Two students were issued with fixed penalties at the weekend after displaying offensive placards in St Andrews town centre.
Police were called to Market Street on Saturday afternoon after complaints from shoppers that the men were wearing sandwich boards bearing the message F*** The Poor.
While some people saw it as a publicity stunt aimed at raising awareness of the public’s attitude towards poverty, others said the language used was inappropriate in a street busy with shoppers, including young children.
A police spokesman said the university students were given tickets under anti-social behaviour legislation. If they are not paid within a set time, the matter will be handed to the procurator fiscal.
The incident was widely debated on social media after a photo of one of the men was posted on the Overheard In St Andrews Facebook page.
Some claimed it was linked to a social experiment from a poverty charity, the Pilion Trust, which aimed to discover whether people really did care about those less fortunate.
The experiment shows people are more likely to pay attention to an offensive message about the poor than to one urging them to help.
The following video shows a similar stunt in London. (Video contains swearing)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=eBuC_0-d-9Y%3Frel%3D0
However, a number of people claimed there are other ways of raising awareness.
Local woman Patricia Robertson posted: “Have some respect for people who find the use of that word in public offensive and for children please!”
And Ruth Wood branded the stunt “lazy shock tactics giving a very poor image of St Andrews”.
For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Courier.