British Soccer Disaster of 1989 -- Exception taken

How dare you suggest that those photographs of people crushed against that fence are staged. Some of those people died, and the girl who you based many of your observations on was luckily one of the survivors of that terrible disaster. Her name is [*] and I just hope that she doesnt stumble across your crass piece of smart arse interpretation.

96 people died at that disaster, men, women and children. Thousands of people were affected by the disaster and many people still have problems coming to terms with it. It was not caused by a riot, it was caused by incompetent policing that allowed a portion of terracing to become overcrowded to such an extent that fatalities occured as people were crushed to death.

I was in one of those overcrowded pens, and 11 years later I still have nightmares about what happened on that day. For you to suggest that those pictures of people in distress, some of them in their death throes, are nothing more than a staged 'joke' is unforgivable.

Be thankful you were not there to witness the terror and the smells of mass death.

It is Liverpool fans who you are mocking. Some of them breathed their last gasps crushed against that fence. I invite you to come to Liverpool and expound your theories here. We'll see how long you last.

Can I just say, as someone who was at Hillsbrough in 1989, that I find you site disgusting and can assure you people did suffer.

I guess you also support the view your countrymen never stepped on the moon? Some of you Americans are brainless.

I am disgusted by the defamatory article on your website concerning imagery from the Hillsborough distaster and I urge you in the cause of human decency to remove it.

On 15th April 1989 at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest 96 Liverpool fans were killed, hundreds more were injured and many thousands traumatised when an appalling failure of crowd management by the various responsible authorities, coupled with flawed architectural features, resulted in massive overcrowding in the central pens holding Liverpool supporters at the Leppings Lane Terrace at Hillsborough. In the aftermath of the event a series of profoundly inaccurate and deliberately misleading statements were made by authorities in what has since been proven to be a concerted attempt to blame the victims for the disaster. The outrageous injustice of the mendacity and conspiracy by those responsible has been one of the greatest injustices of modern times, and the tribulations of the victims and the bereaved have been inordinately magnified by the process of establishing the truth.

That truth is now known. It was first examined in a Public Enquiry, (the constitutionally requisite instrument appointed, authorised and funded by the British Government in the case of major distasters.) This was conducted by Lord Justice Taylor. The report of the enquiry was in two stages : the Interim Report, which addressed causality, and the Final Report, which addressed the entire culture, insitutional organisation and responsibility for the management of major sporting events in the United Kingdom.

The Interim Report clearly stated that the primary cause of the disaster culture was a failure of crowd management by the South Yorkshire Police. As is common in many cultures in instances where the police make mistakes, are incompetent, or are complicit in crimes, it was identified that there was a deliberate programme of misinformation and direct lies in the aftermath to the event in order to alter public perception. The struggle for justice for the victims and the survivors has been a long one and is even yet ongoing; there have been several protracted legal proceedings.

Last year, a jury in an English Court was unable to find the police match commander Duckinfield not guilty of the charge of gross negligence. Currently Anne Willams, mother of 15 year old Kevin Williams (who died that day some time after 4pm after being denied resuscitation by police who treated him as dead from shortly after 3pm) is petitioning the Attorney General by memorandum for a fresh inqest into her son's death. In circumstances unprecedented in British legal history the inquests into the deaths were heard en masse, and the Court decreed that no evidence after 3.15pm was admissable. Anne has clear evidence that her son was alive a long time after that.

The effect of the Lord Justice Taylor's Final Report was so wide-reaching that British football culture has been radically altered, so that safety and basic human rights - denied the victims of Hillsborough - are finally enshrined in law.

And yet there remains an ignorance, a legacy of the early aftermath of the disaster when so many lies were actively propagated in the media. Justice requires that the truth be told wherever relevant, and revisionist portrayals should not go unchallenged. Your website is just such revisionism.

I appreciate that you are attempting to expound a theory about press photography. However, your choice of "evidence" is sickening, and in this case you are mistaken. The survivors, witnesses and families would all attest to the veracity of these photographs, although to those not yet aware of your website I would prefer to do the kindness of leaving them in ignorance, such is the incredible pain and extreme suffering your website has already caused to those who have seen it.

Whilst the photographs may appear incongruous and un-natural to you, that is because they document an extremely unnatural and abnormal process : the crushing to death of 96 innocent football supporters, and the near death, injury and enormous traumatisation of many hundreds more. The context in which you place it is defamatory, inordinately insulting, and the cause of great offence to the families of the victims and to other survivors.

You have presented some "evidence" and analysed it in the cause of your theory. Perhaps you should apply the same process to your site in the light of publicly available information.

To begin with the narrative - "According to an accompanying news story, the disaster was the result of a riot sparked by infamous British soccer hooligans ... "

Fact : there was no riot. There was no unruly behaviour, just the normal exuberance of a crowd attending one of the major fixtures in the English sporting calendar. I attach to this email the names (which imply the gender) and ages of those who died. What is the likelihood of so many children, and so many girls and women, being involved in a riot ? Whereas you are quoting the article, the article itself is mendacious and the fact that this was not a riot is well established and in the public domain. You defame bothe the dead and all those present who survived by presenting the myth that they are, or that some of them are, "infamous British soccer hooligans." Since publication of that article and similar misleading articles at the time the Hillsborough Families Support Group have gained financial redress from publishers in respect of such portrayals.

"Is this woman daydreaming? Supposedly, people around her are being crushed. Why isn't she being crushed too?"

Fact : that woman is in fact a boy. Not daydreaming : close to dying. In profound shock, unable to breathe, and close to giving up hope. Your analysis is so trite and so offensive : you are unable to tell the lad's gender : how on earth can you say that he is not being crushed ? How can you take a superficial concept of your notion of how someone "should" look whilst having all the air squeezed from their lungs and an incredible pressure being brought to bear upon them so that slowly they asphyxiate, at a football match, and pass judgement ? I am at a loss for words to explain the anger that your remarks about this young lad evoke.

"Are these the hands of people in distress? Are these anatomically correct hands? The one at right in particular looks impossibly elongated. Try bending your own fingers into the same positions and look at the distance between your thumb and fingers."

No, they are the hands of people dying in a grotesque, barely imaginable way. There is nothing "anatomically correct" about this process.

As a witness to these events I aver that the photographs are real. It is no "joke." It is your interpretation that is so widely inaccurate. But regardless of that, to publish such an article without researching the facts of the Hillsborough disaster, and with complete disregard for the victims - the dead, their families, the survivors, the ground staff of the emergency services - is beneath contempt.

I now ask you to remove this material forthwith and in the immediate future. Should this not occur, then I feel I have no option but to draw attention to the site to the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, the Hillsborough Families Support Group, The Football Supporters Association, and other campaigning colleagues. You will become far more "infamous" than any "British soccer hooligan."

Hillsborough Justice Campaign website is temporarily offline so as not to prejudice the court proceedings in Anne Williams' case. But it will be back very soon : http://www.contrast.org/hillsborough I strongly recommend you to work your way through the entirety of the History section of the site.

Professor Phil Scratton : Hillsborough - The Truth available from Amazon.com Get it right, for their sakes :

John Alfred Anderson (62) Thomas Howard (39) Colin Mark Ashcroft (19) Thomas Anthony Howard (14) James Gary Aspinall (18) Eric George Hughes (42) Kester Roger Marcus Ball (16) Alan Johnston (29) Gerard Bernard Patrick Baron (67) Christine Anne Jones (27) Simon Bell (17) Gary Philip Jones (18) Barry Sidney Bennett (26) Richard Jones (25) David John Benson (22) Nicholas Peter Joynes (27) David William Birtle (22) Anthony Peter Kelly (29) Tony Bland (22) Michael David Kelly (38) Paul David Brady (21) Carl David Lewis (18) Andrew Mark Brookes (26) David William Mather (19) Carl Brown (18) Brian Christopher Mathews (38) David Steven Brown (25) Francis Joseph McAllister (27) Henry Thomas Burke (47) John McBrien (18) Peter Andrew Burkett (24) Marion Hazel McCabe (21) Paul William Carlile (19) Joseph Daniel McCarthy (21) Raymond Thomas Chapman (50) Peter McDonnell (21) Gary Christopher Church (19) Alan McGlone (28) Joseph Clark (29) Keith McGrath (17) Paul Clark (18) Paul Brian Murray (14) Gary Collins (22) Lee Nicol (14) Stephen Paul Copoc (20) Stephen Francis O'Neill (17) Tracey Elizabeth Cox (23) Jonathon Owens (18) James Philip Delaney (19) William Roy Pemberton (23) Christopher Barry Devonside (18) Carl William Rimmer (21) Christopher Edwards (29) David George Rimmer (38) Vincent Michael Fitzsimmons (34) Graham John Roberts (24) Thomas Steven Fox (21) Steven Joseph Robinson (17) Jon-Paul Gilhooley (10) Henry Charles Rogers (17) Barry Glover (27) Colin Andrew Hugh William Sefton (23) Ian Thomas Glover (20) Inger Shah (38) Derrick George Godwin (24) Paula Ann Smith (26) Roy Harry Hamilton (34) Adam Edward Spearritt (14) Philip Hammond (14) Philip John Steele (15) Eric Hankin (33) David Leonard Thomas (23) Gary Harrison (27) Patrik John Thompson (35) Stephen Francis Harrison (31) Peter Reuben Thompson (30) Peter Andrew Harrison (15) Stuart Paul William Thompson (17) David Hawley (39) Peter Francis Tootle (21) James Robert Hennessy (29) Christopher James Traynor (26) Paul Anthony Hewitson (26) Martin Kevin Traynor (16) Carl Darren Hewitt (17) Kevin Tyrrell (15) Nicholas Michael Hewitt (16) Colin Wafer (19) Sarah Louise Hicks (19) Ian David Whelan (19) Victoria Jane Hicks (15) Martin Kenneth Wild (29) Gordon Rodney Horn (20) Kevin Daniel Williams (15) Arthur Horrocks (41) Graham John Wright (17)

YOU ARE A VERY SICK PERSON. WHAT DO YOU = HOPE TO=20 ACHIEVE BY HAVING THIS SICK WEBSITE? DON'T BOTHER REPLYING, I DON'T WANT = TO HEAR=20 FROM A SICK INDIVIDUAL SUCH AS YOURSELF.

I take it you belive yourself to be a = responsible=20 and professional commentator in your field. My attention was brought to = link=20 shown in the subject box above. Would you please clarify the opening=20 paragraph?

In April, 1989, an image of British = soccer fans=20 apparently crushed against a fence made news worldwide. According to an=20 accompanying news story, the disaster was the result of a riot sparked = by=20 infamous British soccer hooligans.

Do you research your work? Your = examination and=20 critic of the published photograhs leads me to believe you do not. Your = use of=20 the text in the opening paragraph also shows an outrageous ignorance of = the=20 facts.

Your work is freely available for = interrogantion=20 across the world. Please take more care in future to analyse and assess=20 data.

"Were the editors of the Washington Post out to lunch when the picture = was selected for its front page and the headline written?"=20

I suppose you think you are some kind 'expert', a valued contributor on = your subject(s). As a football follower who on 15 April 1989 travelled = to Sheffield along with tens of thousands of others oblivious to the = dangers many people I knew personally would be about to face, and which = left 96 dead and hundreds upon hundreds more injured, some still to this = day in a coma, others suffering from PTSD, I find your laziness in = assessing you subject beyond amusement, simply insulting. Insulting to = me, to people I know, to the people of Liverpool and beyond, and to = followers of the game of football you so crassly stereotype, but = stereotype so badly.

I expect you'll find a number of others post you a similar line of = vitriol. You deserve it. If you set yourself up as able to present a = reasoned piece, and fall so far short of the remark, you are worthy of = our collective contempt for the hurt you dredge up.

You sad, deluded individual. Perhaps you should go to lunch and think a = while longer before you write so badly.

Having just read the crap and photo's on your site, can I just point out = a few things to you dimwit Americans. Firstly, there was no riot at the = Hillsborough Soccer Ground, just people arrived late for an important = game and were let in to an already packed stadium, this by the police = who refuse to accept the blame. Secondly, a young lad in his early = twenties who lived 2 doors from me died that day, and as a mark of = respect to him and the other victims, you should at least research your = facts before you release them over the Internet.

After being directed to your web page concerned with the press coverage of the 1989 Hilsboro disaster in which 96 people died, I would ask you to make some considerations of your own.

Firstly, consider this, none of those photographs were 'staged' as you so Americanly suggest. All of the people in the photographs are easily recognised as men, women and children who were killed in the disaster. The photographs were banned from English press due to the severity of the shock value for the friends and families of those involved - I would strongly recommend that is ONE of the reasons you should remove your highly offensive site.

Also, consider this, the disaster was NOT caused by 'hooligans' as you claim - I'd check your sources before writing such slander in the future. Consider this, millions of people watched the events unfurl live on television, all of the images you so petulantly 'dipute' were and still can be clearly made out on the television broadcasts of the disaster. Consider this, your friends or family are horribly crushed to death, their faces contorted in agony are crassly used to promote a web site belonging to someone thousands of miles away who, to your and everyone else concerned's horror, has the audacity to claim that your loved one did not actually die on that summer's day 12 years ago, but were actually part of a clever charade.

Consider this, knowing how much offense this site of yours has already caused, knowing the nature of the British public and knowing the attitude of 'infamous soccer' fans connected with it, you would be VERY WELL ADVISED to remove this site immediately, replacing it with a full apology. It is not too late.

Consider this, I am from Manchester - a city with the fiercest rivalry with Liverpool where the victims of Hillsboro were from and yet I would never consider such a sick, misguided site as this one. Finally, in case you are unmoved by my plea, consider this. Two of my friends were killed that day, one was safe at the top of the Leppings Lane enclosure when he saw his friend being crushed to death against the fences in your pictures. Bravely he fought his way back into the crush to save him. We all watched in horror as his body was later seen, lifeless, being taken onto the pitch on an advertising hording by distressed fans. Remove your site - do it for me, do it for those who died, for those who are so deeply offended by it and most importantly do it for yourself - you are skating on very, very thin ice.