Liverpool forward Mario Balotelli took a swipe at Manchester United today on Twitter. As you can see here, it was an antagonistic tweet, a schadenfreude reaction to United unbelievably blowing a 3-1 second half lead at Leicester City today, to lose miserably 5-3. Yes, it was a bit unprofessional on his part, but now the situation has turned really ugly as Balotelli is receiving racist Twitter messages that the police are investigating.
It triggered a string of racist comments, according to the Associated Press.
Merseyside Police say ”we can confirm officers are looking into offensive comments made on Twitter about Mario Balotelli earlier today,” adding that they have not received any complaints.
However, if the police are involved it’s safe to assume that some of these disgusting, abominable and utterly indefensible messages must be threatening in nature. Let’s take a moment to restore some perspective here. Whether you love Balotelli, hate Balotelli or are indifferent to him, racism is something that we never tolerate.
Never.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partners with Fox Sports and Yahoo. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN2