So the Echo were correct about the frog police using rubber bullets against blues fans, just been confirmed by the frog embassy and the foreign office to Radio Merseyside.
The Echo online was doing one of those rolling news things yesterday and blue fans in Lille were tweeting that rubber bullets were being fired. Disgraceful really, complete over reaction.
Seems very heavy handed, not sure if something trigged the French Police attack, shame, don't like seeing these things, gives football a bad name, but saying that, it's not as if it was Napoli supporters the French had to cope with...............
After last year when the chavs f***** up Paris, I am not surprised the French police were nervy and got carried away.
Bollocks I've seen actual video footage. 9 French plain clothes coppers, who looked liked thugs, steamed into the square where there was thousands of Blues, chasing after 1 lad. The square was where 100 French s**thouses steamed into an alehouse where Blues were just having a bevvy the previous night. They were viewed as hostile chavs and a couple of bottles were chucked at them, they then drew batons and started wading in. The crowd immediately dispersed but the coppers fired in tear gas an rubber bullets at people who were moving away from a scene that the filth had created. Utter and total c**ts, and there was f** all excuse for it, so don't offer one.
There is no excuse for it and the so called Chelsea fans who caused trouble should not be associated with real supporters. The French police may have used it as an excuse but they were well out of order, there were kids in there getting tear gassed.
I'm not going to attempt to defend the French actions but you do have to put what they did into context. Les Gendarmerie are essentially a military force who undertake police duties (in the same way that the Guardia Civil do in Spain). Their job is to prevent disorder before it happens through the use of force. They do not view the task in the same way that an English police force would. What they did in Lille, they would do to any football supporters (home and away) that they believed even risked the chance of becoming unruly. I do not know if they had good cause to use such force but, if you are in France, you have to be aware that they can and will use force.
I'm not going to defend them, but then go to do exactly that. Ok Dave. I'm sure you'd say exactly the same had it been kopites.
The policy of having armed plain clothes police in a crowd situation is completely ******ed, especially once they start assaulting children and OAPs. There is zero reason anyone regarding such attacks as legitimate enforcement so retaliation and escalation is guaranteed.
I stated clearly that I am not defending them. All I did was to put the issue into context. I have lived in France and Spain and even the USA so I am aware of the difference between the police and the security services in those countries. I do not have to agree with their philosophy to understand that a great difference exists. It's got nothing to to with being a Red or Blue and your comments are way out of order.
It's the way it is. Other countries have different history of internal unrest and have taken their own approaches. We may not like it and you may be right in claiming that retaliation and escalation are likely to happen but it is their way of ordering things. So if you can't change it as a visitor then be aware that it can happen.
Lille v PSV 3 years ago, exactly the same thing happened Dutch fans tear gassed in Lille main square. As you say Dave different policing methods which blues have found out the hard way on their first competitive visit to France. Joe Anderson reportedly writing to his counterpart in Lille to ask what happened.
The French police fire rubber frogs, not bullets. Get it right. And the tear gas is an especially potent kind of garlic mixed up with corked and gone off wine to form the concoction they release.
