[Albion] FAO PC Darren Balkham

[BBassic]

"Hello love, sorry, pulling another late shift tonight"
"Oh no, why? Murder? Robbery? Must be something big"
"It's big alright, they've got me standing guard over a massive painting"

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

"Hello love, sorry, pulling another late shift tonight"
"Oh no, why? Murder? Robbery? Must be something big"
"It's big alright, they've got me standing guard over a massive painting"

"I know where you've been Steven. I know about Murial"

 

[Lincoln Imp]

Really, we walked around the east from the NS about 6-7 minutes after full time and there was a bit of a queue to get behind the barrier to walk up to the step but no real issues. The queue was no bigger than it usually is, if fact I thought it was much smoother and quicker than usual.

I 'm really pleased to hear that people getting out of the ground quickly didn't have the problem that those behind them had.

 

[Gazwag]

I 'm really pleased to hear that people getting out of the ground quickly didn't have the problem that those behind them had.

I don't believe we got out quickly if fact we were later than we usually were as we knew we had an extra 15 minutes last night than usual and it took ages to get out of the NS concourse.

 

[Dick Head]

Hello Darren

Please help me with a couple of points tonight

1) We designate pubs in our own town to be Palace
2) We have a big murial of our captain that wasn't watched the night before?
3) Graffiti next to our stadium night before game.
4) Fireworks not detected entering the stadium
5) Brighton fans treated like we were second class citizens in our own town.

I can't wait for the response. Come on, man up and stop shirking it when the questions are asked.

1. Doesn’t that make sense?
2. Are you seriously suggesting the police should have watched it all night long!
3. How are they supposed to stop that?
4. Fair point
5. What happened? Come in via Lewes so wasn’t affected.

Watch a painting on a wall? **** me...

Seeing the club statement about stewards being hospitalised, I think he's got more important things to investigate.

Guarding a mural? Are you serious?

2) We have a big mural of our captain that wasn't watched the night before?

LOL at police guarding a mural on the side of a shop

some okish points in there but tax payers money having police monitor a mural of a football player? Are you on drugs? Get a grip

"Hello love, sorry, pulling another late shift tonight"
"Oh no, why? Murder? Robbery? Must be something big"
"It's big alright, they've got me standing guard over a massive painting"

 

[BNthree]

How big would these bombs be ?

About the size of a shotgun cartridge or prittstick I think. Maybe as big as a can of coke at most.

 

[Charlies Shinpad]

Clearly not at old trafford. They had explosive sniffer dogs. We have old bill letting away fans run riot in our city, by pass train queue, pub to drink in pre match. Seriously if they were pipe bombs and not flares would you have same response? I think massive security breach tonight. The murial piece was tounge in cheek.

Sniffer digs there last night as well as I saw two of them

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

With the opening of The Amex, Albion decided to treat football fans with respect and low profile 'policing'. For many of us who experienced football from the 70's this seemed misguided, we were used to being treated as criminals.
The stance of the club has actually worked and is used as a model for other forward thinking clubs. Why should normal upstanding members of the community be treated as hooligans? I think it's great to be able to safely go to matches. HOWEVER, there's still an element that we need to be aware of.
Albion did their best to make Palace fans welcome, and that's fine for the vast majority but they must recognise (and I'm sure they will) that some games will attract that old hooligan element. Some clubs conduct searches further away from the gates and maybe we should do this at SOME future games. There are not multiple entry points so maybe points can be set up where only those with tickets are allowed onto the actual stadium site.
Last night the crux of the problem seems to be ticketless fans gaining entry. If they had been stopped from getting near the gates then, I believe, this wouldn't have happened.

 

[Gazwag]

There are not multiple entry points so maybe points can be set up where only those with tickets are allowed onto the actual stadium site.
Last night the crux of the problem seems to be ticketless fans gaining entry. If they had been stopped from getting near the gates then, I believe, this wouldn't have happened.

Compared to other grounds there are multiple entry points to the Amex for away fans - station, P&R, coach park etc. Many grounds away supporters a caged in and you show your ticket to get into the cage if you are outside of it. Impossible at the amex because many home fans walk past the away entrance. Unless you want to miss the start of the game when 30k fans have to present their match tickets multiple times before the turnstiles it cant happen.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

He may be a very nice bloke, I have only met him twice and both times he came across as an imbecile in a uniform.

That's not to say he used his uniform as some sort of power trip, he just came across as totally inept as a figure of authority.

I'm sad to say that l have to agree with you. He also seems to like the sound of his own voice.

 

[The Oldman]

Really, we walked around the east from the NS about 6-7 minutes after full time and there was a bit of a queue to get behind the barrier to walk up to the step but no real issues. The queue was no bigger than it usually is, if fact I thought it was much smoother and quicker than usual.

When we got to where the Q's for P & R ended those wanting to go the Coach Park steps were being pushed into the small path against the embankment. The path is separated from the main walkway around the stadium by a hand rail/crush rail. This is where the pinch point was as everyone was being pinched into no more than 2 abreast. After some time either Police or stewards realised that people were in distress and allowed the opening of the main walkway up the south stand entrance where the Police Horses and dogs were.

 

[RandyWanger]

Being friendly and welcoming to away fans will bite us in the butt. Need to treat them how we're treated on the roads. Security needs to be stepped up. More searches, more sniffer dogs more police.

Why, after the scum rushed the gates, didn't the police go in? Surely it'll be easy enough to check who had tickets on them, show tickets and ID, if you don't or you refuse, kick them out. Games have been delayed before due to traffic on the A23, so why not delay kick off for security and safety reasons? This could have been a whole lot worse.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

This is a valid point. People were coming close to being suffocated in the unsupervised and unnecessary pinch point at the foot of the coach park steps, watched from a distance by policemen in robocop gear. Eventually they realised that the whole thing was a cock up and not needed anyway because the Palace fans were the other side of a herd of horses. But it took them too long to understand this and added to the feeling of football supporters that they are not seen as worthwhile people. The person in front of me was 84 for heaven's sake.

I too was caught up at the pinch point close to the bottom of the coach park steps. Yes it was very unpleasant, yes there was certairnly a lot of pushing and shoving, (exactly the same thing happened following our play-off semi final with them a few seasons ago), but in no way did people come close to suffocation!

As l said in a post on another thread, the opposition was Crystal Palace, did people seriously think that they weren't going to get inconvenienced in any way? I think it was one of those occasions where the police were damned if they did, and equallly damned if they didn't..

 

[Insel affe]

Compared to other grounds there are multiple entry points to the Amex for away fans - station, P&R, coach park etc. Many grounds away supporters a caged in and you show your ticket to get into the cage if you are outside of it. Impossible at the amex because many home fans walk past the away entrance. Unless you want to miss the start of the game when 30k fans have to present their match tickets multiple times before the turnstiles it cant happen.

Oh yeah, my brother is in the force up in Manchester and I was told that Stoke fans were in town one season causing a bit of bother the police just rounded everyone up in the pub frog marched them to Piccadilly station and put them on the next train south back to Stoke.

The police obviously followed the ultras around most of the afternoon, surely a quick search for tickets would have identified those with and without tickets and then stick them straight on the next train north.
However this is a political correct town and hot potato in terms of is that ethical to do and what is actually stopping them coming straight back down minus their black attire and then take into account the police maybe were aware that any action like that could inflame a volatile situation or escalating trouble.

In short the police are damned if they do and damned if they don't do anything mainly because of our rights as individuals.

Not like the old days, when they waded in with a baton or locked them in the under pass eh.

 

[csider]

On the point about a piece of wall are being watched all night long......, surely there should be a 24hour police presence at the Banksy wall art.

 

[Durlston]

...er actually, if we're going to be pedantic, let's get it right. I think the second picture might actually be a MURIEL.

I got into this debate last year with a poster that's never wrong and I accepted it as muriel.

 

[The Fifth Column]

...er actually, if we're going to be pedantic, let's get it right. I think the second picture might actually be a MURIEL.

I do like a bit of pedantry hence I foresaw this and double checked, according to my sources she is definitely a 'Murial'.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Guarding a mural? Are you serious?

Of course he is serious, they have over 1000 security looking after the Mona Lisa.

We only want one plod with a Baton for a far better piece of artwork.

 

[Lincoln Imp]

I don't believe we got out quickly if fact we were later than we usually were as we knew we had an extra 15 minutes last night than usual and it took ages to get out of the NS concourse.

...it's just that you mentioned 6-7 minutes after full time and that seems pretty quick to me.

We're all on the same side here. You've said there was no problem, three people said there was. One person said no one was in distress; I said some people were. We're all right I'm sure - everything depends on exactly when you were there. It was poor crowd control though, particularly when you consider the crowd in question consisted of peaceable Albion supporters.

 

[Buzzer]

In short the police are damned if they do and damned if they don't do anything mainly because of our rights as individuals.

I've been having this conversation with some mates and we've politely agreed to disagree about whether this was a police failure or not. I did say though that the Ultras were without doubt top of the police list as regards chances of their being a disturbance, trying to get in without tickets and/or pyros being set off. I'm sure every movement was observed and controlled throughout the day until, it seems, at the place with one of the biggest risks - the away entrance. The Ultras took the piss and security and police were unable to prevent it.

Just my opinion but I'd say that it is damning because it shows serious weaknesses in the planning and risk assessments.