Sectarianism-The Jury Decides

There were thousands who saw the attack happen live in open view on the touchline of the Celtic v Hearts game last year. Millions of others saw it replayed time and again on national TV. It was the talk of anyone who even had a passing interest in either football (Scotland's game) or bigotry (Scotland's shame). I think I speak for most ordinary people, that the unwarranted and unprovoked attack on the Celtic Manager, Neil Lennon, was based on a religious bias.

The court case against the accused was last week, and the jury decided. Not the police who were there to see and hear the attack, not the staff who were also in sight and earshot of the verbal and physical abuse, not the judge and not even the witnesses. It was the 'jury of our peers' who brought the not proven verdict. In other words, there was no proof of religious bias, in spite of reliable eye and ear witnesses!

I had mistakenly thought that we were trying to get on top of bigotry/religious bias/sectarianism in Scottish football and society, but it is now evident that the problem goes much deeper. A jury is not hand picked. It is a random group of ordinary folks who find themselves on the jury benches. They are the ones who are influenced by the legal arguments and the various witnesses, and yet they still brought a not proven verdict. Only Scotland (to my knowledge) has this halfway house of a verdict which sits between guilty and not guilty.

Since this random jury group made this strange decision, I have to conclude that we, as a society, cannot see our own bigoted and sectarian problem. Now, I am left to wonder if we even want to work at eradicating this evil. After all, it is only a problem if you see it as such, and for me it feels like trying to climb up a greasy rope. A lot of effort to get nowhere. Would someone please tell me I'm wrong, and encourage me??