A dawn raid on the

home of a 17-year-old

caught singing

 

Kevin Rooney

Imagine the scene. A dawn raid. A van-load of police officers batter down the front door. A 17-year-old boy is dragged from his house to the distress of his scared family and driven away. He is charged and appears in court. His lawyers apply for bail but the court decides his crime is so serious that he should not be allowed out.  He is taken to a prison cell where he is remanded in custody.
     So what was his crime? Was it a terrorist offence? Rape? Burglary with violence? No, this 17-year-old was imprisoned for singing a song. Where did this take place? Iran? China? Saudi Arabia? No. This incident took place in Glasgow earlier this month, involving a young Celtic supporter who had sung songs during his team's game which are now deemed to be a criminal act.
     The police had attempted to arrest the boy on the spot but were unable to do so when other fans united to create a human wall that the police were unable to break through. Clearly incensed by this show of solidarity, the police tracked him down and planned the dawn raid. He was charged with 'religiously aggravated' breach of the peace and evading arrest.
     I know there have already been a lot of questions in this article but here are more. Why haven't you heard about this case? Why have our favourite civil liberties groups and their celebrity fans not been tweeting like mad about this affront to civil liberties? The answer, sadly, is that this young man is a football fan. Worse still, he is a fan of one of the 'Old Firm' teams of Celtic and Rangers renowned for their historic rivalry.
     Anyone who lives in Scotland or follows Scottish affairs will know that according to the ruling Scottish National Party, the Scottish police and the media, what these fans say and sing is now one of the biggest problems in Scottish society. Such is the scale of the problem that draconian new laws are being pushed through the Scottish Parliament which will imprison fans for up to five years for singing sectarian or offensive songs at games or posting offensive comments on the internet.
     I would love to say that the 17-year-old locked up in jail was an isolated case but he is merely one victim of a concerted policy of intimidation against Celtic and Rangers fans. Even before the new laws have been passed there have been numerous arrests at games and similar dawn raids. Only last month I wrote about Stephen Birrell, a Rangers fan jailed for eight months for expressing his hatred of Celtic fans on his Facebook page. Unfortunately what people say and write in Scotland is now sufficient criteria for imprisonment as the centuries-old distinction between words and action is abolished. Worse still, the adage that disapproval of what someone says is insufficient reason to lock them up has also been abandoned.
     In the absence of any opposition from liberals and civil liberties groups, it has fallen to the fans themselves to take a stand against the proposed new laws and the aggressive climate ushered in as a result. Despite often being portrayed as ill-educated sectarian bigots, a section of Celtic fans have shown themselves to be intelligent and articulate defenders of free speech. The newly organised Celtic Fans Against Criminalisation has taken to the airwaves to argue their case and managed to mobilise over 2,000 people for a public rally against the new laws in central Glasgow. 

 

     But this backlash from fans seems to have incensed the authorities even more. While the police would have been hard-pressed to arrest celebrities or church groups, they appear to have few qualms about moving in against the football fans who dare to take a stand against these laws. Later in the day of the peaceful Celtic rally, the police attended the Celtic-Aberdeen game en masse and proceeded to charge a section of Celtic fans known as the 'Green Brigade', a group of fans who wear their left-wing and Irish Republican sympathies on their sleeve and are partial to singing Irish rebel songs. The message from the police was clear. 
     There are many disturbing aspects of this wholesale attack on free speech. Scotland's foremost Catholic QC, Paul McBride, has urged Celtic to take sanctions against the Green Brigade for 'glorifying the IRA in songs', saying: 'Education has not worked and now it's time for sanctions'. This statement says a lot. For all the anti-sectarian campaigns and rules and regulations, some fans refuse to be told what they can and cannot say and sing. But rather than even considering that this could be based on principle, Mr McBride thinks nothing of stating that these people are too stupid to grasp the message.
     Of course Irish rebel songs which support the Irish republican struggle against British rule will not be everyone's cup of tea. However, I have a massive problem with the wholesale criminalisation and demonisation of a group of football fans by the massed ranks of the Scottish Government, police and media. Instead of reducing 'sectarian conflict' in Scottish football, these new laws and the accompanying campaign by the police has led to a dramatic increase in tensions which can only get worse as fans spy on each other, take offence and report rival fans to the police.
     It is an open secret that in the last six months police have been trawling Celtic Park for the remotest hint of even the mildest republican song being sung so that they can arrest, prosecute and convict  the person singing it in order to construct a PR image of mass religious 'hate crime' having been committed. It is no coincidence that figures were released to the media in the week leading up to a debate and vote on the proposed new legislation at Hollyrood.      
     The 17-year-old boy was finally released from prison after a successful campaign by Celtic Fans Against Criminalisation. But it is time for the civil liberties groups, free speech supporters and one or two celebrities to find their own voice and add it to those football fans who have been brave enough to speak out. If any of us sit back and allow people to be imprisoned for saying things that the state does not like, we cannot complain when they come for us next. We have already heard some in this debate suggesting that the sign of the cross can be offensive in certain situations.
     Come to think of it, perhaps the SNP will jail Scottish supporters for singing 'Flower of Scotland', a song that glorifies war and killing Englishmen. Perhaps there is an English person out there with a predisposition to take offence who would like to make a complaint the next time the Scottish football or rugby teams are playing? Then again, I shouldn't joke. In the current climate there are some out there who probably think I am serious.
     Those in Scotland who profess to be liberal and open-minded are entitled to detest the songs some Celtic and Rangers fans sing, but if we are truly to practise tolerance, then we must subscribe to Voltaire's dictum: 'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it'.

 

Kevin Rooney is a teacher