WHY WAS ARTICLE TAKEN DOWN HIGHLIGHTING THE FACTS ABOUT THE OLD FIRM DERBY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE?

A recent post exposing the myths about rises in domestic violence and domestic abuse around the Old Firm derby has been taken down. However, the text of the article is still available via a cached site and has been pasted at the end of this post.

This site covered the post last week and it was picked by a variety of feeds which probably meant it was receiving a lot of attention.

Either the author got cold feet or he/she was told to take the post down by those who do not want the truth to be known. Alternatively it could have been taken down by those who run the site.

The article was numbered 1124 yet 1123 and 1125 are still on the site (published 01 April 2011) - The site is here.

Whatever the reason, if this was taken down against the authors wishes or he/she was put under pressure, it shows how far some people will go to stop the truth from being told and that nothing, absolutely nothing, can get in the way of spreading anti-male propaganda especially when its gets in the way of feminist fundamentalist myths.

Posted by Skimmington

Hattip - JK

Article on Rangers Media website

I recently submitted a Freedom Of Information request to Strathclyde Police asking for some domestic crime statistics. This followed Strathclyde Police's claim that domestic abuse in their region rose by 138.8% if an Old Firm game was played on a Saturday, and 96.6% if the game was played on a Sunday. There was also a claimed 56.8% rise following midweek games.

My request was not fully granted, although I have asked for the remainder of the data. They have, however, supplied data for weekends from the 2nd January 2009 to the 6th March 2011. This period includes seven Old Firm games, so will be sufficient to examine their figures regarding weekend games.

So, what do the figures show? They are available for anyone to view here: Link

I'll start with the Sunday figures, remember we are expecting a 96.6% increase if the police are to be believed. The average number of domestic abuse incidents on a Sunday for that period was 100.0, the average on a Sunday when an Old Firm game was played was 137.0. This 37% rise is not good whatever way you look at it, but it falls a long way short of the 96.6% claimed by the police. There were other dates with similar increases, Old Firm games 'ranked' (for want of a better word) 1st, 3rd, 10th, 12th and 28th from a total of 114 Sundays.

So, to Saturday, where a 138.8% increase is claimed. The average number of incidents on a Saturday was 102.0, this figure includes New Years Day 2011, which was by far the highest figure at 271 incidents. Even removing this figure, the average for Saturdays was 100.5 incidents. There were 2 Old Firm games played on Saturdays in this period, the number of incidents on those dates were 87 and 89. An average of 88 incidents means a decrease of 12% on Saturdays not including New Year, a decrease of 14% if you include New Year. The 'ranking' of Old Firm games in the Saturday list is 83rd and 89th of 114 days.

If Strathclyde Police have figures which back up their claims, I'd love to see them. It certainly seems from this data that the claims were simply made up.

Now, this is where I'm going to depart from statistics and move into conjecture and opinion. My feeling is that domestic violence is perpetrated by scumbags. It doesn't matter if these scumbags support Celtic, Rangers, or anyone else for that matter. People who hit their partners (or families) will hit them.

Why do we see the increase on an Old Firm Sunday? It's my firm belief that alcohol plays a large part in domestic abuse. Increased drinking will lead to an increase in incidents. It is clear that an Old Firm Sunday is seen as an excuse to drink for many, we all know from our own experience that pubs and clubs are busier on an Old Firm Sunday than other Sundays. It would be naive to think there is not also an increase in drinking at home. I'd suggest it is more to do with this increase in drinking than the football itself. I'm sure the same will apply to midweek games, although I'd imagine to a lesser extent.

So why is there a decrease in incidents on a Saturday? Well, we have a smaller set of data regarding Saturday Old Firm games (only 2 games in the period in question). Also, Saturday is a more traditional drinking day anyway. Perhaps the scumbags who hit their families drink on a Saturday whether the football is on or not.

So, in summary, we have this:

Saturday games: Strathclyde Police claim 138.8% rise, reality is a 12% fall;
Sunday games: Strathclyde Police claim 96.6% rise, reality is a 37% rise.

Why the lies? Why has nobody challenged them before? I believe (thanks to rfc52 and Castilian) that Gordon Brewer challenged Ian Gray of the Police Federation on Newsnight, but it wasn't pressed or followed up on. It's disgraceful that people in such positions can make up figures and blatantly lie, and the media lap it up and report it as fact.

 

Comments

[Patrick Brown]

I brought this piece up on the Guardian CiF "What do you want to talk about" thread last week, and some interesting conclusions were drawn.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/06/you-tell-us?commentpage=4#comment-10269988

It turns out the figures released to Rangers Media are for "incidents", i.e. reports to the police, whereas the figures previously released to the public were for "offences", i.e. incidents followed up by the police and treated as crimes.

So on Old Firm Sundays there's a 37% increase in reported incidents of domestic violence, and a 96.6% rise in the police following up these incidents, and on Old Firm Saturdays there's a 14% fall in reported incidents, and a 138.8% rise in the police following incidents up.

What the stats really only show is that the police take domestic violence much more seriously when there's an Old Firm game on than when there isn't.

[Alf]

From a little googling:

http://news.scotsman.com/glasgow/Findlay-attacks-Old-Firm-abuse.6737111.jp

"Statistics show a spike in domestic violence during Old Firm games and the government, police and the clubs hope FBOs can be used to crack down on such incidents."

http://www.strathclyde.police.uk/index.asp?locID=1580&docID=8361

"Domestic abuse offenders continued to be targeted prior to the Old Firm game on Sunday 2 January 2011. On average, since May 2009, the number of domestic abuse calls on match days has dropped by more that 30 per cent."

http://www.strathclyde.police.uk/index.asp?docID=7584

"More than 800 domestic abuse offenders were targeted prior to the Old Firm game on 3 January 2010. On average, over the past five Old Firm games, domestic abuse has fallen by 23 per cent. Attempted murder, serious assault and breach of the peace have also fallen."

[Trevor]

Some top policewoman stated that a woman is assaulted at least 35 times before calling the police, I saw an article refuting this somewhere but does anyone else remember where it was?