{"id":3936,"date":"2017-01-04T11:24:57","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T10:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3936"},"modified":"2017-01-04T11:27:49","modified_gmt":"2017-01-04T10:27:49","slug":"racist-chelsea-fans-convicted-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/3936\/","title":{"rendered":"Racist Chelsea Fans Convicted in Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m glad about this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Four Chelsea fans accused of aggravated violence against a black man on the Paris Metro have been given suspended one-year sentences by a French court.<\/p>\n

Joshua Parsons, 22, and James Fairbairn, 25, had denied their actions of February 2015 were racist in nature.<\/p>\n

Their co-accused, fellow Chelsea fans Richard Barklie, a 52-year-old former policeman, and William Simpson, 27, from Surrey, were tried in absentia.<\/p>\n

They were also ordered to pay the victim 10,000 euros in compensation.<\/p>\n

Souleymane Sylla was targeted at Richelieu-Drouot station as football fans made their way to a Champions League match between Paris Saint Germain and Chelsea.<\/p>\n

The hearing at the Palais de Justice saw a video recorded by a passenger of fans pushing him off the Metro train.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I remember that happening and thought it was a disgrace. \u00a0The term “racist” has been bandied about to such an extent in recent times that it is now largely meaningless, thus leaving us with no term to describe proper racism. \u00a0And what happened in this case was proper racism:<\/p>\n

Supporters can be heard chanting “we are racist, we are racist and that’s the way we like it”.<\/p>\n

The AFP agency reported that after giving evidence Parsons apologised to Mr Sylla, a Frenchman of Mauritanian origin, but denied there was any racist aspect to what had happened.<\/p>\n

Turning to Mr Sylla in court, Parsons said: “I am very sorry to Mr Sylla, but I was not racist in any way.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, right. \u00a0God only knows what Mr Sylla must have thought: minding his own business in his nation’s capital and a bunch of foreign thugs deny him access to a Metro carriage because of the colour of his skin. \u00a0Had he been armed and shot his way aboard and I’d been on the jury, I’d have refused to convict. \u00a0Go and watch the video in the link if you think I’m being unfair. \u00a0The actions of these thugs are indefensible, and I can only imagine what Chelsea fans would think if a bunch of swarthy foreigners turned up in London and denied a native-born paleface access to the Underground.<\/p>\n

I hope that 10,000 Euros sends them into bankruptcy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m glad about this: Four Chelsea fans accused of aggravated violence against a black man on the Paris Metro have been given suspended one-year sentences by a French court. Joshua Parsons, 22, and James Fairbairn, 25, had denied their actions … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[67,42],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3936"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3936"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3939,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3936\/revisions\/3939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}