Mark Chapman's Weblog

Joey Barton has been sentenced for a second time for assault (this time for beating up his ex-colleague and team mate, Ousmane Dabo). Despite the fact that this is Barton's second GBH offence he has been spared a prison sentence and has instead been given a suspended sentence. The Newcastle midfielder has managed to show all the facets of the criminal justice system: the good face (he was imprisoned for 6 months for a brutal assault outside a McDonald's restaurant in Liverpool in December, 2007) and the bad face (that he managed to avoid a longer spell in prison despite his previous track record of criminal behaviour). There is no doubt the common man could expect to see a similar sentence handed down for the McDonald's attack; but it is extremely unlikely that anyone but a multimillionaire footballer could avoid a longer sentence when he is convicted of a second offence. Below is a list of offences before the two he has been sentenced for: Feb 2004: Sent off against Spurs Apr 2004: Storms out of ground after being left out for Southampton game Jul 2004: Kevin Keegan accuses him of starting brawl in friendly at Doncaster Dec 2004: Puts lit cigar in Jamie Tandy's eye May 2005: Breaks leg of pedestrian while driving Jul 2005: Involved in alleged fight in Thai hotel bar (taken from the BBC website) Barton also manages to demonstrate that, for all his money and for all the efforts by various coaches to believe that he has reformed (Keegan; Pearce et al) he is a thug. He is poorly educated and sees power and success through brawn and violence. By attacking people he manages to exert his authority over them and, at the same time making himself feel stronger. He is a (moderately) talented footballer but, like so many other British footballers he comes from a poor family in a dilapidated part of a city (Liverpool in his case). He is the perfect example of how money and 'bling' cannot help to change someone who grew up in the streets; he is the perfect example of a poor role model for those who are growing up in the streets. However, we need to look at Barton and others who have fallen foul of their upbringing despite their obvious advantages (Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears, Pete Docherty for obvious examples) and think about how society is failing the poor and that education is the solution, rather than just throwing money at the problem. Education would lower gang violence; education would lower common assault and anti-social behaviour and education would lower domestic assault rates. We should throw as much money as possible at this and do it now, before we have a generation of thugs and those too afraid too disinterested to want to learn.