were videoing the events.

 

Has any witness statements been asked for by SYP or has anyone offered up any?

 

The biggest problem is the 'closed ranks' mentality prevalent in police forces everywhere. There are plenty of films and dramas dating back over many years e.g. Serpico (USA) where the main theme is that whistleblowers are ostracised, persecuted and driven out. This is a case where 'art reflects life'.
In spite of some claiming otherwise, the overwhelming majority of police are decent people doing a good job in very difficult circumstances but there are a minority who abuse their powers and a tiny minority who are corrupt. This happens in all walks of life but the big problem lies in the fact that the culture within the police force, particularly in the rank and file is to cover each other's backs. This allows them, on occasions to avoid the consequences of their transgressions. Senior officers sometimes are (mistakenly IMO) overly eager to trivialise certain situations in order to minimise the damage to the force's reputation. This invariably leads to accusations of 'cover-ups' resulting in the exact opposite of what they are aiming for. Lack of openness and accountability leads to a mistrust and a detachment from the public.
References to Orgreave regarding this latest incident are wide of the mark. This is one rogue copper whereas police actions during the miners strike, particularly Orgreave were driven by an ideology and sanctioned and controlled by a Thatcher Government intent on breaking "the enemy within". Besides I knew guy who was in the SYP and he told me that he and most of his colleagues were disgusted at what the Met got up to and feared that their actions would make his job harder for years to come after they had gone back to where they came from after the damage they did to the police's reputation. He was right!

 

Get AC-12 on the case, they will weed out any corruption here

 

I followed that route, as I guess the majority of fans walking back to town would. It appears my good fortune that I got to Eldon Street before you. Surely the purpose of closing that section of road off is to allow fans to walk up it? The narrow railed section can't accommodate that amount of footfall without causing delays, which I would have thought was the last thing those policing the game would have wanted. I saw nothing of the disturbance on the video, or that which you describe. But I said to Mrs Kaht when I got back that the policing appeared chaotic. It's strange considering the huge number of officers on duty, but there appeared to have been little effort to hold the Wednesday fans back at the end of the game, and the way that fans were directed on Schwabisch Gmund Way seemed almost designed to cause opposing fans to mingle. Inconsistent and incoherent verbal directions from individual officers merely exacerbated the situation. So far as I can remember, it was the first time since the 1970's that I actually felt unsafe walking back from Oakwell. I've banged on before about access arrangements and the part BMBC and (to a lesser extent) the club have played in them, but obviously this situation is part of the legacy of those decisions. The match commander, and the officers she managed did insufficient to avoid potential problems on Saturday, and one can only hope there is a full and fair inquiry into the disgraceful incident on Midland Street.

 

You’re quite right here. In this instance the officer is shown to be acting like peter sutcliffe and is therefor acting alone and should be dealt as such. I was speaking to my pal on Sunday who’s in the force and he:
A) couldn’t believe his eyes
B) couldn’t believe the lack of control and stupidity
C) didn’t want to be associated with the crank

 

Perhaps I missed something happening under the bridge because as you say, it would be nonsensical to be stopping people walking up the road. It certainly seemed to be those fans drifting towards the middle of the road who were getting whacked though. The ferocity of the dispersing techniques was on a scale I cannot remember seeing in Barnsley for a long time.

I think the sheer numbers of police kept actual trouble to a minimum. Any small verbal exchange between opposing fans was jumped on straight away. It was the aggressive approach from the police that struck me, not just with the batons but their general demeanour. Not all football fans need a police officer shouting in their face to move or go to one side of the road or the other. Most fans don't need to be physically shoved one way or the other after being asked who they support. Even the Wednesday teenager who stupidly came out of the station to confront the passing Reds fans could have just been pushed back or arrested, not dragged down and put in a stress position, head and neck contorted and a camera rammed in his face. It just seemed every police move was being carried out with the maximum force and brutality it could feasibly be.

Regarding the situation on Schwabish Gmund Way, for me the only feasible way of organising the fans is to somehow hold the away supporters somewhere near the Bingo car park until the home fans disperse. I realise this causes issues and the away fans become a stationary target for abuse, but any other way sees unavoidable chaos further down the road. Barnsley fans will always be shown towards the left hand side of the road due to the away fans coming down from the slip road and out under the bridge on the right hand side. To keep everyone apart necessitates a divide in the middle, but at some point there simply has to be a cross over of supporters. An avoidance of trouble therefore solely relies on fan behaviour, which for most games won't be an issue, but against Leeds and the Sheffield clubs, plus a few more select followings, might well be. Most supporters did indeed behave near the station on Saturday, but it was just totally chaotic. At one stage you had Barnsley fans being penned in against the wall near the station, trying to get out to the other side as the police were instructing them to do, whilst being held back by other officers thinking they were trying to get at Sheffield Wednesday fans. These Wednesday fans were in fact Barnsley fans, with the actual Wednesday contingent being even further away gradually being shoved through the whole lot by another set of officers. All rather chaotic and not helped by the aggressive behaviour of the police shoving people left right and centre. A number of supporters on both sides could of course behaved better but it did genuinely seem like the main trouble was as a result of police actions rather than idiotic fans (at least from the parts of the day I saw).