There are times when you wonder what is happening with the world when political correctness becomes involved in sporting events. Sport should be played fairly and safely, but how much interference should there be with the supporters?
The Australian Football League now has 'behavioral awareness officers' at the games. This is not to stop crowd disturbances or violence that is handled by police and security. This is not for the physical safety of the umpires as they are normally taken onto the ground and off by either security or police and sometimes police on horseback. These behavioral awareness officers are actually there to stop the crowd booing the umpires or making inappropriate comments such as 'You must be blind' or 'Mow much are the opposition paying you?' The umpires are often subject to crowd comments doubting their integrity or eyesight, and at one time they were actually sponsored by an eyeglasses company who saw the joke.
We need to boo somebody, especially as we have stopped booing most of our politicians and moved to either laughing at, or crying about them.
Dennis Fitzgerald