Slave brings back shackles

Workers Press no. 854, 29 August 1972 · scan page 12

Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: headlines and words can be misread, and a caption or advert can run into the text. For anything you quote, read the scan.

THE POLICE Federation has criticized cells at two soccer grounds equipped with huge steel shackles to restrain violent fans.

The hoops are bolted to the wall and prisoners can be chained or handcuffed to them.

Federation chairman Inspector Reginald Gale said: "The public are not going to like this sort of thing. I believe it will cause a lot of repugnance. This will do the police image no good.

'There will be many people who will say: "After the shackles what next?"' Gale is dead right. The same people might also be wondering why he is more concerned about the police image than the methods they use.

One of the reasons might be that it was the police who designed the shackles in the first place. Not only that. They are standard practice in Liverpool police stations.

An example of the shackles Installed at the Anfield (Live:pool) and Goodison Park (Everton) grounds Designer Chief Supt Bob Grant said: 'It is an indication of what we feel is necessary in case the situation gets any worse?

It might be inferred from this that the police are prepared to go to any lengths to maintain law and order.

There are certainly those who agree Dennis Follows, secretary of