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| Quote: Calls are being made for senior police officers to be held accountable for the deaths of 96 fans in the Hillsborough disaster. Inquest jurors found they were unlawfully killed and pinpointed police failures before and after the 1989 FA Cup semi-final. Liverpool Walton MP Steve Rotheram said "now it is about accountability." | |
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-me ... e-36145587
One thing that has been absent from the reports recently has been the reasons why the football pitch had a fence around it. It was reported yesterday as if it was some kind of health and safety oversight. At the time, pretty much all football pitches - certainly those of Division 1 (and even some Division 2) had to have fences around them. The problems from football hooliganism, fights on the terraces between rival fans which would spill on to the pitches meant that the solution was to enclose the pitches in fences - effectively caging in the supporters. Couple that with the mismanagement of the crowds on that day, and you got exactly what was patently obviously going to happen at some point.
I think that there’s more culpability here than just the police and the ambulance service. Some blame has to be laid at the feet of the culture in football at the time, and the decisions makers who thought that fences like that were a good idea in the first place.