VIDEO showing a police officer appearing to seize a banner used in a protest calling for the scrapping of a controversial anti-bigotry law designed to stamp out offensive behaviour at matches in Scotland is to be used in a complaint about how Police Scotland handled the demonstration.
But video has now emerged of officers appearing to take a banner off fans in a Morrisons supermarket, adjacent to New Douglas Park, on Sunday while escorting them off the property without arrest.
Six teenage boys, the youngest of which was 14, had the banner saying, "SNPolice Scotland. FoCUS on your Failings Not on Football" and were trying to display it in the ground by throwing it over an outside fence, after being turned away from the turnstile.
The footage is now to become the focus of an official complaint by the FAC to Police Scotland over their handling of the protest. The group say they are concerned that after police denied that any banner confiscated, the video shows they "clearly took the banner".
They say they are concerned the officers do not indicate which offence they are suspected of committing or witnessing while asking for the details of the youngsters, all but one of whom were under 17.
FAC say their legal advisers say that displaying a banner in a stadium is not in itself an offence.
After the video emerged, Police Scotland appeared to change its stance. It would only say that an operational note for the match stated that one banner was not allowed into the stadium "due to its political nature".
Meanwhile Hamilton Accies said that they were aware that the police had confiscated two banners. One was a banner draped over a boundary fence at another neighbouring supermarket, Sainsbury after all those present "denied ownership and it was treated as found property".
The club also said police confiscated a banner from a visiting supporter on the grounds that "it was offensive or inflammatory" and that it was understood it would be returned after the match.
Club stewards also refused to allow a few banners into the ground due to size and safety concerns.
"These measures are standard at game and were removed without discrimination. We have no knowledge of the subject detail on the banners and are unaware that they were connected to any particular group or movement," said a club spokesman.
FAC representatives handed papers over to Michael McMahon, the MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill and committee convenor, who is due to hold a meeting with Lanarkshire area police chiefs on Friday over what happened on Sunday.
FAC organised the protest before and during Hamilton's defeat at the hands of Celtic on Sunday as they continue their opposition to the Act on the grounds that it is "fundamentally illiberal and unnecessarily restricts freedom of expression".
An FAC spokesman said: "The FAC organised a peaceful banner protest against the Offensive Behaviour Act involving fans of both teams on Sunday. Police Scotland yet again abused the rights of young football fans in suppressing their freedom of speech outside the stadium.
"The Scottish public must wake up to the impact this Act is having not only on football fans but on the integrity of our police and justice system."
The video footage shows supporters being approached by police with one officer heard to say: "You shouldn't be putting banners over the side of the stadium."
One of the fans is heard to reply: "You cannot arrest us for this."
A male police officer is seen to take the banner and says: "I'm not arresting you for it, I'm taking your flag."
After one fan asks why they are taking the banner an officer is heard to say,"There's been a complaint", before officers tell the fans to step back.
One female officer is heard to day: "In in the interim, so it doesn't offend anybody, so there's not any hassle, we are going to intervene, and we are going to say 'no'. Okay? You'll get your banner back, I'm sure but you're not getting... because you've been told several times not to display it."
She said the youngsters had been told that they could not display the banner in the ground but the youths told the officer that the security guard did not have a problem with them being there.
One of the youngsters said: "Have you not got real criminals to do."
After the boys ask for their banner back, an officer is heard to say: "The banner will be lodged as found property within Hamilton police office until someone identifies themselves as the owner. Not as a group collective. If someone identifies themselves as the owner of the banner, then they can come and discuss it with us. Okay?"
One teenager responds: "Why can't we have it back now?"
In a separate interview, another youngster is asked what group he was affiliated to, "is it Celtic?". The teenager says he does not support Celtic.
She later asks what is on the banner and another officer says: "Some kind of reference to SNP and Scotland..."
They appear to agree it is not offensive.
Watch the full video below
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