WJake Hepple, a Burnley FC fan, paid an air advertisement company for flying a plane around Etihad Stadium with a banner that read ‘White Lives Matter’.
This happened last night as Burnley was playing a Premier League match against Manchester City. The whole football team of Burnley FC had taken a knee moments before this happened in solidarity with Black Lives Matter against police brutality.
Hepple, right now, is in police custody and they are investigating if he can be sued against any criminal offense. He is badly criticized by everyone including Tommy Robinson, the EDL leader, who he is a fan of and has pictures taken with him.
Amidst the pressure to apologize, Jake took it to Twitter to announce that he will not apologize. He wrote ‘I would like to take this moment to apologize….to f***ing nobody’. He criticizes how it has become racist to say White Lives Matter despite the fact that three white men were killed in recent days.
The company Jake and other members of Suicide Squad, a fan club of Burnley, took services of is already notorious for its mishandling of aircraft. The planes are to keep a distance of 1000ft within a radius of 600yard from any congested area in public but the pilot flew it at 400ft violating the basic rules.
Alan Elliot, one of the directors who died this year, was also fined in 2017 to violate such rules only to advertise in support of the Everton club chairperson. The same aircraft that flew the banner paid by Jake Hepple was previously involved in a crash on July 18, 2016. Air Ads Ltd is involved in other air stunts as well.
The Burnley Captain Bee Mee said he is ashamed and embarrassed for this act. He also said those who are responsible for this are not welcome and we support Black Lives Matter.
Meanwhile, in response to this stunt, the Comedian Omid Djalili said, “If someone is chartering a plane to fly a banner like that over a football match, it proves definitively that there are racists out there literally with more money than sense.”
What do you have to say over this disrespectful stunt?