From the Archive ~ London Olympics ~ London 2012

From the Archive

It is good to remind myself occasionally how we have all somehow reached the point on the path, worldwide, that we now occupy

15 June 2012

I

THE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 presents a milestone of global proportions because of the very worrying spectacle, across the world stage, of hate crime.

Not long ago this was not part of our criminal law.

Hate is hate, is hate! It always has been down the centuries, and we’ve never really had to define it, or legislate, in order to deal with it. Granted, we have done so in various forms but only now do we have this new concept ~ an overall banner or umbrella under which various crimes now fall ~ HATE.

II

THE Concise Oxford English Dictionary Ninth Edition defines hate as :

1. a feeling of hatred or intense dislike towards someone or something

2. dislike

3. hatred

4. colloq. a hated person or thing

5. hateful i.e. arousing hatred

III

IN the last year we have seen appalling examples of hate crime in every part of the world including here, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

We have an open civil war in Syria rooted in vicious tribal hatred. Tribalism still holds sway in the Middle Eastern.

But we also see hate on the stadium terraces in Poland and Ukraine, with an ineffectual UEFA, [i] and also one of our own most distinguished players [ii] to go for trial at Crown Court charged with racism when he returns from the Euro 2012 Cup.

IV

On the terraces abroad, in the very countries that were ruthlessly suppressed by Nazism, we have youths in their hundreds, several thousand even, giving the Nazi salute and chanting Sieg Heil.

In 1936, Berlin hosted the Olympics. Adolf Hitler was on top of the world. He basked in glory. His Aryan policies were going to be proved once and for all.

V

And then Jesse Owens outran every German athlete and broke the world record.

But he was black.

Hitler stormed out and refused to return to the Games thereafter. And even though it would be another nine years, including six years of global war, and 55 million deaths [iii] to execute, that day marked the "writing on the wall" for that evil man. But America, always that nation that seems to have a peculiar difficulty in finding its identity and its world role, did not shine, when observers pointed out that the US coach had benched two Americans the day before the race because they were Jewish, and so as not to offend a gross little man.

And then Jesse Owens outran every German athlete, and broke the world record.

VI

76 years later, we face the very same spectacle.

Hate is a criminal offence in all its forms. It is an international criminal offence, but depending on what countries you are in, will depend upon whether it is applied. Not all police forces are able, or even willing in some cases, to follow the zero tolerance policy of British policing on this issue.

We as a Nation – the United Kingdom – have a duty to uphold the values and freedoms of democracy. We lead by example.

Ironically, Germany is even tougher than we are on the whole subject of hate crime, understandable, but also genuine. They’ve seen what hate does to a civilised society.

It is why I respect them so much today. They are true allies. They’ve been through the fire and proved themselves.

I do not feel that same confidence when I look at the host nations of the Euro 2012 Cup.

Yet, deep down, I do believe that the Olympics will outshine that Euro Cup!

15 June 2012

4 March 2023
All Rights Reserved

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2023

[i] Union of European Football Associations

[ii] John Terry BBC News Report: Senior District Judge Howard Riddle ruled that while John Terry had used language that could amount to an offence, the player was not guilty because the crucial phrase may not have been said as part of an insult.

[iii] It is suggested by an increasing number of historians and researchers that the more conservative estimate is around 85 million; in 2020, some have even suggested it could be as many as 100 million.