Now of course yes, his full speech did go into alot more depth about what had come to light in the wake of this current investigation. This whole event and the times after has led to what can only be called a massive failure on all accounts. Why? Well, lets take a look at some of the facts we have here.
On the 15th of april, 1989, thousands of people arrived to see a football match. Liverpool vs Nottingham forest. Nobody quite knew how things were going to turn out, thing's were done a little different back then, but how things were to change after that day....
You see, back in them days, it was legal for a stadium of that size to have what can only be called a penn, in which people stand to observe the match. While these did work for sometime, what happend on that day ended up with it being illigal for a stadium to have a standing area. These days all football match attendee's must have a seat allocated to them, even if they are stood infront of that seat.
The match was due to start at 3:00pm. Before the match started outside there was a crush of people, nothing new to this sort of event, only how it was being handled. People came flooding into the area inside the stadium and it looked as if it was going to be a good football match for all involved.
The chanting was taking place and at 3pm, the whistle was blown and the game begun, as did something else.
It is currently unclear as to what time exactly the crush begun, but here is how it started.
The entrance to the area was from the rear of the stadium, down rather narrow passages, which follow on from turnstyles which people couldn't have gotten through without a ticket at the time. It is believed that there was road works nearby which resulted in a large number of fans being late to the match, so of course when 3pm comes, people want to get in. Here's where it went wrong though.
To deal with the numbers of people still turning up it is believed that the police officer in charge orderd that all turnstyles be opend up to people, ticket or not. As a result people were hearded from the outside in, presumeably by the police. This of course puts pressure onto the people inside the stadium, who were already in a rather full area, which is now being force fed more and more people.
At 3:06pm, the whistle is blown and the match play suspended, trouble is happening at the liverpool supporters end of the feild and something isn't right. Police charge over and see that people are being crushed. Due to the large barriers between the penn and the field, police are limited as to what they can do at the front, other than try to assist people as they climb up and over it in order to escape.
Moments later, the football player's are called off the field and the match is left abandoned, due to scene's like this....
The death toll took a while to filter through to everyone as to how many people were injured and had passed. Yes, people did die in the crowed as a result of the crushing.
Here is some rather interesting news clips taken from news items after the event. Pay close attention to what the police officer in charge has to say.... his story changed several times and we shall go into this a little later on....
While yes, that is a long bit of footage, it's important to try and watch as much of it as you can to hear what different people are starting to say about it.... Particually the police.
You'd presume after an event like this, the police would be most upset about what has happend and the people at the top would look honestly and fairly into what happend and bring to justice those who were responsable for the worst tragedy event in footballing history.
THIS is why i'm blogging about this 23 years later, because what happend next split liverpool away from alot of people, companies and has ensured that those 96 who died as a result never saw justice, until now it would seem....
The report after explained of how people had gained access to the stadium because they had gotten through the turnstyles without permission and the police couldn't stop these un-controlable people. It claimed that people were robbing the dead as they lay on the field, it claimed that police officer's were urinated on..... Utter rubbish. As if that wasn't bad enough The Sun newspaper published an artical in which it claimed these were all true and basically, pointed the finger of blame purely on the "Drunken liverpool hooligans".
To this day, stickers, posters and word of mouth in and around liverpool, still speaks and promotes a campaign of "Don't buy the sun". Although i'm not there everyday, i can hand on heart say, i've never seen the sun newspaper available in liverpool.
Anyway.... What has happend in those 23 years?
Well, literally, nothing.
As much as people have called for this to be honestly looked into, it hasn't been. The cheif of the operation i believe has since passed away, so he will never be brought to any kind of justice, even though if you ask me and many others, the blame lies with him for ordering the gates to be opend and the crushing allowed to begin.
Government after government may have all called for justice, but still, nothing got done, infact even on the 20th annaversary of the event happening, a government member was there, he said NOTHING about an investigation, which is why you'll hear the crowed chant, Justice for the 96.
A few point's id like to finish on here as this chapter draws to a close.
The events that took place on that day showed people around the world that safety is nothing to be messed around with, it taught us that we should sometimes take infomation from those we trust with a pinch of salt as is the case with the orig police report.
It really did unite people in a way that you very rarely see.
When hillsborough took place afterwards at Anfield (Liverpool football club's home stadium) saw a sea of scarf's, left there by people who wanted to show a sign of respect for those who had lost their life.
Liverpool's colours are red, but scarf's of almost every colour was left, because no matter what team people supported they all saw what had happend and how nobody should have had to have gone through that.
It does actually make me happy to think that after all these years, we are on the edge of the truth finally coming out and the finger of blame being pointed at those who created this problem in the first place.
Thank you for reading.
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