20 years on

[stressederic]

they said something about how it was the biggest mistake they've ever made a few years ago didn't they?

 

but that was blatent, 'we regret that nobody in liverpool buys our paper and so costs us millions a year, if it wasn't that we wouldn't be arsed...we'd do it again if we thought we could get away with it'

 

If memory serves, they had that just after the Wayne Rooney interviews that made everyone go mental. I seem to recall the thrust of the piece was this:

 

"It's not fair to have a go at Wayne for talking to us. It's not his fault. Hillsborough was bad. Stuff happened. We don't want to go into what we did. We said sorry at the time (no honestly we did, you just don't remember). We'll say sorry again here. Without using the word sorry. So we're quits then and you'll buy our paper again? After all it was the Daily Mirror stirring you all up anyway."

[Kvarme Ate My Food]

If memory serves, they had that just after the Wayne Rooney interviews that made everyone go mental. I seem to recall the thrust of the piece was this:

 

"It's not fair to have a go at Wayne for talking to us. It's not his fault. Hillsborough was bad. Stuff happened. We don't want to go into what we did. We said sorry at the time (no honestly we did, you just don't remember). We'll say sorry again here. Without using the word sorry. So we're quits then and you'll buy our paper again? After all it was the Daily Mirror stirring you all up anyway."

 

"and, unless you had a family member who died, it's really none of your business anyway, so what are you upset about?"

[stressederic]

"and, unless you had a family member who died, it's really none of your business anyway, so what are you upset about?"

 

Ah yeah I forgot that bit.

[johngibo YPC]

They also managed to have a go at us as well, which any woman will tell you is a rubbish way to apologise. Something like

We have already apologised (lie) but for some reason thats not good enough for some people

[Billy Dane]

We were being unreasonable expecting them to apologise for a "second" time, when it wasn't even them that were involved in the original reporting cos they were still at school and stuff, but if it makes you happy we are sorry (sort of).

[Billy Dane]

The LA Times:

 

The pain from Hillsborough tragedy remains

 

A crowd of 30,000 gathers at Liverpool's Anfield Stadium on the 20th anniversary of the disaster that killed 96 and injured hundreds.

 

By Chuck Culpepper

April 16, 2009

Reporting from Liverpool, England --

 

Even 7,305 days on, city buses stilled. Trains paused. Subways rested. Taxis pulled over and idled. Ferries shut off and let the river nudge them. Pubs held two-minute silences. Radio stations hushed.

 

At precisely 3:06 p.m. on Wednesday, a metropolitan area of 800,000 strived to sound like a small town, even inside a stadium renowned as one of the loudest on Earth, where organizers of a memorial for the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough soccer tragedy expected about 10,000 for tribute.

 

 

An astonishing 30,000 filed from long, snaking queues into Liverpool's Anfield Stadium in a bracing wind that rippled the organist's sheet music, and they continued to file in at 3:06 when they, too, forged a vast quiet broken only by babies and toddlers and church bells ringing 96 times in the distance.

 

Even on a planet with its share of sports zealots and sports calamities, it might be hard to find a community that mastered the fine art of remembering the fallen more durably than the supporters of the Liverpool Football Club of England's top soccer league.

 

It has embedded into their cores that 96 of their fellow fans died on April 15, 1989, when too many people hurried through a narrow tunnel right before a big match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, 58 miles away. They know how the match started before anybody realized until it stopped at 3:06, and they know of the 766 injuries, and they have heard all the accounts of those who could not hold down a job because of the post-traumatic stress.

 

It has haunted their brains that the scene had an uncommon grisliness, that some died standing up from compression asphyxiation, that a government inquiry cited police for mismanagement of crowd control, that police denied ambulances access to the stadium because they inaccurately suspected mass hooliganism.

 

It has angered up their bloodstreams that the tabloid the Sun capsized a whole raft of ethics with an uncorroborated cover story charging Liverpool fans at the scene with vile acts, that the uninformed-but-opinionated dished some blame on the fans, that police officials altered their stories and that no conviction or confession of dereliction has come.

 

It has even lent them a shred of comfort that Hillsborough initiated the rethinking that led to England's safe stadiums of today. After a series of catastrophes minted English football's reputation as unsafely ill-mannered in the 1980s, people "saw the people that had been killed at Hillsborough and heard their stories," said John Williams, a sociologist at the University of Leicester. "That woke up the general population." Still, inside Anfield, the sorrow persists such that Hillsborough has its own anthem, which Lee Roy James sang on Wednesday, including the lyric, "If a lesson's been learned, it's a lesson too late."

 

The fans cheered a mention of Sheffield citizens who let Liverpool fans use house phones in those pre-cellular days. They cheered a mention of those fans and ambulance workers who tried frantic CPR on others. They cheered at the memory of distraught Liverpool players from the 1989 roster.

 

They booed when Andy Burnham, the government's secretary of state for culture, media and sport, said, "I represent the prime minister." They interrupted Burnham's remarks with an impassioned singing of "Justice for the 96."

 

They stood and cheered repeatedly as Trevor Hicks, the president of the Hillsborough Fan Support Group, spoke; Hicks lost two teenage daughters that tragic day. They came with knowing, weather-beaten faces, and with surprising numbers of faces too young to have been born in April 1989.

 

So many people came that they sat in all four stadium sides. Beside Hicks stood a case with 96 candles in glass holders emblazoned with names. A bell tolled with the reading of each name, and the 100-minute service ended with two current Liverpool-raised players -- Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher -- on the pitch and 96 red balloons released skyward in a fresh drizzle.

 

How do Liverpool fans refrain from the natural course of the fading memory? Williams sees two factors. "This club has a kind of cultural heritage," he said. And then after Hillsborough, "Everyone escaped censure, so there's the whole feeling of injustice, which is actually a central feature of the culture of the city itself."

 

As for the heightened sense of community, "It's just the way we are," said lifelong Liverpudlian Amy Ormesher. She stood on a sidewalk near the permanent Hillsborough memorial. Below the memorial, flowers piled knee deep. Lacing the nearby stadium gates, hundreds of scarves and shirts from all manner of clubs -- even the loathed Manchester United -- expressed well wishes. Tucked within everywhere were laminated papers with poems. "Dear Son of Mine Forever," wrote one parent to a victim named Anthony, concluding, "Every day for the last 20 years/I wished you were here."

 

In the rare case of Liverpool, clearly thousands would have written the same.

 

 

Think Chuck did a good job with this.

[Tosh]

If you get the chance, listen out for "reunion" on Radio 4 at 9am Friday morning - it'll probably stream

 

It's Mrs Hicks, Mrs Aspinall, a survivor, an ambulance worker and an observer meeting up to discuss the disaster.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jkgvh

[Murphman]

We were being unreasonable expecting them to apologise for a "second" time, when it wasn't even them that were involved in the original reporting cos they were still at school and stuff, but if it makes you happy we are sorry (sort of).

 

 

That's about the gist of it, that's their take on it but for the life of me I can't understand why? They can indeed and with justification claim no personal blame for 'The Truth' but a front page aplogising unreservedly together with a contribution to the HJC with no strings, how difficult would that be? For a while I had a half baked theory that there could be a press council prosecution if they totally put their hands up. I only thought that because I can see no reason why they don't just say f*cking sorry for what they did. If it makes one person feel better about the way they were treated that's good enough reason and it would cost them f*ck all to do it.

 

C*nts.

[stressederic]

Seems like the Mirror are going to push on this

 

150 MPs join the Daily Mirror's Justice For The 96 campaign

 

 

18/04/2009

 

 

An all-party alliance of MPs yesterday backed the campaign to win justice for the 96 Hillsborough victims.

 

The 150-strong All Party Football Group will hold an urgent meeting next week to see how it can help the families discover the truth.

 

MPs on the group – the largest such body in Parliament – insist that any documents relating to the disaster 20 years ago should not remain hidden.

 

Families and friends of those who died are furious that despite the police being blamed, no officers have ever faced justice.

 

They want the inquests reopened and official records of the tragic FA Cup semi-final released.

 

The documents include a police file from 1989-90 which makes it clear Liverpool fans were being criminally investigated for causing the disaster.

 

Solicitor Ann Adlington said: “The file has never seen the light of day.”

 

Alan Keen, the Labour chairman of the All Party Football Group, said the continued cover-up was a “scandal”. He said: “When there has been a bereavement what bereaved people want is some facts about what happened.

 

“It is scandalous this has gone on such a long time. People going through this are angry. I think the group would want to take up the campaign.”

 

Advertisement - article continues below »

 

 

The vice chairman of the group, Tory MP John Greenway, also lent his support.

 

He promised a special meeting of the group when MPs return to Westminster next week after the Easter break.

 

Speaking in a personal capacity, he said that if there was any further information on the tragedy it should be “brought forward”.

 

However, there was a note of caution from Professor Phil Scraton, who wrote the authoritative book on the disaster, The Truth.

 

He called for the appointment of independent investigators who would collate documents before they are made public.

 

He said: “If the government is serious about launching another enquiry, the relevant documents need to be reviewed by a credible group of people before an official enquiry is launched.”

 

Pressure for action mounted as thousands signed a petition on the Downing Street website.

 

The petition has received more than 3,000 signatures in under two days.

 

Posted on the No 10 website on 15 April, the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, it says: “We ask the Prime Minister to instruct the relevant parties to investigate whether criminal charges should be brought.”

 

EMAIL YOUR MESSAGES OF SUPPORT TO THE HILLSBOROUGH FAMILIES TO justiceforthe96@mirror.co.uk

 

Mirror

[carrafan]

Great gesture from Gladbach.

[aka Dus]

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/hil...ne-1713400.html

 

Independent.ie

Hillsborough's lessons are learned but justice remains to be done

 

By Dion Fanning

Sunday April 19 2009

 

T here didn't seem to be much to say about the Hillsborough disaster 20 years on except to acknowledge that the families' demand for justice was now more pressing, not less, with every passing day.

 

There didn't seem to be much to say because it was such an ordinary disaster, such a mundane way to lose your life, overlooked by authority in death as in life as you stood watching a football match.

 

It was such a humdrum way to have your life destroyed, for the survivors to be scarred forever.

 

Hillsborough was such a simple way for 96 football fans to be unlawfully killed, such a matter-of-fact business because so many people had stood at sporting events at Dalymount or Croke Park in crushes like the ones that killed people in Sheffield and walked home that night wondering if anybody cared, never believing they could care so little. There was no plane screeching off the runway in this tragedy, no prime of Duncan Edwards to mourn, just the unheralded lives of 96 who mainly never grew up, never grew old, whose potential was as unknown as most of them were to everybody except their families.

 

When the pictures of that day are shown again you can see the thousands of bodies being crushed in the central pen at the Leppings Lane end but look at the film of the FA Cup semi-final the year before when the same two teams played at the same venue and the crowds look shoe-horned in then too. If you hadn't been told that the pictures from 1989 were those of people dying, it would not look that unusual.

 

Watching games played in front of people on terraces looks a little odd today but no stranger than seeing the goalkeeper pick the ball up when it's passed back to him. At Hillsborough, they died while we watched a game of football, overlooked once more.

 

Hillsborough was a mundane disaster which is why it still matters. It was the logical and tragic conclusion to society's desire to ignore the football supporter, to treat each one as a potential danger, to herd them into pens. Who puts people -- children -- into pens?

 

Hillsborough put football into perspective, as they like to say on Match of the Day. It demonstrated not how little it matters, but how much. "Where there is sorrow there is holy ground," Oscar Wilde wrote and the Kop became the place Liverpool's supporters went to after Hillsborough, turning it into a place of observance as well as a place of worship.

 

There was a danger that the anniversary would become, as Martin Kelner argued brilliantly in the Guardian last week, "grief tourism".

 

The BBC easily falls into 'Where were you-How did you feel?' school of questioning which asks what lessons can be learned from a disaster that took place 20 years ago, seemingly failing to notice that the lessons have been learned; it's justice that has been ignored. But that would be too difficult a topic so instead they stay with the cliché all the way to the moment when they say football doesn't matter at a time like this.

 

Of course football matters. Why else would the families come to Anfield for the memorial every year? Why is there such a communion between Liverpool's finest players and its supporters, a communion realised by Bill Shankly, who understood the Liverpool people's Celtic urgency to belong, but made sacred by Hillsborough? Why would Trevor Hicks, who lost two daughters 20 years ago, be cheered so movingly when he thanked the Liverpool players at the memorial on Wednesday for playing so valiantly the night before against Chelsea? Why would Fernando Torres point to the heavens when he scored the weekend before if there was not an intangible and spiritual link between football and the people who watch it and who, at Hillsborough, died watching it?

 

Torres understands this which is why he is a folk hero at Liverpool; Rafael Benitez understands it too which is why he is appreciated by Liverpool supporters when, like Kenny Dalglish before him, he is criticised by the rest of England.

 

There used to be a joke that said Ireland would relinquish its constitutional claim to Northern Ireland when Britain gave up its claim to Liverpool.

 

The city's desire to mourn 20 years ago reminded Liverpool and the rest of England that it is a city apart, a stranger in a strange land.

 

Then they wanted Liverpool to play before Liverpool was ready and there were grumblings then. Liverpool, led by Kenny Dalglish, declared they would play when the families were ready. Listening to Dalglish again this week and he was as flawless as he was in 1989. The myth about Dalglish is that he is not a great media performer, but he always understood his audience -- or the people he wanted to understand him -- which is what I thought communication was supposed to be about.

 

He spoke to them in 1989 and he spoke to them last week, his tone, as ever, perfect. He spoke of his memories of the tragedy but spoke mainly of the families and their loss.

 

Football is mainstream now. Andy Burnham, the sports minister, stood up at the memorial on Wednesday and read a message from Gordon Brown to, as he put it, their "fellow football supporters".

 

In itself, that was a reminder of how football has changed. Willie Whitelaw or Sir Francis Pym would not have tried to associate himself with a football crowd, let alone declare himself a supporter of whatever it is they were watching.

 

Burnham is an Everton supporter, he was at the other semi-final 20 years ago, but last Wednesday he was a representative of the British government. It was as if a member of Her Majesty's cabinet had decided to speak at Bodenstown. The crowd turned on Burnham and the cry went out for justice as loudly as if he had shown up in Meath and congratulated them on their efforts. He was alone, a stranger in his own land.

 

They remembered 96 football fans last Wednesday, but they announced, once more, their unwillingness to belong to a country that never understood them.

 

dionfanning@gmail.com

 

- Dion Fanning

[smithdown]

Great gesture from Gladbach.

 

good on em

[Redwire]

Secret files on the Hillsborough disaster could be made public 10 years early after a request from the home secretary.

 

Jacqui Smith has asked South Yorkshire Police to release the documents, which contain detailed evidence of what happened during the tragedy in 1989.

 

It could help families of the 96 victims who want a new inquiry.

 

Ms Smith has met South Yorkshire Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes to discuss the records.

 

Joan Traynor, 76, who lost her two sons, Christopher, 26, and Kevin, 16, in the disaster, welcomed the move.

 

She said: "At last something might be done and at last there might be a chance that the truth could be out.

 

"After years of campaigning I feel like something might happen. We have felt nothing but injustice and the only way we can get justice for our loved ones is if these files are made public and a fresh inquiry is opened."

 

Inquest ruling

 

The files contain evidence from the police, local council and the ambulance service. Documents like this are usually not made public for 30 years, but the home secretary has intervened two decades after the disaster.

 

Evidence was examined during the original inquest, in which the coroner ruled all victims had sustained their fatal injuries by 3.15pm, based on advice from pathologists.

 

As a result, he did not hear any evidence of what happened after that point - but many bereaved families believe their loved ones could have still been alive and they want a fresh inquiry.

 

Culture secretary Andy Burnham was heckled as campaigners shouted "Justice for the 96" at the Hillsborough memorial service on Wednesday.

 

Following the service, he called for "full disclosure" of all evidence on the Hillsborough disaster.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8006744.stm

[liveabiglife]

A guy I follow on Twitter posted this: http://leoroberts.wordpress.com/2009/04/16...theres-a-claim/ It really made me think - as someone who witnessed it very much from a distance, I think the reality of the survivor's daily agony had, to some degree at least, not fully impacted me. The need for justice really came through in his post, but from an angle less publicised in the media.

[Tommok]

A guy I follow on Twitter posted this: http://leoroberts.wordpress.com/2009/04/16...theres-a-claim/ It really made me think - as someone who witnessed it very much from a distance, I think the reality of the survivor's daily agony had, to some degree at least, not fully impacted me. The need for justice really came through in his post, but from an angle less publicised in the media.

 

It's a well constructed post that Twitter one and the earlier Independant article makes a valuable point - that it is not just a question of remembering Hillsborough and learning lessons but it's about keeping pressure on the authorities for JUSTICE.

 

I really hope something comes of this possible release of more documents.

 

It's hard to imagine they won't have been tampered with or that it won't all end in disappointment again but that's me just being my usual cynical self, or maybe just because there have been so many false dawns in the pursuit of the real truth of Hillsborough.

 

I've lost nearly all of my faith in the police being held accountable but it does seem that the media have got their teeth into the call for Justice for the 96. With the handling of the G20 protests story running too it seems the police are really in the media's crosshairs at the moment. Let's hope it remains that way until Justice for the 96 is finally achieved.

[Jiggy Hates Jazz]

t***

[melia]

t***

 

Unbelievable. What a prick.

[Sion]

So that's the 3rd time he's said that and still not been sacked!

He's a typical Chelsea fan in that he used to support another team (Spurs)

[TheLa]

t***

 

Cúnt of the highest order. Reasoning with/educating these people obviously doesn't work, he needs a proper f***ing kicking. Not that it'd solve anything, like, he'd still be an ignorant cúnt but I'd like to see him try and say those things with no f***ing teeth and a severely smashed up jaw. f*****.

[Swipe]

Might be of interest

 

Link

[melia]

Cúnt of the highest order. Reasoning with/educating these people obviously doesn't work, he needs a proper f***ing kicking. Not that it'd solve anything, like, he'd still be an ignorant cúnt but I'd like to see him try and say those things with no f***ing teeth and a severely smashed up jaw. f*****.

I agree. If he had this opinion and refused to listen to reason then, usually, I'd leave him to his ignorance. Sadly, he chooses to spew poison and misinformation hoping to convert others to his vile view; and for that he deserves a kicking

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

This gets worse - friends of mine in the US have been in contact with Cohen about this, it's time to step up the heat & get him fired by Fox. Here's the transcrpit:

 

Attention Steven Cohen:

 

Mr. Cohen,

 

Your comments on WSD on April 13th, 2009 are disgraceful.

 

Your assertion that the Hillsborough Disaster in 1989 was due to 6,000-8,000 Liverpool Fans without tickets is outrageous and typifies the type of sheer reckless unsubstantiated and uninformed statements that Kelvin MacKenzie also spouted in The Sun Newspaper in England 20 years ago. Have you even read the Taylor Report? Were you even in attendance that Fateful April Day? I was Mr. Cohen, and I, along with thousands of others, take offence to your ignorance. To use your public forum to vent your own misguided beliefs that have no basis of fact and serve only to air your inflated ego and fill the minds of young impressionable soccer fans in America is even more distu rbing. Was it not bad enough that you had to apologize for your long-held beliefs the first time you verbalized your “Conspiracy Theory” in 2006? Not only are your comments and long-held misplaced beliefs a disgrace to the families directly affected by the disaster, as well as the rest of us that will never forget what happened that day 20 years ago, but your professionalism and objectivity (or lack thereof) further call in to question your self-inflated reputation as being some sort of authority on soccer here, especially here in the United States, where for reasons unbeknown to me, someone actually thinks you warrant having a microphone and an audience. You are in the wrong Mr. Cohen. Ordinarily a sincere apology would be appropriate, but that’s a road you have traveled down before and it clearly hasn’t changed your perspective one iota.

 

If you would like to actually speak with someone who was there that day, please give me a call here in Florida and I would be only too pleased to give you an informed eye-witness first hand account. Not that i think for one minute that would, nor do i think that you have any desire whatsover to understand and become informed of the facts, which are well documented.

 

Grant Freer

Boca Raton, Florida

 

 

Reply

 

“No i am not and you should consider the facts. Liverpool are at the center of almost every serious human violation of conduct. Heysel, Hillsbrough, Alan Smityh, Singing about Munich 58, throwing s*** on United fans at Anfield, Michael Shields…are you seriously telling me that you are not guilty of any of this.

 

2 events

4 years

2 different cities

2 different countries

2 different stadium

 

135 dead

 

Only common link….well have a guess.

 

This not meant as disrespect for the 96 or their famalies but Justice…waht justice are you looking for…to be relieved of the shame and guilt and if you can get the South Yorkshire police to admit something juust to get you off their backs…that is what you are talking about.”

 

Cheers,

Steven.

 

Thanks for listening to World Soccer Daily

 

1-866-925-8255

[Des]

Liverpool are at the center of almost every serious human violation of conduct. Heysel, Hillsbrough, Alan Smith

 

Sorry but...

 

Worrac*nt.

Edited April 21, 2009 by Des

[Roscoe]

from RAWK via TLW:

 

"They've just had a report on the 12.45 pm bulletin.

 

Quite clearly stated that the official report blamed the fans for the disaster and the death of the 96 (in what was in general a positive report).

 

Sometimes you despair at what the last week has been all about when these easy myths are bandied about.

 

BBC Complaints - Homepage

 

Phone: 03700 100 222

 

starts at 03m 55s:

 

BBC iPlayer - Newsbeat: 20/04/2009

 

"An official enquiry blamed supporters behaviour for too many fans getting into one end of the stadium""

[Des]

Not sure how successful a campaign to get him sacked will be. This is Fox we're talking about here.