West Midlands Police Chief Constable Should beSacked......

[Ablondiebutagoody]

..... for using fake evidence to justify the ban on Jewish fans from the Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv match last year. When in reality, the threat was towards those fans from local anti-semites and he just couldn't be arsed to protect them.

It’s disgusting.

YANBU at all. I’d quite like the people voting YABU to explain their thinking.

Brummie here.

I think our Chief Constable made the right decision. Maccabie fans have a reputation for being thugs. They take a pride in it. The team has had to play matches behind closed doors before and most recently the team was given a one match ban by FIFA in December because of the racist chanting of their fans and their Nazi salutes (as reported by Jewish newspaper). I don't want thugs like that coming to the city where I live, chanting their vile slogans - or do the Maccabie apologists here think that chants like "There are no schools in Gaza, as there are no children left" are acceptable in a residential area, where the Villa ground is located, and where children live? Would the Maccabie apologists here find that acceptable around their children?

I don't want thugs who chant a slogan known as "the Maccabie rape song", on the streets of the city where I live making women of all ages and ethnicities feel unsafe.

I reiterate that I support the West Midland Chief Constable's decision to keep the people of Birmingham safe.

I’d be cannot be trusted on this point, it brings the whole organisation into disrepute.

He might well have been right. But he lied to get there. And it was hugely controversial. So you’d think he would have had the sense to erm, not make things up to get the result he wanted.

I find it very disturbing that a police decision was made based on Googling regardless of whether it was the correct decision or not.

The number of times I've told DD not to believe everything she sees on the internet.

Is this what passes for intelligence now?

This is the route to tyranny.

Most of the incidents you mention are based on unverified claims, not backed up by the relevant authorities or reliable reports. Its the exact reason the Chief Constable was investigated; because he relied on hearsay, social media claims, his own bias, and because he was too cowardly to try to manage the violence being threatened by the local community towards the fans.

There are bad actors in all large groups, that doesn't mean you ban the whole group and as evidenced in the investigation, there are numerous instances of football fans from other teams with far worse track records that have been managed in a way that allowed the non-violent fans to enjoy the game, without impacting locals.

I don’t trust the police at all. This is because of my dealing with them so I am not surprised at all by this. I was born in Birmingham.

The whole thing was mishandled from the start. Even before it became known that the “intelligence” wasn’t true, I thought that. The police should not be partisan, whether it’s politics or football (in this case both). He should have just said that due to the two teams involved and the tensions surrounding the situation in Gaza, there was a high likelihood of disorder in the West Midlands area as a result of the match going ahead which his force did not have the resources to capably control. Should politicians feel there was value in the match going ahead, the government would need to find additional funds and call on mutual aid from other forces to ensure adequate police resources to keep fans and all members of the public safe, regardless of their football allegiance, religion or political views.

It’s always annoys me intensely that when there’s so much money floating around in football it’s left for the public purse to pay for policing the streets outside the stadium.

So that’s that, but in addition someone’s head should roll for the complete lack of due diligence - I mean, come on! Fact checking things off the internet is taught in schools!

My understanding was that they made the decision, then googled/tried to find evidence to justify their decision later. Extremely concerning insight into how the organisation works

Having seen previous behaviour from these fans a ban is justified. Being Jewish doesn't mean you can be violent thugs.

That sort of behaviour is, I agree, reprehensible. But unfortunately the government is on sticky ground because it’s their modus operandi. Want to put up taxes? Blame it on a made up black hole. When the OBR disputes that there is a black hole run a smear campaign against it and gaslight the British public by doubling down on the lie. You can see why the Chief constable of Birmingham thought it was an acceptable approach…!

You're a Brummie and you think it's everyone's fault except the locals around the ground. Hilarious.

Yes he should be sacked. He caved into the mob and lied to do it. What a great bit of senior policing which makes the public really have faith. Not.

Ayoub Khan in the HoC today was also a disgrace. He is responsible for putting pressure on the police and getting all his cronies on the council to do the same. The more I hear of the institutions in Birmingham, it sounds worryingly sectarian and not at all appropriate for UK politics.

I saw him being interviewed earlier. Arrogant twerp.

It makes me question whether we are recruiting quality candidates into senior leadership roles in our police forces. I can't say I'm overly impressed by him.

Just the latest example of throwing the Jewish community under the bus in the name of 'safety'.

Appeasing Islamist extremists will just allow sectarianism to grow in places like Birmingham. Its happening already.

Exactly, which is why I was surprised the Brummie pp stated what she did! Offended by football fans' chants but no mention of Free Palestine chants in Birmingham City centre, obviously notorious for their antisemitism.

That’s the suspicion around Employment Judge Alexander Kemp, also happening currently.

(The Nurse Sandie Peggie case.)

This.

Even if one happens to think the googled AI hallucination based decision is correct in this instance, this is a big fuckoff problem. It would be equally bad if they'd used the same process to decide that the Maccabi fans should be allowed in.

As we've not had a link yet, this is the inspection report setting out some of the problems with WMPs actions.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/inspection-of-police-forces-contributions-to-safety-advisory-groups-west-midlands-police/inspection-of-police-forces-contributions-to-safety-advisory-groups-west-midlands-police-accessible

This is the future of politics in the UK.