COLUMN: Surely all serious crimes matter?

On Saturday night I was watching the boxing on Sky Sports. Like football, the sport is lacking without supporters, but in the break between the contest Sky aired a short film made by one of their senior boxing pundits, former cruiserweight world champion Johnny Nelson.

The piece saw Johnny returning to the world famous Wincobank Gym, where the legendary Brendan Ingle not only created a plethora of champions, both domestic and globally, but shaped the lives of many young men, who but for the gym and boxing could have taken a wrong turn in life.

Nelson talked of a melting-pot scenario, where race, colour and creed were left at the front door and everyone worked together with the noble art as the common denominator.

There was an incident where ‘NF’ graffiti was painted outside, but rather than being cast out, the perpetrator was made to see the error of his actions working inside the ‘melting pot’.

It was without doubt the most inspiring piece of television I’ve seen for many years, so much so that I hope the Department of Education show it to as many youngsters in schools in this country as possible.

As a nation, are we in danger of becoming blinkered over certain issues and, as a result, ignoring others?

Three weeks ago, Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha was racially abused by a 12-year-old on social media. Clearly there is no room for this in a civilised society, and rightly so the police were called and a youngster arrested.

But 12 months ago a Love Island contestant received a violent death threat on the same social media platform. ITV immediately called in the police in. It was traced back to a teenager in the Midlands. But after an initial interview, no further action was taken.

Are we entering very dangerous ground when we deem racial abuse against a high-profile footballer a priority over a threat to cut a young woman’s head off?

Surely all serious crimes matter?