Hillsborough: "Key Findings"

[Kerosene]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...d-merseyside-19577033

So there we have it, the exhaustive 18 month study of over 400,000 documents has basically damned the Police and almost no one else. Their 'key findings' more or less lay the blame fairly and squarely at the door of the South Yorkshire Police.
Having been able to carry out their investigations many years after the tragedy, in the relative calm, they have concluded that the Police were not only palpablyculpable on the day, but then conspired afterwards to deliberately deflect blame onto the Liverpool fans.

I still cannot help but surmise that this report is and has been weighed against the Police from day one. I say that because until yesterday I was unaware that those compiling it had apparently been in the company of the families of those who died throughout their study period?

Would it not have been fair to all concerned had they either have taken an equal amount of time to consult with all involved parties instead of the one pressure group? Had they done so, could their deliberations have led to a different conclusion?
Were the Police and the other agencies disadvantaged as a result?

[HowardKennitby]

//Why would such a large amount of people not try to get in until almost time for kick off? //

I can't comment on that particular match but when I did attend football matches many years ago about 60-70% of spectators scheduled attendance by staying in the pub until the last possible moment then rushing en-mass into the ground.

[Zeuhl]

Yes that's true howard

and by-and-large the police were used to managing those situations

That day, some members of SYP screwed-up very badly

[Zeuhl]

interesting points on radios and i'm sure crowding was bad based on a little experience of my own at the time but one has to ask; if the police had not arbitrarily opened that gate with insufficient information to go on, how many would have died?

A reasonable estimate viewing the footage is - nobody.

The term 'duty of care' may not have been around in 1989 but anyone who attended that day or waved off their teenage children had a reasonable expectation that officials charged with controlling crowds wouldn't send them to their deaths simply because they weren't properly organised.

[ichkeria]

Zeuhl I'm not suggesting that the behaviour of the fans was a major factor. But it does seem wrong not to acknowledge the fact that the problematical issues surrounding the culture of many football fans, when viewed in the round, is entirely irrelevant.

[ichkeria]

Opening the gates was a recklessly stupid thing to do. Where did they think that the people flooding into the dead end were going to go?

[ELVIS68]

Just like to add, as a Spurs fan my respect for the 96 and families involved.

As a teenage fan in the 80's I went to most Spurs home games and a few away games and although I never encountered anything as bad as what happened that day, every awayday match was the same, a cram fest.

There was no health and safety policies back then, the police's job was to get you from the station into the ground and vice versa.

Although I loved going to football back then I used to sh!t myself going to away games, every club had their scallys who used to turn up pissed with no ticket and Liverpool are no different.

Am I alone on this?

[jomifl]

Zeuhl, so the lives of 100 people depended on the police communication system working.. get real. Any health and safety assessment depending on the premise of a working communication system with the then existing technology would be rejected in short order. The football club were responsible for the safety of their ground and how it was operated. The police made some (retrospectively) bad decisions but they only had a few minutes to make those decisions.The club should have employed safety experts and architects but they obviously didn't as they would rather spend their money on players than their fans.

[Zeuhl]

<the police communication system>

not just radios
senior officers taking an overview and monitoring
officers being briefed in advance properly
etc etc

As West Yorkshire Police Chief Sir Norman Bettison confirmed today; Sheffield Wednesday bear some of the blame but mostly it was the police.

"The fans of Liverpool Football Club were in no way to blame for the disaster ... I formed this clear view on hearing all the evidence that was presented at the Taylor inquiry, having sat through every day from its beginning, just four weeks after the tragedy...
... The evidence was overwhelming. The police failed to control the situation, which ultimately led to the tragic deaths of 96 entirely innocent people."

I'm sure none of us would want to disagree with such an experienced and qualified police officer.

[ELVIS68]

I disagree with him, those fans were hellbent on getting in that ground that day, if the police didn't open the gates do you honestly think those fans outside would've trundled off back home?

The police have held their hands up now and took the blame, Liverpool fans are blameless, well so says the report.

Discussion in the pub last night and opinion is still the same, the police shouldn't take the blame.

[joeluke]

Next week an independent report will also exonerate Liverpool fans of all blame for the 39 deaths at Heysel