27 years to get to the truth is an absolute scandal. Police and those higher in authority trying to cover their incompetence is an absolute disgrace. Just imagine if this had happened to one of your relatives, I admire all of those who have spent the last 27 years seeking justice. I watched this today - tears in my eyes as I was at a game that day and it could have been me.
Your two brilliant posts have summed it up. It could indeed have been any of us - I remember a similar situation during a Boro-SAFC League Cup game where we had to climb over a fence dividing sections to escape serious injury or worse. The families have been magnificent, fighting for justice. Now put that ****ing lying piece of **** Duckenfield in jail.
Exactly right RTB, but unfortunately it was a culmination of bad behaviour that had gone on for almost twenty years or more by football fans. Police saw it as a football driven problem, the FA saw it as a society problem. It led to the stadiums we have today, but how long would it take for hooliganism to return if they took the seating only away?
Is it not possible to show passion sitting down? My dad can't stand for long periods due to health issues. What if those standing are in front of him? He'd have to stand to watch the game and end up in bed for 2 days to recover.
Football fans were treated like cattle and assumed guilty until proven innocent. The actions of a small minority of hooligans gave the filth the excuse to treat all football fans as scum. The stadiums today have **** all to do with violence and everything to do with safety, as a direct result of the Taylor report post Hillsborough.
It was more than a small minority of hooligans, Tobes, hooliganism was rife and that's why those fences were put up (to keep fans from invading the pitch).This was a major factor in not being able to get the fans out. There's no doubt the police did have a heavy-handed approach to fans but it went with the territory at the time. South Yorkshire police were totally incompetent, I saw it for myself when I went to Hillsborough in 1983 to watch Sheffield Wednesday v Newcastle and guess what?.....there was a big crowd and we were squashed behind the goal in the Leppings Lane end, the police belatedly opened the far corner section by which time we had managed to get out.....accident waiting to happen, sadly. I can't understand why people are having a go at the supporters' group for singing YNWA yesterday....it summed the mood up perfectly....the people standing together.
Of course you can show passion sitting down that's not my point, the point is calling people idiots and saying that they should be thrown out of the ground because they're stood up is moronic.
And yet post Hillsborough the fences came down and the supposed problem disappeared. If you treat people like animals they're maybe more likely to behave as such. Anyone who stood on the terraces back then knew that they were dangerous. It wasn't just the cages at the front of the stands, the pen systems were ridiculous and the supposed safety barriers were completely inadequate. Crowd surges after goals etc happened every week and I can remember being crushed against the barriers as a kid. What happened at Hillsborough resulted in the safe stadia that we have today, but it should never have taken a disaster of that magnitude for the authorities to realise there was a major issue. The problem was that the Govt of the day didn't care, and classed football fans as a nuisance.
Tobes mate, it had nowt to do with treating people like animals....fans acted like animals all over the country. That was why the fences were put up. Yes they came down after Hillsborough and the hooligan problem eased but that was because fans all over the country had been so shocked at the deaths of so many fans. Even the nutters didn't want to cause trouble anymore.
I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one mate. Yes there was a hooligan issue, but the 'cure' exacerbated the problem and did nothing to stop it. The events since show that by treating football fans in a more civilised manner they act accordingly. I don't think there was a sudden change in the mindset of football hooligans over night post Hillsborough personally.
Sound, mate I'm pleased that justice was served yesterday, lets now hope that the people who lied and covered up evidence are duly punished.
Aye mate. As I said yesterday I think the campaign was much more about the truth as opposed to wanting to see retribution, but now the truth is encased in fact, then those who have been hiding behind their lies for a generation should face the music. From the authorities who allowed an unsafe and uncertified stadium to be used, through to those who falsified statements and lied about the events of that day.
I noticed that the Sun didn't even mention it on their front page today... I really hope that anyone who still buys this rag will now consider not buying it anymore..
96 innocent people lost their lives. Irrespective of what went on prior to their deaths, justice has been served. It was the polices job to mitigate all foreseeable risk and they failed to do so. The cover up afterwards is inexcusable and shows how corrupt and ****ed up the establishment is. Did external circumstances help play a part? Probably. However these issues happened up and down the country so it wasn't an extraordinary occurence. For me, at the end of the day, the fact that there was a cover up suggests to me many, many things went wrong and the police knew they had ****ed up.
At that time, Thatcher's Britain was bordering on a police state where they thought they were untouchable...Some of their behaviour during the miners strike was criminal and nearly all police forces treat football fans like ****..
Well that definitely wouldn't have helped. I'm sickened by this and I will admit I shed a few tears yesterday. The families singing YNWA just hit the spot ha!
