Anyone who's ever been to a football match, especially anyone who ever went to the football at the time, knew within a day what the truth was, and yet police and government of the time (and in the subsequent years) covered it up for 27 years, with the invaluable help of the gutter press.
I too would like to see any coppers and government members in office at the time (unfortunately most of them are dead already so can't be punished) guilty of lying or covering the truth up feel the full force of the law; any journalist involved of spreading the lies should lose their job NOW, and any politician who carried on smearing the victims and their families should too.
just 2 examples of the latter, in case people's memories are not long enough...
pig-fucker: "The Families of the Hillborough tragedy are a blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat that isn't there" - October 2011
the obese inbred of city hall (fortunately not for long anymore, but probably soon to be leader of the tory scum): "Liverpool is a handsome city with a tribal sense of community. A combination of economic misfortune — its docks were, fundamentally, on the wrong side of England when Britain entered what is now the European Union — and an excessive predilection for welfarism have created a peculiar, and deeply unattractive, psyche among many Liverpudlians. They see themselves whenever possible as victims, and resent their victim status; yet at the same time they wallow in it. Part of this flawed psychological state is that they cannot accept that they might have made any contribution to their misfortunes, but seek rather to blame someone else for it, thereby deepening their sense of shared tribal grievance against the rest of society. The deaths of more than 50 Liverpool football supporters at Hillsborough in 1989 was undeniably a greater tragedy than the single death, however horrible, of Mr Bigley; but that is no excuse for Liverpool’s failure to acknowledge, even to this day, the part played in the disaster by drunken fans at the back of the crowd who mindlessly tried to fight their way into the ground that Saturday afternoon. The police became a convenient scapegoat, and the Sun newspaper a whipping-boy for daring, albeit in a tasteless fashion, to hint at the wider causes of the incident" - in an article in the Spectator in 2004
and now the two shits are falling over themselves apologising and praising the families for their resolve - utter scum both of them, that's what they are.
Somehow though, I'm pretty sure nobody of the above people will pay any price for their words and/or actions...
Well. Personally, I think the verdict is long overdue. I wholly get poor decision making by the match commanders allied with a stand not made for the crowd it took. It happened in 1981 at the same ground. However, what has been overlooked is that Hillsborough could have happened at any ground at that time. Ive been stood on a terrace where i literally couldnt move my arms and had to go where I was pushed. Also in MY experience, people spent a few hours in the pub and went to the ground with ten minutes to spare. I think its just how football was. People paid on the gate and clubs and the fa/leagues were happy to take the money. I also understand why the Police inside could have thought hooligans given the radios back then were probably shite and all youd see is a mob surging. I also understand the ordinary bobby being bullied into changing statements from above ( who cares if one ordinary bobby stands up to his bosses and gets hounded out?) and the hooligan story being started from senior Officers to cover their own arse and partly because thats what happened before. The Sun lies were inexcusable, and whoever spread that should be hounded and punished.
What is unforgiveable is the time it has taken to rationalise the failings that happened and lies that were spread to cover the establishment.
I think the FA are getting off lightly as the organisers of the tournament. The really sad thing is the story, in relation to settlements, prosecutions etc will be years to finalise, by which time the loved ones of those who died will still be dealing with it and many of the guilty will be too old to stand trial.
A terrible indictment of justice
