Racism in football: English fan has to go to jail for ten weeks

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Marcus Rashford in the European Championship final

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PAUL ELLIS / AFP

Just go online and get started?

Racially insulting others?

For an English football fan, this now has consequences.

The 52-year-old had racially denigrated the players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka in his own livestream on Facebook after they failed to score on penalties in the final of the European Championship.

The man must now be in prison for ten weeks, as the Willesden Magistrate Court in London ruled on Tuesday.

The forklift driver from London had pleaded guilty to "having sent a grossly insulting or indecent or obscene or threatening message or thing over a public communications network," as the report said.

The forklift driver from London had been investigated after a colleague reported the video to the police because the 52-year-old had previously refused to delete the clip.

Racism, hatred and agitation on the Internet are a big topic for players, for associations and the media, including in England.

According to the anti-discrimination initiative "Kick It Out", the number of reported racist incidents rose once again in the past season, by 53 percent compared to the previous season.

And hatred continues to spread exponentially.

Judgments like this are supposed to have a deterrent effect. “There is no place for racism in football or anywhere else. We aim to bring perpetrators of hate crimes to justice if there is evidence, "Prosecutor Elaine Cousins ​​is quoted in the statement. It is all the more important that people report abuse online. "I want to thank the person who reported this horrific hate crime, and I hope this prosecution will help educate and deter people from spreading hate on social media."

The law enforcement agency CPS is currently working with the police, associations and other organizations to make it clear what evidence is required in order to be able to accept charges in cases of hate crimes: “This case shows that we can successfully bring criminals to justice if they are offensive Contents are reported to the police. "

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