Rangers Fans Riot in Manchester

As it happens I ended up walking right into the centre of a riot last night. I say a riot… but the police were trapped round the corner not venturing out of reasonably safe areas. I just walked into Glasgow Rangers fans dashing through the streets trashing whatever they could. Two young men ran and drop-kicked an already overflowing bin and screamed at me that they were going to wreck Manchester.

The big screen in Piccadilly Gardens failed 15 minutes before kick-off. When the engineers approached the screen to fix it they were bombarded with bottles. As a result they quite rightly fled and refused to return to the screen. The city council started a back-up plan of bussing people up to an alternative screen at the Velodrome, others were directed to said location and Albert Square. I came across fans running down Aytoun Street towards Whitworth Street believing they were running towards Albert Square – and I believe this lack of ability to follow directions was widespread due to how drunk they all were. This evening was never going to end well.

At times like these people bend over backwards to say that everything was fine apart from a small minority who ruined it for all. This was not the case here. It may be a small minority who decide to attack police, but there was a very clear majority of people who decided to treat Manchester with absolute disrespect. The city was absolutely trashed this morning. Thanks a lot, city to city, thanks a lot you goddam sectarians.

Leader of the city council Richard Leese popped up on TV to say that alcohol wasn't the problem, 'the other 100,000 people had enjoyed a lovely carnival atmosphere'. I'm not sure if men punching each other, drunken arguments, p*ssing everywhere you looked and being foul from morning til next morning is quite the kind of carnival this city needs. The council of course know full well that they saw great big £££pound signs£££ in their eyes and just went for it. Went for it like a needy whore – which is kind of in keeping with the planning permission they give to all these foul buildings and the destruction of Manchester's urban culture. 'Give give give', they say, jumping at notes dangling from the hands of any old corporate interest.

8am the day of the UEFA cup final, I walk to work in the beautiful clear morning sunshine. Shirtless men begin to appear; crates of beer on one shoulder, open can in their free hands. They step in front of the morning buses and jeer at the city's working people. They start to p*ss all over the streets as soon as they arrive. I can't help but feel like the city's policy was that they knew there was going to be damage, but don't increase costs of policing it... so much money will come in that the damages in the morning will be economically sustainable. Never mind the people of Manchester, imagine all the money flooding into the city. (And p*ssed right back out all over the city!!). The clean-up this morning was of such a scale that it seemed the level of damage was about what was expected - I believe the city council topped up their street cleaning staff with up to 50 city council admin staff! Having worked for a Local Authority I can well imagine the blue words used towards management as they were washing wee off Albert Square!

There were *too many* fans in the city to have a 'light touch policy' and to suspend public drinking laws. It would've been more appropriate for a different match with fewer travelling fans. But this is Rangers and they have notoriously nasty sectarian fans. It was simply not a good idea to allow drinking on the streets from dawn – and I saw people p*ssed out of their heads AT dawn, god only knows what state they were in by match time.

A man dissed my friend for wearing the colour green. Seriously, just f*ck off you sectarian dimwit! Today a man in the train station had a Manchester City shirt with the words 'We Wrecked Your City 08' on the back. What an attitude.

I call bullshit on all the usual talk about small minorities spoiling a nice event for all – the atmosphere was just ugly and unpleasant all day long. I always thought Glasgow was a Big city, but it's hard to imagine if they have over 100,000 people like this to spare!

'WHAT WENT WRONG' the media quite politely ask. Hmm. Hundreds of thousands of drunk Rangers fans with free access to the whole city all day long, the suspension of drinking laws, the promotion of cheap booze – Pat Karney stormed Tesco and demanded they stopped selling cheap booze near their door, fine if the council hadn't brought in three tankers of Carling themselves I guess. The fact that the police were hardly seen all day, they seemed very overstretched… and the fact that they are Greater Manchester Police, who themselves are quite notoriously erratic and bastardly. The locations of fans in areas that were not really manageable once full – and everywhere was far fuller than ought to have been the case. …really the answer is simple to the question, EVERYTHING WENT WRONG. The most goddam awful event I've ever known in Manchester.

Over 24 hours later and I can't go to sleep because there are scottish voices down in the street playing african drums shouting things about how nobody will sleep tonight, the waft of urine still blows in through the seams of my closed windows. I can't even find words...

I'm obviously way angry about my city being treated in this way. I'll shut up and leave you with a load of video clips I've looked up.

VIDEOS

CCTV footage - of Rangers fans attacking the Police.

Pic Gardens1 - A Rangers fan gets knocked stone-cold out by a Rangers fan (at 27secs)

Pic Gardens2 - Pre-riot-proper, sense the atmosphere, horrible - but somewhat amusing when people think they've scored.. which of course they never did.

Police Charges1 - having faced baton charges from these very same dibble myself, it seems pretty clear in the footage they are out of their depth and somewhat disorganised. Would you agree Larry?

Police Charges2 - Seen here also. Here the Police incite other fans by giving one particular isolated fan a good beating - this is something I've seen Greater Manchester Police do many times; the difference here is they aren't doing it to people on a political protest, they're doing it to drunk thugs - thus the lack of confidence in their lines, thus injuries incurred back. This seems needless and lazy, lucky there are not many Rangers fans in the area.

Police Charges3 - This is the 'clear the area now or batons will be used' warning.
Police Charges4 - Police line up and charge met station / Market Street. Police Charges5 - The TAU storm down to Market Street, regulars section off met station - I've never in my life seen Greater Manchester Police push people ONTO Market Street! We managed to storm it just once during the Iraq war and that was because the school kids came out that day and outran the filth. Ignoring the Chelsea fan or whoever commentating on these videos, here's another: Police Charges6 - a lad gets a battering against a wall by regular police. Pretty standard over-pumped up police action, riles everyone. But then in this video you hear the faulty reasoning of those on the receiving end: a lad outraged that riot police smashed his hand with a baton because he had a plastic bag in his hand, 'there was no reason to do that at all!' he blubs as bottles rain down all around him, the dumbass.

Sounds of the City - This gives a pretty good impression of what I heard from my flat all last night.

From the Helicopter - Rangers Fans Attacking a car.

More fighting but shots of the AFTERMATH too.

It's night time in the big city.