UPTHEPORT wrote:Just heard someone was arrested yesterday for Racist comments

FFS it's the 21st century no need of it

You are absolutely correct, people are more concerned about the reporting in the SWA, which has been corrected...and reported correctly on BBC wales news tonight.

I think that’s a tad unfair, Penycwm. No-one is “more concerned” about the Argus coverage than the incident, and many of us were at pains in our earlier posts to condemn in the strongest possible terms the use of racist language at RP.

Indeed, it’s precisely because racism is so abhorrent that I think it’s a great shame that our “media partner” didn’t make it clearer from the outset that it wasn’t County fans responsible.

Those two positions are not contradictory ones.

I think you will find that it was only UTP and yourself who condemned it

It's obvious that those that wanted the SWA article corrected was because none of us want us/our fans to be associated with racism !!

Out of interest what exactly is Racism in the opinion of all posters?
Personally I haven't a clue in this politically correct society and those (in society) who hijack a perfectly innocent remark

mad norm wrote:Out of interest what exactly is Racism in the opinion of all posters?
Personally I haven't a clue in this politically correct society and those (in society) who hijack a perfectly innocent remark

Good point. It's not always easy to define,although some language is obvious to all as offensive/racist.
But is it offensive/racist to call Welshmen 'sheep sh**ging b**stads' . If so can you be racist against yourself.
Afterall in the well known chant 'we know what we are' etc.etc

Also remarks can be seen as racist by some and not by others. Who is right?

Kairdiff Exile wrote:I think that’s a tad unfair, Penycwm. No-one is “more concerned” about the Argus coverage than the incident, and many of us were at pains in our earlier posts to condemn in the strongest possible terms the use of racist language at RP.

Indeed, it’s precisely because racism is so abhorrent that I think it’s a great shame that our “media partner” didn’t make it clearer from the outset that it wasn’t County fans responsible.

Those two positions are not contradictory ones.

Exactly mate, that sort of behaviour is so abhorrent that I didn’t deem it necessary to condemn it, self-evident! The point was our local newspaper have history with this, Uptheport will back me on this as will others I’m sure.

lowandhard wrote:

penycwm county wrote:http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/1 ... unty-game/

Seem to have got it right

They must have read our comments below the original article which they’ve now deleted

The original article has not been deleted, the reporter has stated that the police had not confirmed it was a Grimsby fan and it would have been irresponsible to rely on Twitter hearsay.

But then as pointed out in this tweet below, it was irresponsible to not say that it hadn't been confirmed whose fan it was, rather than make people jump to the conclusion it was a County fan.

The original error was by the Police who should have commented but then the Argus reporter should have not just left it open either.

Grimsby Town fan arrested for Racist Comments

Fan arrested at Newport County game for Racist Comments

Which headline would make more people click on the article of a South Wales Newspaper Website?

steve wrote:Grimsby Town fan arrested for Racist Comments

Fan arrested at Newport County game for Racist Comments

Which headline would make more people click on the article of a South Wales Newspaper Website?

Exactly. Clickbait of the worst sort, and Newport County fans have our reputation dragged through the mud unnecessarily. I don't think our fans are angels (and we've had racist incidents of our own to deal with in the past), but Saturday was absolutely nothing to do with us.

Ugo. wrote:The original article has not been deleted, the reporter has stated that the police had not confirmed it was a Grimsby fan and it would have been irresponsible to rely on Twitter hearsay...

I understand the reason for caution on the journalist's part - and I've said above that Ian Craig is a decent journo - but on this occasion he's let himself down. Why didn't he ask his Argus counterparts who were at the game or any of the several thousand fans who were at the game for more information? Why didn't he contact the Grimsby fan who reported the bloke (he was on Twitter giving his version of events)? There were plenty of ways to substantiate the fact that it was an away fan, and seemingly none of those avenues were explored. I also saw an NCAFC director tweeting condemnation of the incident after the game, and again that quote wasn't used.

lowandhard wrote:

Kairdiff Exile wrote:I think that’s a tad unfair, Penycwm. No-one is “more concerned” about the Argus coverage than the incident, and many of us were at pains in our earlier posts to condemn in the strongest possible terms the use of racist language at RP.

Indeed, it’s precisely because racism is so abhorrent that I think it’s a great shame that our “media partner” didn’t make it clearer from the outset that it wasn’t County fans responsible.

Those two positions are not contradictory ones.

Exactly mate, that sort of behaviour is so abhorrent that I didn’t deem it necessary to condemn it, self-evident! The point was our local newspaper have history with this, Uptheport will back me on this as will others I’m sure.

No need to back you up mate your feelings on racism are well documented

My take is the Gus didn't know who had made comments

OLDCROMWELLIAN wrote:

mad norm wrote:Out of interest what exactly is Racism in the opinion of all posters?
Personally I haven't a clue in this politically correct society and those (in society) who hijack a perfectly innocent remark

Good point. It's not always easy to define,although some language is obvious to all as offensive/racist.
But is it offensive/racist to call Welshmen 'sheep sh**ging b**stads' . If so can you be racist against yourself.
Afterall in the well known chant 'we know what we are' etc.etc

Also remarks can be seen as racist by some and not by others. Who is right?

To be racist against yourself,you'd have to take offence against something you said or did?
Imagine a surreal scenario when one of our fans takes offence against fellow fans for being racist to themselves.............

And well done to the Grimsby fan that reported him

whoareya wrote:

OLDCROMWELLIAN wrote:

mad norm wrote:Out of interest what exactly is Racism in the opinion of all posters?
Personally I haven't a clue in this politically correct society and those (in society) who hijack a perfectly innocent remark

Good point. It's not always easy to define,although some language is obvious to all as offensive/racist.
But is it offensive/racist to call Welshmen 'sheep sh**ging b**stads' . If so can you be racist against yourself.
Afterall in the well known chant 'we know what we are' etc.etc

Also remarks can be seen as racist by some and not by others. Who is right?

To be racist against yourself,you'd have to take offence against something you said or did?
Imagine a surreal scenario when one of our fans takes offence against fellow fans for being racist to themselves.............

Indeed. The law as i understand it is about individual perception, and therefore not straight forward. I have actually witnessed proceedings whereby a person didn't take offence at comments directed at him by another, yet a passerby who overheard the comments did take offence. Therefore it is often impossible to definitively define in law what words are racist.

whoareya wrote:

OLDCROMWELLIAN wrote:

mad norm wrote:Out of interest what exactly is Racism in the opinion of all posters?
Personally I haven't a clue in this politically correct society and those (in society) who hijack a perfectly innocent remark

Good point. It's not always easy to define,although some language is obvious to all as offensive/racist.
But is it offensive/racist to call Welshmen 'sheep sh**ging b**stads' . If so can you be racist against yourself.
Afterall in the well known chant 'we know what we are' etc.etc

Also remarks can be seen as racist by some and not by others. Who is right?

To be racist against yourself,you'd have to take offence against something you said or did?
Imagine a surreal scenario when one of our fans takes offence against fellow fans for being racist to themselves.............

It's not that surreal, the "we know what we are" chant is so irritating I can imagine plenty of people have had enough of hearing it and this would be a very good way of ensuring they didn't have to hear it again.

FWIW I'm more interested in whether it was racist as in relating to skin colour, or racist as in sheep related (honestly do any County fans rise to that and have they ever?). Makes a huge difference to me - one is completely unacceptable and suggests a wider prejudice against all people of other skin colours, the other just makes the person look like an idiot for thinking sheep comments are somehow funny.

As far as the wider racism discussion goes, the accepted practice is that it is deemed offensive by the person it is aimed at. Which obviously has its own problems but that is pretty much how a hate crime is defined. It also fits with the "not bothered" thing about sheep jokes.