Hillsborough

I want justice for the 96! I want anyone in authority who made mistakes to face disciplinary action at work. I want anyone who tried to misdirect or coverup charged with perverting course of justice. I want anyone who wilfully disregarded safety regulations as they were written at the time, or anyone who was in the crowd pushing & shoving, prosecuted for manslaughter. Until my demands are met I will do nothing.

I’ll not make capital out of Hillsborough, I think Liverpool fans were poorly served by media and inquiry but my memory is longer than quite a few in the Liverpool area: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-32898612

I still cannot believe that they decided to go ahead and play the match after what happened. I know that they were worried about further violence but seriously, how can you go on and play a football match with people lying in bodybags and being carted off to the the local morgue?

The whole tragedy was played out in real time on live TV…everyone was aware of what was happening…if not the whole gory outcome but to play the game after that was…there aren’t words. :lou_sad:

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Well, the jury in the inquiry have come to a decision. Imagine having to listen to this evidence for two years! Must have been harrowing.

I’ll be honest, I have not really paid it too much attention. I was in my late teens at the time. They played coverage from BBC radio from the time this morning on Radio 4 and I was surprised to find myself quite upset.

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Yes, I heard that - quite an extended bit of airtime for that, too. Interesting to note how the reports early on were referring pretty much all the time to crowd trouble; just shows how football fans, and Liverpool fans in particular, were viewed. The interview with the GP from the day was enlightening - he was very clear in his view that no blame should be attached to the supporters.

One thing I hadn’t realised until now was the lengths the police went to in their attempts to pin the blame on Liverpool supporters - taking photographs of empty cans in bins on the very afternoon of the tragedy, searching the M62 for discarded cans, photographing walls they thought fans had pissed against, and more.

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I am pleased for the families. They eventually got a “good” result from an awful fucking situation. Even on this thread, created long after the findings of the HIP were released, we still had people blaming “drunk and ticketless fans” for the situation. I hope that with the jury verdict, this now ends.

Fucking stitch up, from first to last, demonising a group of supporters (and by wider extension, a city), capitalising on the ignorance and prejudice of people to swerve the blame and pin it on a group of people that the government hated anyway. Remember that Liverpool is the city that Geoffrey Howe recommended be placed into “managed decline”. If they were prepared to give up on the entire city, what fucking hope was there for the 96?

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The Bullingdon perspective, which I’m guessing he’s regretting now.

Dont dissagree… but one thing that i cant quite reconcile. We know (and its clear form the verdict and conclusions ) that a large number of factors contributed to the tragedy. None of which in isolation would have caused the death of innocent fans - the biggest police blunder and would have been a huge police blunder had there not been cages, had they been openable, had the ‘pens’ expanded sideways… but can someone please give me a satidsafctory explanation why it seems taboo, to mention that one of the things that would have prevented the tragedy, would have been had fans had more patience, been less ‘big crowd’ desperate to get in as quickly as they could the moment the gates were tragically opened… I fully appreciate that this is how crowds tend to behave and its why crowd safety and control is so important, and why in this case those who had responsibilty for ensuring the safety of the crowd are accountable for what went wrong.

But we need to just seperate the dispicable Government and police attempts to cover this up and blame fans from the emotion of what happened on the day for a moment and ask if there is ny justification in suggesting that the crowd itself does have some responsibilty? -not as a cause, but as a contributing factor.? Those that arrived early, in plenty of time were sadly those that were eventually crushed… but why do fans arrive late and when they do, why do crowds behave in this way? Is it enough to say, well as an individual in the centre of that mass, you have no choice but to go with the flow, but what about those at the back?

For me, this case has rightly identified the failings of the systems and people in charge of safety that day as the cause of this tragedy. It has rightly identified the sickening attempts to blame fans for the tragedy… But in and effort to address those injustices, has this more sensitive and emotive issue been ignored?

Big crowds are always dangerous. Police and stewards are here to minimise that danger, but they can not elliminate it completely. The only way those dangers can be eliminated completely is if those in the crowds themselves, look to eliminate risk… I am mentioning this not just in connection with Hillsborough, but other situations, even on the steps at SMS when folks are leaving, I have seen my daughter get v frightened when in effect having to move with a crowd… for me this must have been a contributing factor that seems to have been ignored?

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The left had it right, again.

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Although it was nothing like as bad as some of the awful tragedies that happened back in the days before all seater stadia, I was crushed up against a wall that collapsed at Orient the night of the 1-1 draw that set us on the road to promotion in the 70s. It was terrifying and I was lucky enough to end up on the running track just before the wall gave way. Thankfuly no one was was seriosuly hurt (dont know how). I cant imagine what those poor people went through and the stories of fathers being separated from their kids only to find out that they died are heartwrenching. There are undoubtedly a number of factors that contributed to the tragedy and I agree that drunken fans without tickets certainly didnt help, but the subsequent cover up and vilification of ordinary football fans by those covering their arses is a black stain that will never be forgotten. The Sun’s coverage in particular was abhorrent and I understand that they havent given much prominence to the story today which just shows how gutless Murdochs flagship is. I know that there is a big push for “safe” standing but for me football has become so much safer with all seater stadia. This can NEVER happen again.

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Having watched some of the footage, the police opened an external gate to relieve the crush in the street outside. People poured through this gate, and yes if the opportuniy presented itself that you could get in to watch the semi final without a ticket, most on here probably would. What they screwed up was directly opposit to the gate was the tunnel to the central pen. If they had closed the gate of the tunnel or had officers diverting fans to the side pens then the disaster may not have been averted but certainly reduced in scale.

Both the Sun and the Times ignored the story on their front pages. The Times’ 2nd edition belatedly included it, but too late fuckos, the damage is done. You’re a Murdoch rag with a few more syllables, but the same cuntish core.

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This is the montage that was played on the radio yesterday morning. It starts off fairly innocuously but my warning is that it becomes really quite powerful very quickly. The comments about Kenny Dalgleish were telling. And the live interview at the time with the GP was really quite damning.

I found this all really quite upsetting yesterday morning and listening to it again, it is still really moving.

The Sun has behaved appallingly, and even though it started down that road as a result of being lied to by senior policemen, it has not budged from that stance, and their front page today, devoid of Justice for the 96 is another huge mistake.

Originally posted by @Rallyboy

The Sun has behaved appallingly, and even though it started down that road as a result of being lied to by senior policemen, it has not budged from that stance, and their front page today, devoid of Justice for the 96 is another huge mistake.

As I have observed from several football forums, there are still people that will both buy it and the shit it printed about Hillsborough. Sad times.

Or complain that there has been too much coverage by the media and that it has spoilt their enjoyment of listening to the radio!

:lou_facepalm_2:

One wonders why we bothered having the longest inquiry in British history :lou_eyes_to_sky:

Don’t agree with Phil’s post, at all. There have been other instances of people being crushed in crowds to death before. Here’s a list from Wikipedia.

And this is of course, where Phil’s logic falls down. In all of those cases, you could make the same argument. That the survivors in those incidents could never be innocent. They are responsible for those that had died. It was their body weight, right?

Yet, each incident has one or more direct causes attributed to it beyond the surviving participants being responsible. That’s why I don’t buy this line of argument. No-one uses it for anything else except Liverpool fans.

If Phil can never consider them innocent, what are they? Guilty? Was this the outcome they sought?

Of course it wasn’t.

“It’s easier to fool someone than convince them they’ve been fooled”

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Phil mate, they may be guilty in your heart, but in the court, following a lengthy study of evidence I believe a jury just dismissed claims that Liverpool fans were to blame.

And I think the police are more likely to be jailed for lying, tampering with evidence, obstructing enquiries, fabricating statements and committing perjury, than their lack of action on the actual day.

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Phil, you’re a clueless cunt.

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