I don't make a habit of defending Alexander, but here goes anyway.
Barrie Nicoll wrote:For crying out loud, the jewish fans are taking offence at the NON JEWS using the word 'yid' as they find it offensive, and the lawyers are threatening to prosecute NON JEWS for using the word.
stick
end
wrong
the
of
This is simply wrong. The issue is over Spurs fans (including Jewish fans) calling themselves "Yids", "Yiddos" or "Yid Army". They have done this years as a way of "taking ownership" of a term that would otherwise be used by fans of other clubs to cause offense. The logic is that the term "Yids" cannot be used to offend if you are using it to describe yourself. Similarly, it is common for fans of Dover Athletic's opponents to describe Dover fans as "French". Having heard this insult for many years, Dover fans have been come to embrace it, and have even been known to sing "La Marseillaise" in response. Opponents get bored when they realise it doesn't upset them.
(I should add, I'm not drawing a comparison between the nature of the insults directed at Spurs and Dover fans, merely comparing the manor of dealing with those insults.)
The issue with Spurs is whether it is right to arrest someone for describing
themselves in a term that others may find offensive. If it is, then surely the same applies to Hip Hop artists using the term "N****r", or homosexuals describing themselves as "queer". It's a difficult question.
One other thing to point out is that "The Society of Black Lawyers" is a group looking to make it's mark. Take the Mark Clattenburg incident as an example:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/9677069/Society-of-Black-Lawyers-criticises-Chelsea-and-FA-after-police-investigation-into-Mark-Clattenburg-dropped.html
According to Peter Herbert of the Society of Black Lawyers, action should have been taken against Clattenburg, despite having no inside knowledge of the case. Clattenburg was subsequently cleared of all accusations, and the player involved punished. Put simply, Herbert got it very, very wrong.