MY seven-year-old is a big fan of what she likes to refer to as a “Woman’s Day”. Woman’s Day usually involves the two of us going out for lunch, pottering about a few shops and buying new pyjamas.
Woman’s Day then turns into Woman’s Night. We watch a movie and eat snacks that have no nutritional value whatsoever. At some point, when she catches me trying to look at my phone on the sly, she will sternly remind me that there’s no Twitter allowed during either Woman’s Day OR Woman’s Night.
As the only weekend this month that she was with me and not her dad, we’d long scheduled Saturday to include all of the above. That was until I learned that Rangers fans were planning to flock to Glasgow city centre to celebrate their team’s league title success.
We all remember what happened the last time they made Glasgow their destination of choice for a celebration. Back in March, a rampaging mob of drunk, aggressive men made it their mission to tear up George Square and were triumphant in their endeavour.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon 'disgusted' by Rangers fans who 'rampaged' in Glasgow
After such a long lockdown, it would have been so nice to jump on a train with the wee one and head into town. But on Saturday, I decided it just wasn’t worth the risk.
I didn’t tell her why we changed our plans. How do you explain to a seven-year-old that we have to stay home because a crowd of destructive men are taking over the city for the day?
She wouldn’t have understood why people – who are supposedly happy and wanting to celebrate good news – were expected to demonstrate that through violence and ruin. And of course, that’s exactly what happened. Once again, Glasgow was subjected to hours of chaos at the hands of a mob. Some pubs and restaurants decided to shut early because they couldn’t guarantee the safety of their customers and staff. Trains were delayed. Police officers were attacked and the city centre became a no-go zone.
Thankfully, I wasn’t on my phone most of the night because the wee one is very strict about enforcing the Woman’s Night no-Twitter rule.
When she went to bed, I scrolled through. Video after video of absolute carnage. And the worst part? None of it came as a surprise.
At the end of last week, Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser sought to make a false equivalence between the peaceful Kenmure Street protest against the inhumanity of the Home Office and the anticipated title win “celebration”of Rangers fans in the city centre.
There are vast differences between the two and Murdo Fraser knows fine well what those differences are.
Purposeful, peaceful community action is not in any way similar to thugs on drunken rampage. Any MSP seeking to conflate the two does themselves and their party a disservice.
I couldn’t care less about football. Best of luck to everybody involved but it’s not my thing. But I do care about the virus of sectarianism and bigotry that has blighted our communities for too long.
And I care about male violence and know that the consequences of it reach far beyond the boundaries of any football stadium.
When I watched the videos from Glasgow on Saturday, I saw entitlement more than anything else. Yes, they were football fans. Yes, they belonged to a specific team and, of course, the sectarian element should not be underplayed.
But those men felt entitled to behave the way they did. They felt able to destroy everything in their path. They weren’t worried about the consequences – for either themselves or other people – and some seemed to revel in fact that their presence provoked fear.
READ MORE: Around 15,000 'selfish' Rangers fans marched through Glasgow, police say
Of course, women were there too. Some women got drunk and urinated in the street. I’m sure if you comb through all the footage from the day, you’ll be able to find an instance of a woman throwing something at the police or behaving aggressively.
That doesn’t change the fact that football thuggery – just like all crime that involve violence– is mainly perpetuated by men.
Police Scotland has been criticised for its response, which seemed to once again come too late in the day, when so much damage had already been done.
But the officers on the frontline who were under attack were not the ones making operational decisions about how to deal with such a large gathering of men intent on violence.
By yesterday morning, heroic Glasgow council workers had cleared the bottles, broken glass and filth from George Square. Aside from the upturned memorial benches and the blue and red smoke-bomb stains on the ground, it almost looked back to normal.
But there was nothing normal about what happened in Glasgow on Saturday. It’s time for politicians, police and football clubs to work together to ensure that the city doesn’t come under siege in that way ever again.
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