Sunday 16 September 2012

A momentous week....


It’s been a momentous week where a lot of us have learned things a lot of new things:

We now know that the police coordinated a corrupt attempt to pervert the course of justice.  They and their Tory friend, Irvine Patnick, lied to the press and media about the causes of the disaster.

On top of lying about the causes of the disaster, we now know that the Police and their unofficial mouthpiece Patnick, were also the source of defamatory lies about the conduct of fans e.g.  Pick pocketing dead bodies. 

You’ve seen him on Youtube, here he is in press too. 
http://hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/repository/docs/PRE000000560001.pdf

We know that the very Tory MP who fed some of these vile lies to the press, was then knighted in 1994 by then Prime Minister John Major.  He remains a Tory lord to this day.

We know Mrs Thatcher refused the resignation of Peter Wright, the Head of SYP and now exposed as the most likely source of instigating the cover up.  We don’t know 100% because the name is redacted from the statement of the brave copper who exposed this 15 years ago.  So we know that the cover up is still going on, they have withheld the name in the disclosures, though Wright is odds on.   

We know that 15 years ago, this brave copper resigned in disgust after finding out his own evidence had been altered without his permission and his signature forged on a cut down version that he refused to sign at the time. 

We know that Bernad Ingham continued to pedal his warped version of the truth well after Hillsborough.   He is yet to issue an apology for his outburst on question time.

We know that the coroner imposed a 15 minute rule meaning that no evidence after that time was admissible in determining a cause of death.  We also know that various courts have supported this, despite clear evidence this was false. 

We know that 41 victims could have been saved had they had proper medical attention.

We know that 40 of 42 ambulances were turned away from Hillsborough.  Ironically that would be very nearly one per possible survivor. 

We know that the lies fed to press were not just about a ticketless mob, they also briefed that fans were attacking and urinating on the police as they gave medical aid, that fans pick pocketed dead fans and (a new one) sexually assaulted one dead fan.

We know that after 23 years to consider their role in this cover up, both Irvine Patnick and Mckenzie only apologized this week for their vile and false allegations.  They didn’t do so after the Taylor report. 

We know that Bernard Ingham and Mckenzie continued to peddle the “it was the fans” lie years after the Taylor report.  Ingham is still to apologise.

We know that the police altered 116 statements by removing comments that did not meet their version of events. 

But you know what, we knew most of that anyway….90% of that was in the public domain and the Police / IPCC / Politicians all chose to do nothing about the cover up.  They didn’t give a shit.  

And the public?  To be brutally honest, most of the public chose to not really give a shit…Why don’t these scoucers move on, they are serial victims, why do they want another minutes silence….yep, a lot of people sort to make cheap jibes and ignore the fact that there was a huge injustice.  

There are a few exceptions, people who refused to be silenced or who kept the issues in the public domain, including MPs Steve Rotherham and Andy Burnham.

So take your hats off to the brave families who carried on despite everything, despite a seemingly hopeless fight and despite the lack of hope.

They will not ever move on, not until they get justice.  Too right. 

As one of mates just said to me “Keep up the rage over Hillsborough”. I intend to.  Damn right I am angry, as I now know that whilst a line of policeman stood two deep across the centre circle, whilst other SYP police were refusing ambulances entry to the stadium, all that time 41 of our fallen were dying.  Some of the 41 who died, could possibly hear those sirens for themselves.

I heard them, I heard them loud and clear, they were constant, the sound of sirens as frustrated ambulance with paramedics sitting idle whilst young kids died all around. me  I also know what happened on the terrace.  How the Police were slow to react and worse, initially pushed fans back over the fence as they tried to escape.  Keeping the gate closed on the cage designed to contain the “animals’.

One other thing we knew all along, is about the conduct of the most senior policeman on duty that day.  We know that at 3.50pm, less than 1 hour after he had personally given the order to open Gate C, whilst Kevin Williams lay not yet dead, needing just a simple tube to save his life, 40 ambulances stood idle a matter of yards away, we know that was the time David Duckenfield told the first lie to Graham Kelly, that the fans has broken down a gate. 

The cover up started within an hour of the gate opening, and before the last of the 96 has even died.  Shame on everyone of them involved.   

A good days work


Ok, one more Hillsborough blog...another recollection of the mentality of the average South Yorkshire Policeman.  

Feb 15th 1990.  10 months to the day after Hillsborough and I finish lectures and walk upto the spot where I caught my bus home to Hunters Bar.  The bus stop in close to Sheffield City Hall and as I walk across a park, I can hear a protest, an anti-Poll tax one.  From memory this was a day or two before the big Poll tax riot in London.   

As I walk across I see a mounted police officer.  He looks familiar and I check his number, and then I know it is him, the same police officer who I been hit with his horse outside Hillsborough.  All of sudden I am back 10 months, proper flashback and can remember exactly the role this guy played outside the ground.  10 months of nightmares, barely a night when I slept through without waking up shaking.  Literally every night, scared to close your eyes because you know what is coming...

"You were at Hillsborough weren’t you? 
 
He denied being there.  
 
"Yeah you were, I remember your number as I was going to make a formal complaint about how you were riding your horse, charging into fans.  I remember you and your face, I even put about you in my statement…"

He denied again being there.   
 
"Yeah you were, you were part of the problem, you and your mates who killed the 95 fans".  Tony Bland was not recognized as dead for a few years yet.  "You were there and none of you has lost your job.  Not one policeman sacked or disciplined or charged with anything…"

At this point word gets out among the police that there is a trouble maker and about 20 police started walking towards me from the main demonstration.  
 
"Here we they are, the murderers, does it take 20 of you to deal with one man?  20 of you not happy to hear the truth about how you murdered 95 people.  20 of you for fucks sake.  Go on, nick me, I don’t care, you tried to kill me once, what do I care if you nick me?"

The police refused my suggestion, aware that there were lots of people around and I hadn’t really crossed any line upto that point.  Not yet I hadn’t.  One copper comes up to me and asks what is my problem?  
 
 I calmly told him.  "It’s very simple, 95 fans died and not one Policeman charged with anything."   
 
"But we did nothing wrong" he says, 

"Nothing wrong?  95 people are dead and you did nothing wrong?"  "That’s right" he said "95 dead, a good days work."  
 
My response was actually quite mild, I looked him in the eye and said very calmly “You are scum, utter, utter scum”

The copper had what he wanted and I was promptly arrested and charged with threatening behaviour and verbal abuse.  My brief was a freebie one arranged through the student union and the chat was quite funny.   
 
"What did you actually do?"  
 
"I called some coppers murdering bastards."  
 
"Were there any witnesses?"  
 
"About 20 coppers."  
 
"Hmmm, think you better plead guilty on that one."

So plead guilty I did, though the 12 month conditional discharge that I received, means I am no longer classified as a criminal.  Shame the real criminals remain at large to this day.