Hillsborough Report

[Essex_George]

So today the truth is at last coming out about the lies that happened after Hillsborough on April 15th 1989. The people responsible should be brought to justice. JFT 96. YNWA

[eFestivals]

The police lied and cheated, and tried to shift the blame from themselves.

Who'd of thought it, eh? That's never happened before, hasn't happened since, and won't ever happen again.

It's great that the truth is finally out there, but no inquiry was needed to establish that the police lied and cheated, and tried to shift the blame from themselves.

Edited September 12, 2012 by eFestivals

[strummer77]

Massive congratulations to those that fought so hard for so long to get to this stage. Of course it can't reverse what happened but the truth is still important.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

The police lied and cheated, and tried to shift the blame from themselves.

Who'd of thought it, eh? That's never happened before, hasn't happened since, and won't ever happen again.

It's great that the truth is finally out there, but no inquiry was needed to establish that the police lied and cheated, and tried to shift the blame from themselves.

[Essex_George]

23 years for that to happen is pretty shocking, but your right no enquiry was not needed to know the police lied.

[eFestivals]

Lots of apologies today but then again that is the least that can be expected. There are so many organisations and people that should be held responsible.

I was pleased to see Kelvin McKenzie was quick off the mark, but after all he's said over the years it seems an easy cop-out for him to be able to blame his view on the police and a MP. Surely a journalist has a duty to investigate as well as report?

And I wonder if we'll hear anything from Saint Boris? I know he's apologised for it before, but his comment about Liverpudlians seeing themselves as victims (or whatever it was) was driven by the idea that they'd been no cover-up.

[The Nal]

It's great that the truth is finally out there, but no inquiry was needed to establish that the police lied and cheated, and tried to shift the blame from themselves.

[strummer77]

I was pleased to see Kelvin McKenzie was quick off the mark, but after all he's said over the years it seems an easy cop-out for him to be able to blame his view on the police and a MP. Surely a journalist has a duty to investigate as well as report?

[Essex_George]

But the inquiry means that people can now be prosecuted for it.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

I was pleased to see Kelvin McKenzie was quick off the mark, but after all he's said over the years it seems an easy cop-out for him to be able to blame his view on the police and a MP. Surely a journalist has a duty to investigate as well as report?

And I wonder if we'll hear anything from Saint Boris? I know he's apologised for it before, but his comment about Liverpudlians seeing themselves as victims (or whatever it was) was driven by the idea that they'd been no cover-up.

[thesecretingredientiscrime]

It's not just the coppers who come off badly in it, The FA and Sheffield Wednesday come off very badly, and need to be looked at.

[eFestivals]

He always said the story came from a Liverpool news agency. That was proved otherwise. He didn't need today to change his mind, he knew all along it was false.

Sheffield news agency, surely?

And that news agency has confirmed what it sent him too - tho they'd toned down a lot of what they were directly told before sending it on Mckenzie.

So his source was defo a news agency, and that news agency was telling those things to him, and telling him that it had come from the police an a local MP.

I can understand why he was taken in initially, tho that by itself doesn't justify running the story.

He's not sorry he said it, he's sorry he's been caught. He's lowlife. An evil man is Kelvin.

I'm pretty much with you on that.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

It's not just the coppers who come off badly in it, The FA and Sheffield Wednesday come off very badly, and need to be looked at.

[Essex_George]

And I wonder if we'll hear anything from Saint Boris? I know he's apologised for it before, but his comment about Liverpudlians seeing themselves as victims (or whatever it was) was driven by the idea that they'd been no cover-up.

[eFestivals]

And I wonder if we'll hear anything from Saint Boris? I know he's apologised for it before, but his comment about Liverpudlians seeing themselves as victims (or whatever it was) was driven by the idea that they'd been no cover-up.

My memory is crackin' sometimes.

I've been following the Guardian live coverage, and not reading other sources. Six minutes after I posted those words above The Guardian remembered about Boris too.

From http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/sep/12/hillsborough-disaster-report-panel-released-live

16:55 BST

One of our readers has pointed out that Boris Johnson arguably also owes the people of Liverpool an apology. This report in the Telegraph records the comments he made about the city:

In 2004, Boris Johnson was ordered by the then Tory leader Michael Howard to go to Liverpool and apologise for an article in The Spectator which accused the city of "wallowing" in its "victim status".

He said Liverpudlians made a scapegoat of police in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster, refusing to acknowledge the part played "by drunken fans at the back of the crowd who mindlessly tried to fight their way into the ground".

The article, on 16 October, said people in Liverpool "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 about the rest of society".

[Gnomicide]

Kelvin MacKenzie can fuck right off.

Mixed emotions today. Pleased the families have finally been vindicated, disgusted at the shear level of the cover up.

[thesecretingredientiscrime]

Just been reading up on what Boris said, didn't know about this. Do you think Cameron will make him apologise, he has had a dig at him about it today.

Edited September 12, 2012 by thesecretingredientiscrime

[Essex_George]

Kelvin MacKenzie can fuck right off.

Mixed emotions today. Pleased the families have finally been vindicated, disgusted at the shear level of the cover up.

[eFestivals]

Well put! The shear scale of the cover up is unbelievable, how do they sleep at night the bastards.

Don't go thinking that a cover-up of this level is unusual.

Just consider how many times crucial evidence goes missing when there's a suspicion of police wrong-doing. For example, the missing CCTV tapes from the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.

[thetime]

How on earth was sheff wed allowed to hold any football games without an up to date health and safety certificate?

[t8yman]

its "sheer", but thats not really important tbh.

/pedantry

I think one of the biggest things to bear in mind was the culture of the authorities in those days. it was a long time ago. Gene Hunt wasnt a million miles wide of the mark. Not saying that as justification, nor an excuse, simply making a point that many of the old bill were a law unto themselves back then, many of them just saw the fans as scum, and were more interested in crowd control than safety.

Its just a massive shame that it took 96 young lives and 23 years of people standing up for what is right to get to where we are today.

[t8yman]

Don't go thinking that a cover-up of this level is unusual.

Just consider how many times crucial evidence goes missing when there's a suspicion of police wrong-doing. For example, the missing CCTV tapes from the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.

[eFestivals]

or Ian Tomlinson. or any number of other cases

Yup.

Which rather negates the words in your post above.

Edited September 12, 2012 by eFestivals

[t8yman]

Yup.

Which rather negates the words in your post above.

[eFestivals]

kind of - sadly. however I dont think the tomlinson case would have even got to court 23 years ago.

It very nearly didn't this time. It took a 2nd attempt, and then he was still found not guilty - and all despite his atrocious police record and the fact that he was disobeying orders at the time.

All the while we have a system where coppers are essentially untouchable - as they are by being allowed to take early retirement instead of facing a disciplinary, or (and this is how things currently stand for the shooting of that guy in Tottenham that started last summer's riots) that they're able to refuse to be interviewed by the IPCC, then things won't get any better.

Some people say "show me this police canteen culture that you say exists". I say that these cases and the police remaining unaccountable shows it for itself. If they didn't collude and always acted in the name of right as they like to claim then cases like Hillsboro, thru to Jean Charles de Menezes, thru to Tomlinson, thru to Tottenham just wouldn't be able to happen in the way that they have.

Edited September 12, 2012 by eFestivals