Vol. 80/No. 20      May 23, 2016

 

UK inquest: Cops to blame in soccer fans’ 1989 deaths

 
LIVERPOOL, England — “It was a cover-up from the beginning. People knew it,” declared Michael Massey. He was among the 30,000 people who turned out here April 27 to celebrate the decision of an inquest jury the previous day. After two years of deliberations, the jury ruled that police were to blame for the deaths of 96 supporters of the Liverpool Football Club at an April 15, 1989, match in Hillsborough, Sheffield. Workers at the rally cheered the families who campaigned to answer slanders against their relatives, and called for criminal prosecution of the police for the deaths and subsequent cover-up.

The disaster occurred after police opened a gate, allowing 2,000 football (soccer) fans to enter an already crowded standing-room enclosure. They refused to open exits to allow fans to escape the resulting crush and beat back those who tried to climb the fence. Ninety-six were killed and 766 injured. The officer in charge that day, David Duckenfield, admitted he had previously lied about his role in ordering the gate opened, instead blaming Liverpool football supporters.

The South Yorkshire Police sought to smear the victims, taking blood samples from all the dead bodies, including children, to check for alcohol. Initial police statements were changed to fit their story of a drunken mob. Bereaved relatives were treated like criminals and asked if their loved ones had been drinking.

The media echoed the anti-working-class lies. The Sun ran a front-page story headlined “The Truth,” repeating slurs from an anonymous policeman that supporters “picked pockets of victims” and “urinated on the brave cops.” After the verdict, Kelvin MacKenzie, former editor of the tabloid, apologized for the coverage saying it was based on “deliberate misinformation from the South Yorkshire Police.”

A 1991 inquest accepted the cops’ version and returned verdicts of “accidental death.” But the police lies were never accepted by the families, or by many other working people in Liverpool and beyond. Most years since 1989 thousands attended an annual commemoration at the Anfield football stadium.

Their protests won the establishment of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, whose 2012 report lifted the lid on the police lies, forcing Prime Minister David Cameron to offer a “profound apology” for the “double injustice.”

The High Court ordered a new inquest in December 2012, which began in March 2014.

The day after the verdict, South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable David Crompton was suspended. The West Midlands Police force is also under scrutiny, accused of “colluding” with their South Yorkshire colleagues when they were supposed to be investigating them. Two criminal investigations into the case are now underway.

The Hillsborough victory has spurred calls for a public inquiry into the 1984 Battle of Orgreave, in which South Yorkshire Police were also involved. In the midst of a yearlong miners’ strike, some 5,000 mounted police assaulted 10,000 strikers picketing a coking plant. Ninety-five miners were charged with rioting, based on doctored police accounts similar to those in the Hillsborough case. They couldn’t make the charges stick, and the cops eventually paid £425,000 ($615,000) in out-of-court settlements to 39 miners, without admitting liability.

Dag Tirsén contributed to this article.  
 
 
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