Yeti, nothing about this is black and white. We all agree that there is line between ‘supporting’ and something that’s not acceptable. The problem is that line is a vague social construct and so it’s impossible to define precisely and people will have very different opinions of where it is.
Accordingly, there will be times when security will get this wrong: if they let fans stray too far into genuinely obnoxious and unsociable behaviour then the crowd around them suffers, and there can even be instances of violence; the reputation of the game suffers and people will stop going to games. If they are too heavy handed then people on the right side of the line (but likely only just) will be unfairly singled out, it affects the reputation of the game and people will stop going to games.
If a Port supporter this weekend yelled ‘feeling anxious Jesse’ every time Hogan got near the ball at the top of his lungs and looking in my direction I would tell him to knock it off, and if he didn’t I would probably feel inclined to take a swing or tell security, depending on how many beers I had and whether I was with my kid or not. If security told him to tone it down he could say ‘well, I’m not swearing and I’m just being loud, but I think that’s crossing the line because it’s personal. I reckon most on here would agree, but a lot of idiots would think it was funny.
What people are trying to parse is how well or badly security and the police did in this instance with very little information. Remember, this bloke wasn’t kicked out of the game, and the issue people have is too many police officers were on the scene (my guess being they are on alert after recent instances of violence where they were probably worried they didn’t do enough to stop it). Of 75,000 fans at the game there was something about this one supporter that caused police to tell him to pipe down.
None of this is conclusive of whether the police were right to tap him on the shoulder, including in the numbers they did, but if you are going to hitch the civil liberty wagon to a horse, this is a particularly sweary and abusive horse that has been flagged by supporters of at least two different teams, and whom security and the police felt comfortable intervening with. His stated view of what is appropriate at the football is at odds with footage he posted of himself at the football acting in an abusive way. I think that is relevant and it makes him a less reliable witness in my eyes relative to the police.
