Supt Rick Burrows of Hampshire Constabulary on Hillsborough

We all too quickly forget the events of Hillsborough, Bradford and Stairway 13 and too readily deny the link between football violence and tragedy, like at Heysel.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/features/newsreview/9402439.Are_police_plans_for_Saints_vs_Pompey_match_going_too_far_/

Thoughts please...

Thoughts please...

It’s set to be one of the biggest ever football policing operations in Hampshire as police prepare to use the controversial ‘coach bubble’ tactic to get Southampton fans to this month’s clash with rivals Pompey. But is this approach heavy-handed – or a necessity to keep fans safe? Here, both sides have their say.

Supt Rick Burrows explains why he is in favour of the bubble plan

I am a huge football fan.

Growing up in Manchester, you followed one of two teams.

Terrace culture – the passion, the excitement and the banter – was a huge part of my life. It still is.

But I’m also a police officer, indeed the one responsible for the delivery of the policing operation for the two Portsmouth and Southampton derbies this season.

While I still hold football culture dear, I have different priorities – primarily the safety and security of the fans, the stewards, my officers and the wider public.

We all too quickly forget the events of Hillsborough, Bradford and Stairway 13 and too readily deny the link between football violence and tragedy, as seen at Heysel.

I have policed all the derby fixtures between Portsmouth and Southampton in the past 27 years and understand their significance and the passions they generate.

I have also seen the damaged properties and the injuries to innocent members of the public, fans, stewards and my officers caused as a direct result of crowd disorder.

Despite the decline of football disorder from the peak of the 1980s, I do not see with the local derby any lessening of the levels of intent or sheer dislike of the opposing fans, from that small group of people who enjoy and seek disorder – just look at the websites, videos and social network comments to see how hateful some people really are.

The police and the clubs would not apply the “bubble” unless they genuinely felt that the safety and security of the majority of fans at these fixtures was put at risk.

History demonstrates that these fixtures will have a high likelihood of crowd disorder, specifically targeted at away fans entering and leaving the host city. The coach bubble ensures they can be brought in safely. It’s not an easier option – it’s the safest option. While I would dearly love not to do it, I have seen too much violence, too much damage and too many injuries to not apply what is a simple tactic that has safety at its heart.

Lifelong supporter Steve Grant says why he thinks the bubble treats fans like second-class citizens.

Freedom of movement is my main gripe with the “bubble” restrictions.

I’m a 28-yearold adult who has attended more than 500 Saints games, home and away.

I travel independently to games which allows me the relative freedom of choosing how I travel and how much I pay to do so.

For the Pompey game, my original plan was to get a train direct from Croydon, where I live, to Fratton, and then to walk to the ground from there.

Cheap, simple and effortless.

I don’t wear colours to games, so it would be easy to blend into the crowd walking to Fratton Park.

Instead I’m being forced to travel down on the Saturday (for which I originally had other social plans), and then herded onto a cramped double-decker bus which clearly isn’t costing the club £12 a seat to provide.

All of the likely routes into Portsmouth provide plenty of ambush points, which means a convoy of 50-odd coaches will simply be sitting ducks waiting to be fired upon with whatever the locals can gather.

From my research, the process of “kettling” (a more common title for the bubble) is illegal without the “immediate” threat of widespread public disorder.

Considering we have been given two months’ notice, I fail to see how that in any way applies here.

The police rely on the unlikelihood of anyone having the means or effort to challenge it through a civil court case.

Hopefully someone will end that complacency soon.

Personally I’m tired of football fans being treated like second-class citizens.

He mentioned Hillsborough once alongside the Bradford fire, and in the context of the sentence he was clearly referring to crowd disorder at Heysel.

Not sure what I'm supposed to be missing here?

He's using Hillsborough as part of his defence for a bubble game.  It is irrelevent.  Likewise the Bradford fire would not have been prevented if everyone had been ferried on a coach.

Ah - I see.

Liverpool fans tend to get 'bubbled' out of Old Trafford - as do United fans at Anfield.

It's wrong to do, it does treat people like second class citizens - but I'm sure if it didn't happen then there would be trouble.  I don't know how strong the rivalry is with you and Pompey, but do you think both clubs supporters could mix freely without any trouble?

I hate these kind of non-factual announcements.

It's like they say "Let's lump them all in together and people will respond emotionally"

It's not a straight out insult, but it's not far off - to all the people who suffered.

It's simply because you can't compare them - they all had completely different causes.

So, to compare them shows either a massive lack of knowledge or an inability to understand and empathise.

Either way, it's a pretty shallow "article"

Generalisations concerning crowd behaviour have played a part in the cases quoted by Supt. Rick Burrows and not in a positive context.
The glibly named 'coach bubble' operation by it's very nature is faulted.
The human element dictates that there are too many variants, too many conflicts of interest to make the exercise a feasible proposition.
It is a step back to the days of over enthusiastic officials doing more harm than good and if anything reminiscent to an extent of faulted crowd control previously seen and instigated by colleagues of the Superintendant.
His mindset acqured through many years of police training dictates that he see's only one solution, a uniform and ordered pattern of behaviour - unachievable at an event on the scale of a major sporting fixture.
 

I don't what the shock and horror is for, the Police have been doing it for a while for Southampton/Portsmouth fixtures, also happens a lot with Millwall fixtures.

Ah - I see.

Liverpool fans tend to get 'bubbled' out of Old Trafford - as do United fans at Anfield.

Doesn't happen normally at OT, we just get kept behind. Fans travel up to OT via car, train and coach. 'Bubbling' is specifically where you can only travel to a game via a coach, so the police can keep tabs on the away fans. Happens quite a lot in Italy too.

I was speaking earlier about people being pressured into using the bubble thing whether they want to or not, there is an element of that in the operation anyway, there must be a way in this day and cctv age to detect and eradicate the shitheads.