One day the Venky gang broke into Ewood Park bank. They soon realised they had thousands of hostages. Their first action was to kick out its manager. Other administration members were also let go. They then found themselves a go-between to speak to law enforcement agencies. This man was very Kean, but he did not endure himself to the hostages very well.
Things didn’t go as Venky’s expected and they soon found themselves in a siege situation. At first their hostages started to rebel. Lots of them protested and some even managed to escape from the premises. They began to fight back against their captors, singing protest songs such as ‘We Want Venky’s Out’ and ‘Uncle Jack’s Blue And White Army’. But many resigned themselves to their fate and cooperated with the hostage takers.
Some fans said they considered themselves lucky they were being held hostage by Venky’s. This bank could have been in Bury or Bolton and it could have been someone like the Baader-Meinhof gang who were calling the shots.
As time moved on a strange relationship seemed to develop between our captives and their captors. They started to forgive them and began to see things from their point of view, while forgetting about their own treatment. This strange form of behaviour is known as ‘Stockholm Syndrome’. It dates back to a bungled bank robbery in the Swedish capital back in 1973.
First people would experience something terrifying that just comes at them out of the blue. They are certain they are going to die. Then they experience a type of infantilisation – where, like a child, they are unable to eat, speak or go to the toilet without permission. Small acts of kindness – such as being given food – prompts a primitive gratitude for their gift of life.
The hostages experience a powerful, primitive positive feeling towards their captors. They are in denial that these are the persons who put them in that situation. In their mind, they think these are the persons who are going to let them live.
Venky’s said: “We thought we could just walk into this bank and everybody would welcome us with open arms. We must have received some bad advice on the way. Now we just want to go home and let our executives run the show.”
Venky’s decided to sneak out the bank down an escape tunnel and lay low in their eastern hideout. Sadly for them and the bank they tried to rob, it wasn’t just them who sneaked away. Most of their hostages are also starting to find their own ways of escaping from the bank of Ewood Park. Sooner or later, this siege situation will come to an abrupt end.
