Hillsborough - The Search for Truth

Looking at the Hillsborough evidence there were two previous Semi Finals in 1981 and 1988 that had raised similar causes for concern.
In 1981, City were paired with Ipswich at Villa Park. If we had been drawn against Wolves the chances are that we would have been allocated the Leppings Lane rather than Tottenham.
In 1988 Liverpool defeated City at Maine Road in a one-sided Quarter Final. Again, a favourable result would have seen us in the Leppings Lane against Forest.
One thing that can never be measured by the evidence is the shift in attitude towards football fans in general and Liverpool in particular.
On the day of the tragedy, City had lost 4-0 at Blackburn. I was standing by my car waiting for a couple of mates and it was a Blackburn fan that broke the news.
His actual words were: “Liverpool fans have been up to their old tricks again. The game’s been abandoned because somebody’s been murdered”
Those words are offensive in 2012, but in 1989 outside Ewood Park they made a lot of sense. Heysel was still fresh in the memory and Anfield was nothing like the tourist attraction that it appeared the other week.
Finally when City played United in the 2010 First Leg Semi Final how many rags turned up without tickets?
Good luck to everyone at Liverpool, in their fight for justice, but let’s not kid ourselves that football fans are perfect.
 
It has been obvious since 1989 that there has been a Police cover up over the
tragic events of April 15th 1989 when 96 people were killed in the Hillsborough
Disaster. What has not been available is an official account, detailing the truth and the scale of the cover up. The report that has finally been published this week shows the authorities’ failings to be even worse than many of us thought, and their cover up to be on a much larger scale than most people beleived.

My heart goes out to the families and friends of the victims of the Hillsborough Disaster. As a parent I can only imagine what they went through and have experienced since that sad day in 1989. This disaster could have happened to any football fan. It should not have taken 23 years for the truth to be confirmed that South Yorkshire Police and South Yorks Ambulance Service covered up their failings and lied. The Police failed to protect the fans, and made decisions that caused those deaths and South Yorkshire Ambulance authority did not do enough to save lives, using their catastrophic “3:15 cut-off” time. We now learn that 41 people could potentially have been saved had they had responded adequately.

I lived in Sheffield for many years, including at that time, and our elected MP (and I must stress that I have never voted for him or his party) was Irvine Patnick (Conservative) - later Sir Irvine Patnick. This latest report revealed that Irvine Patnick shamefully actively participated along with Police in the smear campaign, briefing the Whites News Agency with defamatory comments about fans. What followed was a systemic cover up by the Police and Political Establishment. There has been a sustained effort over the years to damage the reputations of fans. Police Officers’ statements that made the Police look culpable were removed and negative comments about the Liverpool
fans were exaggerated. Changing such statements broke the law. Many officers who had made negative comments that could be seen as negative about South Yorkshire Police’s handling of the Disaster either complied or were systematically intimidated into changing their accounts. Some refused.

Police officers changed their stories to put themselves in a better light and besmirch the Liverpool fans. We have now learned that 164 police statements were amended. The report found 116 of the police statements identified for "substantive amendment" had been "amended to remove or alter comments unfavourable to South Yorkshire Police". South Yorkshire Police tried to impugn the reputation of dead fans. South Yorkshire Police falsely accused fans of being drunk, violent and stealing from the injured. They did blood tests to determine the level of alcohol from dead fans including children in a failed attempt to damage the reputations of the victims and shift blame. It is truly sickening.

Thatcher knew about the lies and did nothing - she must have felt she owed SY police one for their brutal crushing of the miners and other workers. She didn't get and didn't want to understand football fans and allowed Police to treat us like scum.

There must be an Inquiry. There must be prosecutions. Nothing less than that.

Justice for the 96.
 
the report from the panel is mindblowing to read and you can realise why heads will roll within many organisations. the depth of it is amazing and i would recommend that anyone with an interest in the campaign looks at it in detail.
 
Any link to the documentary for anyone outside of the UK? Is there a Site on the official documents and stuff, or one not so in depth so I can have a quick reae
 
It is impossible to feel anything other than complete admiration for the families of the victims of Hillsborough. They must have drawn strength from each other at various times, when some of them may have faltered. They have to be the best example of a community of people working together for a common aim against the odds. They are a truly inspirational bunch of people. I hope that any sentences that follow from any convictions in relation to tampering with evidence in particular, properly reflect the agony that these people have had to endure. It is worth noting that the maximum sentence for perverting the course of justice is life.

The outcome of this report is pretty earth shattering to say the least, although from a personal point of view, whether there were significant numbers of drunken fans or not changes little in any event, in terms of the Police's culpability in my view (although I know it vindicates the families of the victims and other LFC supporters). It is the Police's job to deal with such eventualities in order that innocent people aren't put at unnecessary risk when large crowds of people gather together. This tragedy is also a stand out example of why, in the main, the Health and Safety culture that pervades today makes our society immeasurably better. Perhaps if there had been a few more 'men with clipboards' in and around the FA at the time this event could have been prevented.

A question to those that still seek to deflect blame from the Police because of their perception of the existence of these 'drunken' fans: If a nightclub were to burn to the ground and the fire escapes were chained up and the fire extinguishers not working who would you blame? The owner or the customers?

I hope that the justice system starts to turn as quickly as possible now and hope that the families can at least try to get some form of closure. Many more than 96 lives were destroyed that day.
 
they continued to fight for what they knew was right and all credit to them for that. the system tried to defeat them and hoped they would just go away i guess. they were rejuvenated by the support of MP's and the 20th anniversary and support on that day gave them a massive boost i guess. certain aspects of the tragedy have always been in the public domain. phil scraton who sat on the independent panel wrote an amazing book on it in 1999 and lots of the information in it was revealed publicly yesterday.
 
Zabbasbeard said:
It has been obvious since 1989 that there has been a Police cover up over the
tragic events of April 15th 1989 when 96 people were killed in the Hillsborough
Disaster. What has not been available is an official account, detailing the truth and the scale of the cover up. The report that has finally been published this week shows the authorities’ failings to be even worse than many of us thought, and their cover up to be on a much larger scale than most people beleived.

My heart goes out to the families and friends of the victims of the Hillsborough Disaster. As a parent I can only imagine what they went through and have experienced since that sad day in 1989. This disaster could have happened to any football fan. It should not have taken 23 years for the truth to be confirmed that South Yorkshire Police and South Yorks Ambulance Service covered up their failings and lied. The Police failed to protect the fans, and made decisions that caused those deaths and South Yorkshire Ambulance authority did not do enough to save lives, using their catastrophic “3:15 cut-off” time. We now learn that 41 people could potentially have been saved had they had responded adequately.

I lived in Sheffield for many years, including at that time, and our elected MP (and I must stress that I have never voted for him or his party) was Irvine Patnick (Conservative) - later Sir Irvine Patnick. This latest report revealed that Irvine Patnick shamefully actively participated along with Police in the smear campaign, briefing the Whites News Agency with defamatory comments about fans. What followed was a systemic cover up by the Police and Political Establishment. There has been a sustained effort over the years to damage the reputations of fans. Police Officers’ statements that made the Police look culpable were removed and negative comments about the Liverpool
fans were exaggerated. Changing such statements broke the law. Many officers who had made negative comments that could be seen as negative about South Yorkshire Police’s handling of the Disaster either complied or were systematically intimidated into changing their accounts. Some refused.

Police officers changed their stories to put themselves in a better light and besmirch the Liverpool fans. We have now learned that 164 police statements were amended. The report found 116 of the police statements identified for "substantive amendment" had been "amended to remove or alter comments unfavourable to South Yorkshire Police". South Yorkshire Police tried to impugn the reputation of dead fans. South Yorkshire Police falsely accused fans of being drunk, violent and stealing from the injured. They did blood tests to determine the level of alcohol from dead fans including children in a failed attempt to damage the reputations of the victims and shift blame. It is truly sickening.

Thatcher knew about the lies and did nothing - she must have felt she owed SY police one for their brutal crushing of the miners and other workers. She didn't get and didn't want to understand football fans and allowed Police to treat us like scum.

There must be an Inquiry. There must be prosecutions. Nothing less than that.

Justice for the 96.
Click to expand...

Absolutely spot on,that evil old cow should not escape justice either
 
bluevengence said:
Zabbasbeard said:
It has been obvious since 1989 that there has been a Police cover up over the
tragic events of April 15th 1989 when 96 people were killed in the Hillsborough
Disaster. What has not been available is an official account, detailing the truth and the scale of the cover up. The report that has finally been published this week shows the authorities’ failings to be even worse than many of us thought, and their cover up to be on a much larger scale than most people beleived.

My heart goes out to the families and friends of the victims of the Hillsborough Disaster. As a parent I can only imagine what they went through and have experienced since that sad day in 1989. This disaster could have happened to any football fan. It should not have taken 23 years for the truth to be confirmed that South Yorkshire Police and South Yorks Ambulance Service covered up their failings and lied. The Police failed to protect the fans, and made decisions that caused those deaths and South Yorkshire Ambulance authority did not do enough to save lives, using their catastrophic “3:15 cut-off” time. We now learn that 41 people could potentially have been saved had they had responded adequately.

I lived in Sheffield for many years, including at that time, and our elected MP (and I must stress that I have never voted for him or his party) was Irvine Patnick (Conservative) - later Sir Irvine Patnick. This latest report revealed that Irvine Patnick shamefully actively participated along with Police in the smear campaign, briefing the Whites News Agency with defamatory comments about fans. What followed was a systemic cover up by the Police and Political Establishment. There has been a sustained effort over the years to damage the reputations of fans. Police Officers’ statements that made the Police look culpable were removed and negative comments about the Liverpool
fans were exaggerated. Changing such statements broke the law. Many officers who had made negative comments that could be seen as negative about South Yorkshire Police’s handling of the Disaster either complied or were systematically intimidated into changing their accounts. Some refused.

Police officers changed their stories to put themselves in a better light and besmirch the Liverpool fans. We have now learned that 164 police statements were amended. The report found 116 of the police statements identified for "substantive amendment" had been "amended to remove or alter comments unfavourable to South Yorkshire Police". South Yorkshire Police tried to impugn the reputation of dead fans. South Yorkshire Police falsely accused fans of being drunk, violent and stealing from the injured. They did blood tests to determine the level of alcohol from dead fans including children in a failed attempt to damage the reputations of the victims and shift blame. It is truly sickening.

Thatcher knew about the lies and did nothing - she must have felt she owed SY police one for their brutal crushing of the miners and other workers. She didn't get and didn't want to understand football fans and allowed Police to treat us like scum.

There must be an Inquiry. There must be prosecutions. Nothing less than that.

Justice for the 96.
Click to expand...

Absolutely spot on,that evil old cow should not escape justice either
Click to expand...

She will
 
Sir Norman Bettison still saying even after yesterdays report that he never altered a statement or asked for any to be altered. Also he still saying fans behaviour made it difficult for the police than it needed to be. Unbelievable!!!!
 
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