There are times when you wonder what is happening with the world when political correctness becomes involved in sporting events. Sports should be played fairly and safely, but how much interference should there be with the supporters?
The Australian Football League now has "behavioural 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 behavioural awareness officers are actually there to stop the crowd from booing the umpires or making inappropriate comments such as "you must be blind" or "how 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 that saw the joke.
We need to boo somebody, especially as we have stopped booing most of our politicians and moved to either laughing at them or crying about them.
Dennis Fitzgerald
Melbourne, Australia