I had the pleasure of meeting Margaret Aspinall last year. She's been through so much, yet still shows amazing strength. Thoughts are with her and all those still looking for the truth.RIP. Justice for the 96.
Hillsborough is the very stuff of how disasters happen, the ordinary going extraordinarily wrong with a backdrop of individual component parts, all likely to contribute to a disaster, but which don’t, until everything goes wrong simultaneously. A central paradox to the disaster is that it was a non-hooligan related disaster borne out of thirty years of hooliganism. So although we are right to clean the stain of hooliganism from those who died that day, the context of why it happened was provided by what had happened before.Twenty five years on it is difficult to appreciate how much has changed, and how much was tolerated. Thirty years of terrace warfare had wiped thousands off gates , games were routinely the backcloth to mob battles and containment was the order of the day. The authorities clubs, and many fans had given up. Gate storming, robbery and violence were the norm, and Liverpool were not immune. Tony Evan’s “Far Foreign lands” and Nicky Alts’ “The Mersey Boys” both offer excellent first- hand accounts of the era.Heysel will always be the elephant in the room for Liverpool, and the FA. If a proper UK enquiry had taken place the lessons learned may have averted Hillsborough. The component parts, poor stadium choice, inadequate stadium facilities, a focus on crowd control and not safety but he police and authorities, and the way that football crowds behaved then are to be found in both disasters. But Liverpool, and the FA looked the other way, the rest is history.The role of the Police is curiously positioned these days and has done much to hinder progress, with the Police themselves perverting the course of justice to little benefit. By the standards of the day opening a gate outside to relieve crowd pressure was not unusual, the results were. Incompetence and or negligence in doing so was always going to be hard to press.But in the same way that “blame” associated with the gate opening is probably harsh ( by the standards of the day), what followed was far worse. Institutional perjury by an entire force had never happened before with the possible exception of the Flying Squad “fit up” scandals in the Met and West Midlands. Names and responsibility for the cover-up is far more clear cut than for the disaster itself.How did the FA allow a showpiece event to take place at a ground without a current safety certificate? How did Sheffield Council allow any sporting event to be held there? How did the Football league allow any games at all to be played there? And in an era of IRA terrorism why was there no “disaster plan” held by the Police and Ambulance authorities for major public events?The finest legacy for the 96 are football grounds now fit for purpose with not a single ground related death at a British football ground since. One of the further paradoxes is how the Leppings Lane End defied demolition and Anfield remains substantially unredeveloped when so much has been done elsewhere. Hopefully the current inquest will reveal all that needs to be revealed. The major battle, to clear the names of the 96, is all but won. Maybe the 21st Century stadia we enjoy is an unappreciated by-product of their sacrifice. .Most of the Police on duty that day were working class men and football fans themselves, they did not set out to take life willfully, or by negligence. But there is understandable and rightful anger at those who lied afterwards and I believe that is where the focus should now lie.
Very good article garyfouroaks.The big issue for me is that there was such a cover up, which has now really been admitted, and that Duckworth et al panicked and tried to hide their inadequacies by blaming the fans. Now i accept all that, and accept that those responsible should be held to account, with possible , if relevant, legal action taken.But when i hear justice for the 96, i'm a bit confused about what "justice" they actually want, is it prosecutions or what? Don't want to offend, just clarification.
Most of the Police on duty that day were working class men and football fans themselves, they did not set out to take life willfully, or by negligence. But there is understandable and rightful anger at those who lied afterwards and I believe that is where the focus should now lie.
I found this a good read from a viewpoint of a resident that lived close to Hillsborough on that day http://yicetor.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/hillsborough-disaster/