I wasn't in a position to go to Belgium, but was in a position to get the local media and police viewpoints. They came up to their usual form. Listening to radio Humberside at breakfast they came across as clueless as usual. All the news headlines lead about Hull City fans causing trouble in Lokeren. An early bulletin even said water cannons had been used on City and Lokeren hooligans. Even when eye witness reports came through from City fans who had been innocently caught up in the disorder, the presenters didn't change tack. Instead of condemning the police and the banned Belgian/Dutch hooligans in the pub, they kept repeating all football clubs have fans who always look for trouble( David Burns agreed with them, and later read a text from a Scunthorpe fan saying he's had to deal with bottles being thrown every time he's been to the KC). Humberside Police were also true to form. In the Burnsy show they displayed their usual crass insensitivity by releasing a statement condemning City fans and promising a robust policing operation at the second leg. There was no condemning the hooligans in the pub or the heavy handedness of the federal police in Belgium. To be fair Burns also slammed this statement. As we all know the police will milk this for all its worth. Expect more police at the KC and year long campaigns in the HDM trying to catch City fans on CCTV. I do wonder if Humberside Police were in collusion with the Belgian Police to ensure this trouble occurred. I do feel sorry for the Lokeren fans coming to Hull next week. No doubt the police will treat them like scum. They will probably be kept in a holding area for hours, and even if they are allowed in the city centre they will have restricted movement and cameras shoved in their faces. Between them the police and local media will continue to tarnish the good name of Hull City supporters. The police will draw out this episode like the Huddersfield and Millwall fiascos, with any arrested City fan who might have got a little boisterious after a drink finding themselves in a prison cell with a loss of their livelihood. The radio and paper will carry on producing texts and letters from no nowt wind up merchants (rugby fans mostly) slagging off football fans and City fans inparticular. Remember fellow City fans that elements of the local media and Humberside Police, as well as a proportion of the general public, are a corrupting cancer trying to stop our great club moving forwards.
Spot on. Unfortunately some dense people, including some of our own gullible fans, will fall for this.
please log in to view this image Humberside Police were on the case right away after this incident and arrested 2 City fans.
Humberside Police have many faults especially when it comes to football games at the KC. However, No way would they have stood back and allowed what happened last night in Lokeren to happen.
No, they would have jumped at the chance to arrest City fans. It is noticeable that our coppers over there are only interested in nicking City fans but not interested in Belgian/Dutch fans attacking them.
Humberside Police have arrested four Hull City fans after reopening a 2000-year-old murder case that involved a crucifixion in Jerusalem. Humberside Police have refused to comment.
Good post City Lover, also thought the radio humberside coverage was a bit crap with that eggchasing idiot Lloyd holding the fort on his own. How our city approach's policing the home leg has massive implications for our future city of culture aspirations, Lokeren supporters must be made welcome and the riot squad must be inconspicuous.
Far too much jumping to conclusions went on this morning, largely because our local media don't actually employ proper journalists any more and the police statement was nothing short of disgraceful.
Why the journalists would ever use the police official statements as a sole source I'll never understand. If it is your job to collect information and report on something you should be following events on as many platforms as you can. Fan forums and especially Twitter - which has revolutionised the entire journalistic process - should be just as much a part of their work as "official sources".
To be fair, the fact that he obviously loves rugby league is fook all to do with anything, he could be the biggest City fan and still produce vomit inducing presentations on the radio. Last night really took the biscuit, listening to him slopping his mouth and mincing his words on head phones is FAR from advisable!
I agree with the OP. So will anyone actually look at what really happened or will it all get twisted into a collection of myths. The water cannon. OK it is a water cannon, but the fact is that it is has a primary use as a video and control unit. They filmed us from it. The cannon is for dispersal and as the objective was to corral us, it would not have been used. The kettling. The objective was not to hold us back, the situation changed when some Lokeran supporters did not disperse and there were not enough resources in place to "protect" us. The police had to hold us until they had enough men in position. Hull City fans behaved themselves. Bollocks, I had to tell daft ****s to behave, the water cannon came back because a small group decided to have a go. Five, three, two, one and then a push and the Police reacted. We heard some old ****er near us say "If we had 60 instead of 10 would have them by now". It was a riot. ****ing hell, I have seen worse at weddings. Lokeran will be done when they come to Hull. Well not if the promises that were made pre match have anything to do with it. Hull and Lokeran fans need to work this out in the same spirit as was evident in the square. I was talking to the police throughout, I stood at the front asking them to simply tell us what was happening and how long we would be held up for, I also kept on at those officers with their batons raised to put them down. I tried to get a first aid unit to attend to the people with cuts, but the plod did not have the ability to do anything. This police operation was poorly managed and someone should pay for it. The truth is that in terms of a "kettling" we have been treat just as bad by "english police". The mistake was the route and lets not dwell on it. It was piss poor policing, but that should not prevent Hull City welcoming the Lokeran fans as they welcomed us.
You never know, by the time the game comes all of our fans may be able to spell the name of their club properly.
It may have been used to video but driving an armoured vehicle up in front of a group of fans, with water cannon pointed directly at them, does not exactly portray passive surveillance and simply antagonises the group it's pointed at. Do you think that vehicle calmed or increased tension? Sure, they had to hold us where we were until they felt they had those 'Lokeren fans' (not that I want to call them that) and their Dutch buddies under control. The point is in Zilina we got a clear message that we'd be held 15 minutes so there was no trouble. Here we're walking out of the ground and suddenly get faced with riot police, dogs and water cannon. No warning, no one providing a message that it's just for 15 minutes for safety. When people moved closer to see what was happening they surrounded everyone more, again only increasing tension. The main point with the kettling, though, is that they forced everyone to shuffle slowly through that narrow street with bottles raining. Might not be an issue if you're a tough guy but this was a crowd full of women, children and elderly. With the kettling anyone dropping behind was shoved forwards and anyone trying to avoid bottles by stepping to the side was shoved back into the middle. They wouldn't even let families with small children move off to the side (from what I saw around me - I'm sure somewhere at some point there must have been some friendly police who allowed it). Aye, of course not every City fan behaved. Some in any group like that will be idiots, but it's not like City fans caused this - would be hard to, as we were all held back together. The police didn't turn up afrer our lot caused trouble, they were there waiting. Ideally everyone would've kept walking but you can see why some in the crowd got riled up by the lack of information and perceived heavy handedness of police - the way they held everyone made people feel targeted. Likewise you can see why some City fans reacted to having bottles thrown at them, with seemingly no protection from the police other than being herded through that spot. Sure, I sighed at the idiots shouting for people to find bricks to throw back, but you still can't say they started it. No one is saying that it's the worst violence ever seen. It was short-lived and confined to a small area. The point is it could've been avoided - they knew a group was waiting there, we'd been told to avoid it, but they chose that route to force us past them. Not just the route but the way the police seemed uninterested in helping, but focused on shoving everyone that way without regard. They acted as if they were herding a crowd of death row inmates, when the truth is there were many families over there for a trip being an easy place to travel to. If 40 of our lot had met up with 40 of their lot off on some side street for a punch up then that would've been their choice. It would've been a shame to see, and completely stupid, but if individuals choose to look for trouble that's on their head. In this case the violence was indiscriminate, people young and old were stuck in the middle and importantly received little to no assistance. On the contrary, police pretty much refused to help and even hit/pushed those trying to get away from the scene. I saw small children in tears, mothers in tears trying to get their children out, older individuals who walk slow at the best of times being forced into the middle of it when they fell behind. One woman said the police horses damn near knocked a disabled boy out of his wheelchair as they forced through (I didn't see that incident). None of those people should've been forced to go anywhere near it. Or do you think it's no big deal that children were kept in the middle of it all? Families could have been allowed into the side street they had blocked off, away from missiles, even if they wanted to keep adult males in the main street. The whole thing could've been avoided with some sensible policing and taking a different route, plus a softer (and more informative) approach to cause less tension in the first place. It's not about the scale of violence, it's about how it unfolded and how it was dealt with along with how it will now be portrayed and the response the return leg (and future fixtures) will get. As you say, Lokeren fans should be welcomed and I'm sure they will be. Their genuine fans were great, and most people realise those who threw bottles were a mix of known thugs under banning orders and others from another town simply looking for trouble. No doubt a few of our residents will try to find a fight next thursday but those people will be around whether there's a match or not, there will always be some idiots who'll pick a fight with anyone for the sake of it. Hopefully we get the same pre-match atmosphere as there was in Lokeren and anyone trying to find trouble fails, but their police made a mess of things and need to change their approach while our police need to not overreact and stir up a new situation when they visit. Ultimately any outsider is just likely to see that there was trouble involving City fans and assume it was more British hooliganism, particularly given the way official statements have been released making it sound that way. And that's not good.
Is it just the official supporters people being snooty and enjoying making the accusation that City fans caused the trouble? I noticed an OSC type on twitter called Ian Garmston suggesting without a second's thought that City fans started it, how 'embarrassed' he was etc. It was completely at odds with everyone else's accounts of the event. He got called out for being a judgmental snob.
Mr C When the water cannon came back. I told them that they where wrong and that it would add to the problem. I stood at the front telling the police that they needed to tell us what was going on. I told them that having batons raised was wrong and poor policing. I managed to get the unit (41) to sheave their batons. I pointed out that in amongst the crowd there where many older fans, women and children. I stayed right at the front until the station. This is all about poor policing. But just like the mounted unit, the water cannon is a dispersal tool. In the street (by the cafe) the unit commander was at the front sat in his command unit (the water cannon), he was unaware of the threat and the problem as his sole aim was to march us to the station. During all of this I had three police officers escorting me, a fat bloke on a trip away. I was told by them that they had to protect us!! To be honest the glass missed me because I was right at the front. I was the first past the pub and was moved away from the kerb edge. When the glass started the police with me did not know how to react. There was a line of police facing us from in front of the pub, they did nothing. Hull City fans did nothing more than would be expected, some wanted a fight, some just wanted to go home. Put better one or two wanted a fight around 1200 just wanted to leave. Even the use within the stadium of policed in riot gear was wrong. The reason was, I expect was nothing to do with us, more to do with the incident in February this year. One person carries the blame for this and that is the local commander.
The local commander who held site visits with our club/stewards/police and EUFA officials in the week leading up to the match? We were advised to avoid two pubs and we did, yet the police marched us past them twice at a snails pace??????? On the Ferry going across, in Ghent's main market square and in Lokeren square Hull City fans were everywhere with no trouble at all. Why cannot so many police, with so much planning and 'intelligence' control 20 or so local hooligans who are known to them? Why was the pub even open? Why did they allow the same nutters to remain there? Why did they serve them glasses and bottles? Why were we marched past it twice? What was the point of police 'spotters' if they didn't spot anything? And how the f** do Hull City fans come out of this with the blame?
