CAUSING OFFENCE OR MURDER - WHICH IS WORSE ?

I am increasingly disturbed by the way in which incidents of so-called racism are being handled, in particular in the sporting arena. Claims are made and instantly reported as if undoubtedly true; 'offenders' not only find themselves banned but subjected to the most strenuous vilification and even criminal action. Is it all either justified or sensible ?

In the first instance, I wonder why such a fuss is made at all, as what this does is to give publicity to the moronic perpetrators; surely this is what they desire above all else. Secondly, words and even actions such as making 'monkey noises', can be open to interpretation and the notion that an offence is committed if the supposed victim feels offended is contrary to common justice or even common sense. I may well feel offended by many things, the BBC and its incessant outpouring of politically correct, left wing propaganda for instance, but I doubt anyone would consider this to be worth taking action over.

Reference to me as being a limey, honky or 'white trash' would draw no condemnation, although even referring to a black man as being a negro might well, and referring to him as being a nigger or wog most certainly would. That mere words have assumed such ludicrous prominence in the minds of our lawmakers says much about our society which now seems more interested in tackling offence than real crime. While stabbings and other murders run riot, our police chase their tails pursuing social misdemeanours, assorted crimes involving 'offence' and a vast range of other 'thought crimes'.

While the police chase people who make 'monkey noises' or say offensive things, there have been 142 murders this year in London alone, the latest today, Christmas Day. People stabbed and shot, in the street, on trains and, today, on their own doorstep. Even in my own fairly quiet midlands area, a teenager was stabbed to death less than a mile from my own front door only a few weeks ago.

While this goes on, the media appears to be full of reports of supposed 'racist' activities at football matches and the police are looking for people who make 'monkey noises'.

Am I alone in believing that our society has its priorities wrong ? Which is worse - being offensive or murder ?

BULGARIA PUNISHED - TIME TO MOVE ON.

A handful of mindless idiots, out of a crowd of tens of thousands, made offensive remarks and gestures during a football match. Under any normal circumstances this would be seen as what it was - the stupid action of a tiny group.

But No.

Because this was "racist" activity, it's been at the top of the news and now that the Bulgarian footballing authorities have been given a punishment that is deemed to be too light, it's back in the news as a major item. For goodness sake, what is this lunacy ?

The world has many people and not all of those people are intelligent, reasonable or even vey nice. Some are downright nasty, others are simply too stupid and moronic to be taken seriously, but in a world in which "equality" and "racism" are key buzz words, and some "take offence" at every opportunity, things that used to be shrugged off are now placed centre stage.

Seeing a tiny section of the crowd at  the England - Bulgaria match behaving moronically wasn't the most pleasant spectacle but they appeared to all be expelled from the stadium fairly quickly and with little fuss. The fuss all came from the England bench and players "taking offence", even though one, Tyrone Mings, even indicated later that he was not particularly disturbed by the moronic behaviour. Subsequently the European football authorities have decided that Bulgaria must be punished, although I have to ask "why ?" What could they have done differently in order to prevent the incident ?

Worse, the "anti-racist" brigade are now up in arms claiming that the punishment handed down is inadequate, a joke. What is wrong with these people ?

Being nasty, cruel or rude about others is not new and it won't go away. People are people and will continue to behave with a variety of views and attitudes until they are all turned into some sort of clones, turned out sausage-like from their schools and colleges of indoctrination. Venues such as football stadiums quite simply can't control the behaviour of everyone in their often vast crowds; all they can do is see it and act there and then, as the Bulgarian authorities did.

Additionally, why do we give the morons the oxygen of publicity on which they thrive ? By all means catch them and punish them for any real offences they've committed, but do not publicise their activities on every front page and every television and radio news broadcast; do not spend inordinate time debating the rights and wrongs of their actions or those of the authorities that are claimed to have failed to control them. If their activities were largely ignored by the media, they'd soon become bored and move on to some other puerile nonsense.

That said, aren't there also far more important things for us all to worry about ? Climate change, the continuing extinction of species, the clearance of rain forests; this is what we should worry about, not the moronic behaviour of tiny groups of louts. For God's sake, get real.