Like some of the other posters on this thread I'm not from anywhere near Hillsborough but I remember learning about this disaster. One of the many things that horrifies me is the way, as a general member of the public, my understanding of the events only extended as far as that there was 'controversy' over what had happened. I can't imagine the intensity of anger and sadness that the family and friends of the victims must have felt for all this time knowing what really happened. I'm posting to offer my support.
And the botch after botch on the day; the stadium, lack of organisation with the turn styles, faulty walkie-talkies, lack of medical equipment, no-one on hand to open the gates, ambulance sitting there ineffectually on the pitch, police thinking it was a riot/drunken behaviour? stood in a row while people were crushed to death. And then to lie about it. As if the cavalier attitude to crowd safety wasn't bad enough. Those hideous, disgusting lies about the victims. Which will have been believed or at least read or seen, causing ignorant people like me to wonder if there was some truth in it. Cruel and cowardly.
It seems to me that we're all sometimes guilty of making wrong assumptions and having prejudices and therefore can understand - but not condone - how some of the mistakes came about. Speaking only for myself I don't like football for a few reasons; the dominance it has over other sports and all the associated bad behaviour that seems to have gone along with it for so long; corruption at the highest level, bad behaviour by some players, more relevant - the problems with hooliganism that I saw - from a distance - when I was a teenager in the few years before 1989. This perception I had - as a general member of the public whose only knowledge of football matches came from media reports, made me think there might have been something in the despicable lies told by The Sun (which I've never bought for other reasons anyway - page 3 being one of them). And as an outsider I can see how/why the first impression could have been that the crowd was rioting, before the realisation was made that the gates had been opened causing the disastrous crush. Like I say, I don't know the facts in enough detail - that's my guess/impression as to why the crush was dealt with in such a horrific way, but if the police had admitted to getting it wrong and saying, ' There had previously been problems with hooliganism and I/we wrongly assumed at first that this was what was happening' surely that could have been understood. How can the police chief/ match commander have lived with himself knowing the extra pain he was causing people not just in trying to cover up the truth but in blaming the victims? As if all those deaths weren't bad enough?
I was very struck by the comments yesterday about the consequence that a whole generation lost all trust in the police as a result of this. And a man saying how that for decades the thought of his relative being left on his own to die had preyed on his mind. Until eventually he had a crumb of comfort when details were disclosed and he learnt that his relative had been helped during his final moments of life.
The traumatic stress disorder that so many people have suffered and been denied. Posters who knew victims please know that people like myself who were exposed to the lies now know the truth and are relieved that yesterday's judgment went the right way. Finally. I hope that you are supported through the next stage.