More than twenty-two years ago, I recall seeing vivid photos of fans being crushed to death at what became known as the Hillsborough disaster - which the Mirror newspaper called "The darkest day in British football history."
You might say that's a long time ago, even allowing for the death of 96 people. Yet to paraphrase William Faulkner, "The Hillsborough past is not dead: it's not even past" - and stories about responsibility, file releases and apologies are taking place to this day. Let's have a look after the jump .....
But first: Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention).
Send your nominations to TopComments at gmail dot com by 9:30 PM Eastern Time nightly, and indicate (a) why you liked the comment, and (b) your Dkos user name (to properly credit you) as well as a link to the comment itself.
For those of you from the UK, I apologize in advance for what you may see as an over-simplification of this event, and I may have some inaccurate (or at least misleading) details in this account. I'm just trying to make this meaningful for my North American peeps, without going into so much detail it will cause eyes to glaze over, that's all.
In English football (what we call soccer) there is - besides the league championship (which goes to the team in first place at the end of the year) - a tournament that is held intermittently during the course of the season from August through May. The FA Cup in 1989 was down to the semi-finals: and one semi-final was held at the neutral site of Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, matching teams from Liverpool against Nottingham Forest.
In European league critical matches, fans are segregated by the teams they support, not all seated together. This led to the first critical decision made at this neutral site: to seat the Liverpool supporters in a smaller portion of the stadium than those for Nottingham Forest (in order not to have their paths cross) when Liverpool was expected to have many more supporters in attendance.
There were other factors: at the time, standing room sections were common behind the goals - and then, to thwart hooliganism (thrown objects, people running onto the field, etc) high steel chain-link fences were erected in the standing-room sections. There were other decisions to allow people in through select gates to avoid a mob outside ... all of which led to a human crush against the fences. And this photo is somewhat tame compared to others shown on TV.
Five minutes after the contest began, the police advised the referee to halt the match, and people ran onto the playing surface if they could; a few lucky fans were able to climb to safety. In all, 766 Liverpool supporters were injured, with 94 people losing their lives that day, another in a few days ... and finally, #96 succumbed after suffering from being in a vegetative state for four years.
And while there were many acts of heroism, there were also acts of ..... well, Margaret Thatcher wanted to institute ID's for fans as part of a law-and-order campaign.
That pales compared to our friends at The Sun newspaper: who printed falsehoods, quoting unnamed police sources and a Tory MP that 'drunken Liverpool fans urinated on and picked the pockets of the dead, hampered rescue efforts and attacked policemen'. Long before the Murdoch scandals, the citizens of Liverpool have never forgiven the paper. Especially when its editor retracted an apology he made before a Parliamentary committee in 1993:
At a private lunch in 2006, then-editor Kelvin MacKenzie suggested he had only apologised because Rupert Murdoch forced him to and was quoted as saying: "All I did wrong was tell the truth ... I was not sorry then and I'm not sorry now."
An inquiry into the disaster by Lord Justice Taylor was issued in two parts: one dealt with the logistical problems for football stadiums, and recommended the removal of steel fences for all, and the elimination of standing-room sections in favor of all-seated stadiums for stadiums over a certain size. (Some smaller facilities also implemented that recommendation even though it was not mandatory for them to do so).
But the main part of the report dealt with the reasons for the crush - and it rejected all of the claims made in The Sun, along with rumors that the fans were drunk, or arrived without tickets, etc. It mainly cited bad decisions by the police - two of whom faced prosecution with one admitting to lies in claiming that fans broke down the gates, rather than due to a police decision. One of the officers was acquitted with the other case resulting in a hung jury. And this still hangs heavy in the minds of Liverpudlians, that no-one has paid for the loss of 96 lives.
As mentioned, this story continues to this day.
In 2009, a broadcaster on the Fox Soccer Network was called-out for his remarks that seemed to side with The Sun's baseless charges years earlier. Indeed, earlier this month Rupert Murdoch's son James has now reinstated an apology on behalf of News Corp.
The Cameron government has promised to release the Thatcher government's files on this disaster by June of next year. And the former Clash guitarist Mick Jones will perform a charity tour in support of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign.
It's common for the fans at Liverpool to sing the song You'll Never Walk Alone - from the 1945 Broadway play "Carousel" - in support of their team. But in Liverpool, the song has taken on a whole new meaning; dedicated to the 96 who did not return home that day from the match.
Now, on to Top Comments:
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From Laura Clawson:
The CEO of American Crystal Sugar compared a union contract to cancer; TheOrchid then turns his words back on him.
From blue aardvark:
In the front-page story about possible cracks in the GOP anti-tax armor: Bindle explains a good point about the culture war I had not thought of.
From belinda ridgewood:
In today's J Town - bleeding heart offers to make a house call if JanF needs to sign a Walker recall petition. JanF says she signed the first day and points out the importance of recalling Lieutenant Governor Kleefisch as well. That's when we learn the hot inside story of bleeding heart and her clock!
From nonnie9999:
In the front-page story by Hunter updating the War on Christmas - citizenx offers our Friends at Fox some ideas.
From *mdmslle:
In the diary by The Troubadour on the Deutsche Bank foreclosure that didn't occur: Johnnythebandit notes that the powers that be are - ultimately - dependent on ordinary people to do their dirty work.
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the diary by Steven D about the Kentucky church that has decided to ban interracial couples from its congregation: cassandracarolina worries that Herman Cain may be out-in-the-cold due to his interracial dalliances - to which twigg says to relax, that Herman would get a pass.
And finally, yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
1) I Kind of Fucking by bink — 232
2) I kind of fucking... by dance you monster — 161
3) The Paragon of Virtue by JekyllnHyde — 143
4) It's cool, I think publius just had an honest by MinistryOfTruth — 121
5) WTG, OWS! by Greasy Grant — 120
6) If Constitutional law professor Obama by Geenius at Wrok — 104
7) Quid pro quo on corporate personhood by Dirk McQuigley — 101
8) Calling Eric Folder.... by Dallasdoc — 101
9) Tell Barney Frank I said "Thank You" by ScottyUrb — 98
10) Comparatively it is huge by Horace Boothroyd III — 92
11) As bad as ethnic minorities in America have it by Geenius at Wrok — 92
12) As long as the majority of our congressmembers by MinistryOfTruth — 89
13) Memo to the Republican party by Steveningen — 81
14) Welcome to being a person of color in America by a2nite — 81
15) batteries will set us free by dark daze — 81
16) Huh? by TomP — 77
17) MoT Better Hurry Up by JekyllnHyde — 77
18) The idea that this stupid vulgar idiot by LeftHandedMan — 76
19) The 1% speaks. by TheOrchid — 74
20) Paulson by Crazy like a fox — 73
21) OWS tires of you. by One Pissed Off Liberal — 72
22) Goldman Sachs by DRo — 72
23) I'd write in by Geenius at Wrok — 70
24) Certainly, but I want "More and Better" by MinistryOfTruth — 70
25) That is some shit by rhp — 69
26) Factor in that these by Marie — 70
27) Great diary, urso! by arizonablue — 68
28) And my perp has been identified. by stcroix cheesehead — 67
29) I kind of want by agnostic — 67
30) Yo, Giles... great minds, and all that! by noise of rain — 67
31) No facebook for me by Raggedy Ann — 67