The shame is that the police did cover up their role in this for so long rather than being honest... There may have been drunk fans trying to get in without tickets but that shouldn't excuse the lack of organisation and medical help at the time. Or the failings of those in charge to accept some kind of responsibility for what happened . 96 innocent fans died that day and their families had to suffer for 27 years with no accountability for their loss. .
Anyone who read the original Taylor Report (not the highly publicised whitewash second report) would know that today's verdict and damning condemnation of those who were in authority that day was the only honest verdict that could be arrived at. There were several "near misses" at Hillsborough long before this tragedy. I'm pretty sure quite a few of us have been through that tunnel and it wasn't a pleasant experience at the best of times. It is a national disgrace that it has taken this long.
I may have mentioned this before, but one of the 96 was in the year above me at school - I still remember the full school assembly on the Monday after when we were told that he had died. He was in the lower 6th, so the new 6th form building was named after him. He is the 4th one in the top row: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26765007 What the report doesn't say is that he managed to help his Dad and friend (although we were told at school it was his Uncle) over the fencing and got crushed as he did so.
Mark, there was no mention of of ticketless, drunk fans in any of the reporting I saw yesterday. The Liverpool fans were completely exonerated from blame. Time to move on from this idea and focus on the many, many, many failings.
And then there's the media - this notice taped to the door of the Hillsborough families' press conference is fairly scathing and to the point...
This whole sorry episode was a series of problems, bad decisions, cover-ups and hack journalism at it's worse that has badly let down the families of the victims and extended their pain and suffering. No one can ever say if the fans outside were late, drunk, ticketless or whatever, but the crush of the fans outside did cause the Police to make that fatal decision to open the exit gates and not close the tunnel - so circumstances drove terrible decision making. One thing that seems to have been missed in the many discussions that I have heard over the past 24 hours is how the jury voted on the last point regarding the victims being unlawfully killed - this was allowed on a majority vote of 7 to 5. This is the lowest majority possible, so the jury was not totally convinced.
Super, to repeat what I said earlier...there was no mention of of ticketless, drunk fans in any of the reporting I saw yesterday. The Liverpool fans were completely exonerated from blame. Time to move on from this idea and focus on the many, many, many failings. What is this obsession with denegrating the Liverpool fans? 'Of all the lies, blaming the fans for causing such a vast tragedy had been one of the first to spill out of the mouths of the authorities and one of the most enduring and pernicious. It still permeates, and not just in occasional foul chants. The grotesqueness of blaming the fans should have been banished once and for all yesterday.... I still hear seemingly reasonable people question whether lateness of supporters was to blame; whether ticketless ones (even in the absence of evidence) had made it worse, because, well, weren't fans always causing trouble in those days? But, over three years since the first preliminary hearing and more than one million pages of documentation, a painstaking inquest has painted a very different; not of hooligansrushing gates but gross incompenence by those whose very job it was to protect human life'. Margaret Aspinall. So lets put that one to bed eh?
But why then did the Police open the exit gates and let the crowd straight into the middle pens? What is the reason for opening the gates unless it was to reduce the crush of supporters outside the turnstiles? I saw a documentary on the BBC shortly after this tragedy and it showed CCT coverage of the area outside The Leppings Lane turnstiles and there was a large crowd pushing forward to get into the match. I am not saying that those fans were drunk, late or had no tickets or were in anyway to blame, but there was a large crowd of supporters pushed up against the turnstiles. It's not a question of blame, but understanding what drove the Police to make such disastrous decisions that caused those fans to crowd into the middle pen and cause the crush - there must have been a reason why that decision was made?
The Leppings Lane Turnstiles were long shown to be inadequate for the task. There were several incidents through the years when there were crowding problems there. Several reasons for opening the gates but there can be no excuse for not closing the centre tunnel prior to doing so. That was criminally negligent.
Look at the information on the BBC website. The answers to these questions are there. Lack of crowd control measures on the approach to the stadium (deemed necessary in previous seasons, but not for that fateful match) was the main reason for the crush outside. Too few turnstiles contributed. Too many tickets sold in relation to the safe capacity of the terrace contributed. The Decision to open the gate was made in panic, but the crucial decision was not blocking off the tunnel to the central pens which would have sent fans to the safer side pens. The decision not to delay the kick off. The list goes on.
Did you know that in 1981, 38 Tottenham fans were injured, including some with broken legs, at the same end of the same ground in similar cirumstances. The action of the police in 1981 probably saved the situation escalating as they opened the gates in the fences and allowed fans onto the the pitch perimeter.
Fully agree, the whole design of the area outside the ground at the time and the pens with the fencing designed to stop people getting over them was a disaster waiting to happen. Combined with the criminal incompetence of the Police, this could have happened at any time with such a large crowd. I saw this picture on the WEB and the photo of the crowd outside Gate C was exactly as I remembered it from the BBC documentary. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...abricated-evidence-biggest-cover-history.html
So the panic decision to open the exit gates was to alleviate the crush outside the turnstiles - that could be the only reason.
Yes, because of a lack of control leading up to the ground. In previous seasons the approach was controlled with cordons. That day fans were allowed to converge on the gates in greater numbers with greater ease. But the decision could have been correct if the central tunnel was blocked. Or the crush could have been eleviated if the kick off had been delayed and the message relayed to the fans outside.
I'm not disagreeing with the findings but it is daft to say that there was absolutely no pushing from the fans eager to get in. I was in a similar crush outside White Hart Lane in the early seventies when Arsenal played Spurs for the title. There was certainly pushing and very little regard for those in front on that occasion. I, along with many others, moaned about the police action on Sunday herding all into the train station at the top of Olympic Way, but that was probably the correct action for the safety of all. I do not want to blame the Liverpool supporters but they must take some responsibility for not holding back until it was clearly safe to move forward.
