To think that there should be prosecutions over Hillsborough

[DreamingofSummer]

Even after 23 years

hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/

What would have happened if the police HAD denied them all access to the ground after 3pm when many( and not just Liverpool supporters) were clearly over the top- probably a riot?

Whatever may have happened, I highly doubt 96 people would have died.

Fuck off with your malicious shit stirring guineapiglet. The Hillsborough report is quite clear, ALCOHOL PLAYED NO PART WHATSOEVER IN THIS TRAGEDY. THE FANS WERE COMPLETELY INNOCENT OF ANY WRONG DOING. RESPONSIBILITY LIES SOLELY WITH THE AUTHORITIES. Stop pissing on the victims.

Thanks for your charming message. I am not stirring up trouble, I was there, I saw things, with others, as they were and for what its worth, it was a terrible, fatal combination of the facts I described earlier. Having attended many matches during the 80s, the grounds then were deadly. I took flowers to the ground for days, and I didnt piss on anyone, as you so eloquently describe it . Nobody deserved to die. Full Stop.

The Hillsborough Report combed through all the eye witness statements, all the original police statement, all the CCTV footage, all the press coverage and all subsequent investigation materials. They say you account is a delibrate, malicious fabrication. You are a liar.

FFS guineapiglet, it doesn't matter if the fans were drunk or not. The police fucked up, big time, but instead of holding their hands up and admit they made mistakes, they lied. They tried to cover their arses and had people believe it was the fans fault.

There were people, children, killed, if the police had done their jobs properly it wouldn't have happened.

Yes, it might have kicked off had they shut the gates but 96 innocent people would not be dead, killed in the most horrific way.

Don't try blaming people who had a few drinks before a game, which is perfectly legal last time I looked, when it was the people in charge who failed them so severley.

guineapig can I ask what your role was that day?

Can I ask how you could see what was happening outside the ground and inside the first hand?

Also can you please explain why the crushing to death of fans and children wasn't a weekly occurrence at football grounds up and down the country back then. After all having a drink before the match go hand in hand.

Guineapig do you realise that there were similiar incidents that happened at the Leppings Lane end of Hillsborough in 1981, 1987 and 1988 that due to better crowd management did not end in tragedy.

The design of the terraces/ entrance was clearly not fit for purpose especially when the ground was sold out at full capacity.

I'm really sorry that you or anyone had to go through such a traumatic event but don't blame innocents who've suffered just as much as you did, and in many cases much, much more.

I lived near Hillsborough for a while about a decade ago - the stuff Guineapig is saying was repeated to me time and time again by perfectly rational people.

I challenged it then but I don't think it made any difference. It's repeated as fact.

As someone said on the other thread, a lot of people have probably convinced themselves that the "official" story told back then was true, especially those involved who otherwise have those 96 deaths on their concience...
Must be much easier to insist that the supporters must have done something wrong, than admit that you personally could have helped and didnt.

AnneTwacky
"that due to better crowd management did not end in tragedy."

How do you know that it was better crowd control and not just luck?

Boney

Not denying that luck may have had a part to play to qualify my statement I've quoted directly from the report summary.

"27. The confined outer concourse area serving the Leppings Lane turnstiles accommodated the entire Liverpool crowd, heading towards three discrete areas within the stadium (North Stand; West Stand; Leppings Lane terrace). It was a well-documented bottleneck and at matches with capacity attendance presented and foreseeable risk of crushing and injury.

28. From statements provided to the Panel, at previous FA Cup semi-finals SYP managed congestion in the outer concourse area and its approaches by filtering the crowd and checking tickets on the roads leading to the ground. This did not happen in 1989. The former SYP match commander, Chief Superintendent Brian Mole,denied that filtering the crowd?s approach to the turnstiles had been previously adopted as police practice."

Also a bit further on

"33. From the SYP statements disclosed to the Panel it is evident that SWFC stewards and SYP offers with experience of managing the crowd on the Leppings Lane
terrace had adopted the practice of redirecting fans to side pens when the central
pens were estimated to be full. At semi-final matches in 1987 and in 1988 the
gates at the entrance to the tunnel opposite the turnstiles and leading into the
central pens were closed temporarily by police officers who redirected fans to the side pens. In 1988 many fans in the central pens experienced crushing and minor injuries. Neither the gate closures nor the crushing were recorded in debriefing notes."

The report in full is here if anyone wants to read it.

Just as a general FYI

I am not denying the cupability of the police or am I defending the cover up that followed.

AnneTwacky
"It was a well-documented bottleneck and at matches with capacity attendance presented and foreseeable risk of crushing and injury."

the area was known about for years the first crushing incident was 1981 (I think) yet 8 years later and after three separate incidents it had not been sorted out. Yet the FA decided to hold the match at a stadium that was known to have problems when at capacity.

It was an incident waiting to happen.

for Guineapig and anyone else who thinks 'I was there, I have the right to blame the fans despite all the evidence the dead were innocent' Perhaps a reputable medical professor who happened to be there as a junior doc on a day off is enough of an independent authority figure to persuade you

I've just read some of the accounts of the survivors and it has made me feel sick. Those poor people. The terror and agony they must have felt.

And then to be treated like shit as they were trying to save their own lives and that of those around them? Astounding. They must have felt like they were part of a living nightmare.
And then they got vilified for even being there.

Holy shit.

I read some too - the original witness statements are utterly harrowing. I had to stop I was crying so hard.

This article in the Mail claims that under the new secret justice bill things like Hillsborough could be covered up

"The shocking outcome of the recent Hillsborough Inquiry, bringing justice at last to 97 families? If similar circumstances were to arise again, it is likely that justice would never be delivered: if the families tried to sue, alleging a bungled police operation and a subsequent cover-up, the Bill would give the authorities the ability to keep the truth concealed."