Celtic Supporters Thread (contains GB chat)

from where i sit it looks as though soone in the middle of the GB have a joy division unknown pleasures inspired mini banner, it says glasgow celtic at the top, only seen it at the past 2 home games

i may be wrong due to the distance but from where i sit it looks a bit like this



any ideas?

 

Looking forward to the display now, should be a cracker!

 

Yeah I've seen it before at games.

 

Canny wait!!

 

Donated a few quid, wish I was going to see it, will be spectacular.

 

Think its a bit * that yous arent allowing the ddonation address up tbh. Celtic family! They create the atmosphere and need a hand.

 

To be fair, most people will be able to find it very easily and you can't really bend the rules for one person and not another. They're doing okay as it is anyway. It should be spectacular.

 

do you want me too PM you the link?

 

Can someone pm me the link? Cheers lads

 

cant wait to see this

 

Easy enough to find, they e-mailed me think and I donated what I could to help out. Hope its something to remember in years to come.

 

Police Harassment of the group and section 111

Last year was somewhat unique. It will rightly be remembered as the year our great rivals died. Yet what seemed to almost slip under the radar amidst the hilarity at Ibrox was the continued harassment of the Green Brigade, and the Celtic fans in general by Strathclyde Police both before and after the SNP legislation was scribbled. We have remained relatively quiet on this issue up until now, but it has got us nowhere and the harassment has continued; in fact it has worsened.

Most Celtic fans heard about the unprecedented case of the 17 year old Celtic fan remanded in custody at HM Polmont Young Offenders Instituiton for an alleged breach of the peace. The fall-out and the protests of other Celtic fans led to that thankfully being overturned before too much damage was done to a young boy. However, there are numerous other cases that haven’t been made public and so the Police have escaped criticism and been allowed to arrest and charge who they want, when they want. These include three of our members arrested by CID (two at home, one at work) after holding a banner reading ‘Huns FC’. Their case lasted the best part of two years before finally a ‘Not proven’ verdict was delivered. The cost of that case will have been astronomical. Clearly unhappy at this, the Police arrested one of the above AGAIN, this time for alleged sectarian singing. This never even made the courtroom, after the CCTV was shown outside the court, showing him clearly singing 'Up the Celts' much to the embarrassment of the officers who turned up as Prosecution witnesses.

After the highly-successful ‘Fans Against Criminalisation’ demo at George Square, Celtic played Hibs in a bore 0-0 draw. The game will be remembered by many though, after the Police unnecessarily waded into 111 looking to make arrests for reasons unknown. On the concourse after the game, they successfully arrested one of our members, accusing him of abusing their officers. Again, this was nothing but a blatant lie and led to another court case with THREE different trial dates. A Not Guilty verdict was returned when the case was finally heard.

A month or so later, and we had another member in court. This time his alleged crime was for ‘assault and resisting arrest’ at a Semi-final at Hampden. Again though, he was found not guilty. We have some other court cases pending as we speak, but we are confident these will go the same way as every other one so far. However, they are still obviously causing massive inconvenience and are having a huge effect on people’s livelihoods.

These charges have all led to our members missing matches watching and supporting the team they love. Celtic had banned every one of them while the cases were on-going. Indeed, the club do all they can to facilitate the Police and have offered no help whatsoever to their own support. After the match in Udine in December, Celtic banned a handful of supporters after flares were lit before kick off. One of these fans was a female season book holder in 111 whom, rather bizarrely, was watching the match from the comfort of her own living room! Thankfully, this was overturned eventually after it was pointed out to Celtic security that they had quite clearly made a rather embarrassing yet damaging mistake.

The level of surveillance applied to section 111 and the Green Brigade specifically verges on the surreal and is an astronomical waste of tax payers’ money. 90 minute surveillance clearly isn’t sufficient though as we learn from being filmed when approaching and leaving stadiums. A small band of Strathclyde Police following our members around Europe attempting to make their trips abroad uncomfortable also now appears to be common practice. Perhaps the hardest one for us to take is being filmed when inside Celtic Park hours early setting up for a display. Further from Celtic officials obviously accommodating such procedures they now believe it to be acceptable to hand over personal details of our members. Private information such as mobile phone numbers, names and addresses have been swapping hands without consent, even in instances where there is no alleged crime to answer for. Sadly, for us at least, this type of behaviour isn’t wholly surprising from Celtic officials – whether it is being sanctioned by Chief Executive Peter Lawwell who privately described our songs as ‘cancerous’ or Head of Security Ronnie Hawthorn who willingly will ban dedicated Celtic supporters offering them no chance of a defence against their alleged breach.

In recent weeks there has been a noticeable upsurge from Strathclyde Police in targeting the Celtic support. Up until now they have tried and failed to secure convictions for singing Irish Republican songs, attempting to concoct all manner of charges desperate to find one that will stick. Under their new ‘Anti-Football Legislation’ they are now targeting the Roll of Honour with a number of fans being arrested and charged with ‘offensive behaviour’ and even ‘Racial BOTP’ for singing this song. The most recent arrest being one of our members who was arrested while leaving Celtic Park at the Kilmarnock fixture and who has only just been released after being handed a weekend in the cells. Co-coincidentally, or ironically even, the accused just happens to be someone who has already been through the charade of a football charge with all the accompanying delights and he came away victorious. You’d excuse his paranoia for thinking he was being targeted and tested here.

Perhaps quite unbelievable to some it is not just at or around matches where we get such unwarranted attention. A few months ago one of our members applied for a licence to become a taxi driver. Normally, this would be a straight-forward procedure for a young man with nothing but a minor Breach of the Peace charge from his teenage years. Not quite. He received a letter explaining that his application had been rejected on the grounds that he’s not a ‘fit and proper person’ - an accusation based solely on his connections to the Green Brigade. This had come from the Chief Constable. Thankfully, after appeal, the licence was granted in the end but with no thanks to Strathclyde Police.

The above is just some of the instances of police harassment in the last 10-12 months. Not only is it causing innocent football fans great stress and hitting them badly in the pocket, it’s also costing the taxpayer a fortune. For too long, we have sat back and let them do as they please but it has to stop, and we hope that the coming weeks and months will eventually see a change in their approach and we can get back to supporting our team without fear of arrest at home or away. We believe we sacrifice an awful lot as individuals and as a group in what we do. We dedicate our time and money for our passion of supporting Celtic in our style and we have always attempted to maintain an amicable working relationship with Celtic employees for the benefit of both parties - even when in dispute over certain issues. However we will not tolerate the level of harassment we continue to face nor Celtic PLC’s compliant attitude

 

Got to say that I personally couldn't be * putting up with all that * if I was in their shoes.

The fact that they do speaks volumes for their commitment to the Celtic cause.

 

The Scottish police are ridiculously strict.

 

just wonder if there is a case for the european human rights over the continuing targeting and harrasment of this branch of the celtic support people are coming into this country looking for asylum for similar treatment in their homeland

 

When you read all that they put up with their commitment to Celtic is quite amazing really. What reallys * me off in reading that post was the role of Celtic itself in helping the police target Green Brigade guys for simply supporting Celtic. That really disgsuted me. These guys are as much the life blood of the club as anybody else and the brilliant atmosphere they bring to match day at Celtic Park should be a source of pride to our club.

 

Whats angers me about this and fans at all grounds in the UK is the way that their alleged "crimes" would not be considered crimes away from a football stadium and would be regarded very differently.

Some of these regular awful documentaries (Booze Britain etc) about the Police and the * they have to deal with up and down the country on weekend nights really hammers home how soft they are with people commiting real crimes and offences in comparison with people who want to go to a football match and support their team, why is it that an assualt outside a football ground will probably lead to a jail sentence yet outside a pub in Yorkshire on a Saturday night you will get a free lift home in a police van and told to behave.

This whole episode with the GG is just evidence of what is happening and the complete double standards that people have to face with justice when going to attend a football match.

The amount of resources, money and general bullshit that goes into policing modern football is nothing short of a disgrace and I have a feeling the filming, harrassment is them just justyfing their job when in truth they have * all better to do when St Johnstone come to town with 200 fans, its all complete overkill, for that matter the same can be said for the sheer amount of stewards, simply a joke!

 

Got to say I've got a lot of sympathy for them reading that. Really good piece.

Like AB I don't know if I could put up with half the abuse they get put through, way the police treat them is beyond the pale. Hopefully there's a way we can back them.