You Can't Grass On a Fellow Bear, Can You?

You should never grass on a Rangers fan. They're like family. That's what I'm told anyway. And I agree with the sentiment.

Being a Rangers fan means so much to so many, and when we stand together in support of the boys in Royal Blue, there is a sense of mutual acceptance. In fact, it's more than that. It's a sense of kinship. We celebrate together, we cry together (not that I ever cry).

It's a special relationship with a stranger brought about by football. And it's quite reassuring to know that you're with Bears.

Since pictures were released of people Greater Manchester Police wish to speak to over the troubles in Manchester, this very relationship has been championed as reasoning for not reporting then. You can't grass on a fellow bear can you?

Firstly, I'd like to make it perfectly clear that I do not presume that anyone pictured committed any sort of offence that night. I did not see any of them doing anything wrong, so I will not sit and preach the rights and wrongs of "grassing in" any individual in the pictures. Its not my place to decide their fate.

But let me be slightly hypothetical for a second and propose the follow; lets say I do know someone in the pictures, and I did see them throw a bottle at the police, totally unprovoked, should I contact GMP? My reaction would be that I should (though whether I would or not I'm unsure about…it's easy to talk hypothetically), but I'm faced with the argument that I shouldn't because they are fellow bears. Is that fact really so important?

There's no doubt the shared love for Rangers I feel with every other Rangers fan brings us together, but for me, it does not make them immune to my moral response. Where does the line get drawn in the "fellow bear" argument? Sectarian singing? Assault? GBH? Murder? Let's say for arguments sake that you're wife is a police officer down there who was attacked. Does the "fellow bear" argument still stand?

There's certainly a pretty large grey area emerging when you go deeper into the argument, and that leaves me pretty uncomfortable with the whole thing. Being a Rangers fan does not create some sort of immunity from the law in the eyes of fellow fans. And nor should it! It's a useless construct in this sense and does nothing but create problems deciding where the immunity ends.

It's a tricky one. So lets take away the "fellow bear" argument and simply react as you would to any other appeal made from any other police force. Me? I still don't know how I'd react if I seen a friend in that list, but my moral compass is pointing to the police station. Still, morals don't always apply. And everyone's morals are different. But please, lets forget about the "fellow bear" argument here and just react how would under any other circumstance.