Email from the club

[Boston Red Sox]

This is a stewarding and self stewarding issue. Policing will have no affect other than increased cost. The Police will not eject folk for being twats but will only deal with criminality, the twat factor is over to the stewards. 

[da_no_1]

30 minutes ago, Grant said:

https://www.dunfermlinepress.com/news/24613424.dunfermline-pars-say-north-west-stand-close-fan-behaviour/

 

Made it's way to the press. 

Dunfermline Press so doesn't count...............

[Eastendtales]

1 hour ago, Boston Red Sox said:

This is a stewarding and self stewarding issue. Policing will have no affect other than increased cost. The Police will not eject folk for being twats but will only deal with criminality, the twat factor is over to the stewards. 

Self policing won't work. It just doesn't work. 

[Al k]

They've had enough warnings. Rather raising money for displays put it towards extra stewards or cameras for that stand. Then actually eject the idiots.

 

 

[Eastendtales]

28 minutes ago, Al k said:

They've had enough warnings. Rather raising money for displays put it towards extra stewards or cameras for that stand. Then actually eject the idiots into the sun.

 

 

 

[Al k]

9 minutes ago, Eastendtales said:

 

That took me longer than it should have to figure out what you did there. 

I concur.

[Slop]

From the start it has to be said that whoever's bringing smoke bombs, throwing stuff onto the pitch, breaking seats etc is bang out of order and to me it's nonsensical. If anyone on here (or .NET etc) knows anyone that's up to this, they should get them told. Offenders should be identified, removed, banned and prosecuted if necessary. They're doing nothing but costing our club money and hassle they really don't need just. Fingers crossed some kind of solution can be found before anyone (supporter, steward, linesman or anyone else) gets badly hurt.

Now that I've said that (and nothing else I say dilutes what I've said above) this problem has been allowed to fester and grow by lack of action from the club (and through them, the stewarding). To close the entire NW Stand is a total knee-jerk reaction which will antagonise fans (some of whom have been Pars fans for 50-60 or more years) who cause no hassle whatsoever. And it probably won't solve the problem either, just move it somewhere else. At least at the moment, the culprits are concentrated in a condensed area. Put it another way if drivers get caught speeding down a particular street, action is taken against speeders, specifically, the street isn't closed to all vehicles.

As someone who has a ST in the NW, it's not just "Young Laddies" who are involved with this. And self-policing also won't work, the law (and current societal attitudes) wouldn't allow e.g. me to remonstrate with a teenager (or anyone else for that matter) without attracting interest from the police. The days of giving an errant teenager "a clip round the ear" are long gone. The only thing the remainder of the NW fans can do is to inform the club if they recognise any of the offenders. 

It seems to me, however, there's a number of other things that could be done to manage the situation (some of which have been mentioned here or on .NET ....)

1. Setup the first section of the NW as an isolated area. Allow whoever currently sits/stands there to continue to do so, but with the following conditions:-
   • Access to/from that section is by a different gate/route to the remainder of the NW supporters
   • To enter that area, you agree to carry photo-id and to remove hoods or anything else that would prevent you from being identified by CCTV.
   • The photo-id is checked for every home game (only takes a few seconds per person).
   • You agree to be searched for smoke bombs etc and accept you will be removed and your ticket confiscated if caught with anything like this
   • A facility is provided where fans can securely leave restricted objects (lighters, coins etc) to be stored during the game.
   • If there are fans in there who don't want to be associated with the "Ultra's" allow them to move their seats further along.
2. The club should look to install netting around that section in the NW where these objects are coming from to protect officials, opposition players etc. As others have said, it already happens at other grounds in this league.
3. The stewarding should be strengthened and improved to allow those entering the isolated section to be searched, for queues for entry to be properly managed (which doesn't happen at the moment) etc. This could also allow offenders to be more easily identified and removed during the game.
4. Perhaps (and I'm not sure of the logistics of this) the smoke bombs could be "managed" in the same way as we see at cup finals etc. If there's an appetite for them, the Section NW could lead on making this happen safely and responsibly.

Generally the club has to get real, sadly a simple statement (such as we have seen) will make very little difference to those intent on offending in this way. I believe that by taking control (closing the stand is NOT taking control) the issue can be resolved. Yes there will be an increase in cost, but you could increase prices for tickets in the isolated section to help cover this. 

Rant over.....

 

 

 

Edited September 27 by Slop

[Eastendtales]

By the way, the police have a cheek asking what the club are doing about it when theyre doing fck all about it themselves. 

[El Patrón]

If they close the stand, surely everyone will be entitled to the option of a refund on their season ticket rather than be forced so sit in the Norrie or Main? A can of worms. Deal with the perpetrators. They didn't seem to have an issue dishing out 12 month bans to lifelong fans that dared to verbally question the board after the Falkirk game, so catching the guys throwing lighters and flares on the pitch and breaking seats should be easy for them.

Edited September 27 by El Patrón

[GG Riva]

6 hours ago, Superally said:

Not often i dare to disagree with you @GG Riva , This is not about innocent fans. Less crowds in that section makes it easier to identify trouble makers. Its also not about denying fans entry, its about managing and supervising crowds. If some fans migrate to the away end then they are only there for the purposes of trouble and should be nicked and banned. I do agree that because of the difficulties, increased Policing and costs for which we will be libel and is necessary for High tariff games and although wee f@nnies will be ejected its will likely cost us more than they will likely pay for entry!

Whadda ya mean "Not often I dare to disagree with you, S'Ally? You make me sound like Hannibal Lecter. 😱

In your previous post you said "Next big home game make it ST only...." I took that as meaning the whole stadium. Now I'm happy to give you a hook to hang your hat on and let you pretend you meant only for the NW stand.... 🙄😉

[El Patrón]

I see that clown in charge, John Lawson (I believe is the head of security) at East End took things to a whole new level on Saturday, by directing his minions to start harassing people in a half empty stand. They attempted to forcibly remove a grown man from a section of the NW stand as his ticket was "not for that section". The guy was with two young children and just picked a random seat next to his pals because the place was half empty. 

It was explained that we know nearly all the ticket holders in this section and even had spare ST's for the seats next to where we were that he could have used, but he bought a random ticket because it meant the kids got one free through the holiday football camp. Even offered to go back to the gate and scan one of the many spare season tickets and re-enter using that and it was refused. A total lack of common sense which caused a ridiculous scene of about 12 stewards surrounding him, meaning the rest of us couldn't get to our seats for about 15-20mins due to stewards blocking the full row. The stewards explained they were being directed via their earpieces and were just following orders, so we asked if the head honcho could exit his wee box of power and come over and speak to us like grown men, which was refused. It became a ridiculous stand off and he clearly didn't want to lose face by standing his minions down.

I can understand at Rovers/Falkirk games when its clear there's an issue as the stand is sold out, but all the other sections are half full and that one is over populated by the young team 3 to a seat, that they need to check who is actually meant to be in there as innocent ST holders won't be able to get to their own seat. But to start targeting a single person when there was no problem whatsoever, in a game with a seriously low turnout against Morton was a disgrace. 

If this is how they want to do things, then they need to do it properly and check every single person entering the stadium and make them sit in their allocated seat. You can't just cherry pick who/where/when these rules should be applied. The club is a **** show from top to bottom, run by incompetent morons.

Edited yesterday at 08:33 by El Patrón

[parsforlife]

As said, its pointless if they are not going to take action at the fixtures that problems are caused at.

I can understanding wanting to reduce the overcrowding in that area.  But it shouldn't be that hard to manage.  Steward at top of both sets of steps with a scanner to confirm valid ticket for that section.  steward at bottom of steps to prevent walking along from other sections.

[Deutsch Par]

The way the team are playing the North Stand won't need to be opened soon enough.

[Eastendtales]

6 hours ago, El Patrón said:

I see that clown in charge, John Lawson (I believe is the head of security) at East End took things to a whole new level on Saturday, by directing his minions to start harassing people in a half empty stand. They attempted to forcibly remove a grown man from a section of the NW stand as his ticket was "not for that section". The guy was with two young children and just picked a random seat next to his pals because the place was half empty. 

It was explained that we know nearly all the ticket holders in this section and even had spare ST's for the seats next to where we were that he could have used, but he bought a random ticket because it meant the kids got one free through the holiday football camp. Even offered to go back to the gate and scan one of the many spare season tickets and re-enter using that and it was refused. A total lack of common sense which caused a ridiculous scene of about 12 stewards surrounding him, meaning the rest of us couldn't get to our seats for about 15-20mins due to stewards blocking the full row. The stewards explained they were being directed via their earpieces and were just following orders, so we asked if the head honcho could exit his wee box of power and come over and speak to us like grown men, which was refused. It became a ridiculous stand off and he clearly didn't want to lose face by standing his minions down.

I can understand at Rovers/Falkirk games when its clear there's an issue as the stand is sold out, but all the other sections are half full and that one is over populated by the young team 3 to a seat, that they need to check who is actually meant to be in there as innocent ST holders won't be able to get to their own seat. But to start targeting a single person when there was no problem whatsoever, in a game with a seriously low turnout against Morton was a disgrace. 

If this is how they want to do things, then they need to do it properly and check every single person entering the stadium and make them sit in their allocated seat. You can't just cherry pick who/where/when these rules should be applied. The club is a **** show from top to bottom, run by incompetent morons.

That's bang out of order from the security team. Same old Rocksteady, jobsworth morons in charge it sounds  

[Piracy]

I was swearing at Morton players Broadfoot and Deleaney for mucking about. Pars fans behind me remarked, good job he's not in the family section. Don't know if I was meant to hear it, but what do fans expect at games ffs. Sanitised to the max.