I am not defending Duckenfield but the game should never have been held at that ground in the first place. Others most bear responsibility for that. On the day he made many mistakes and was clearly out of his depth the jury had to decide did that amount to manslaughter.

They heard the evidence and clearly could not come to a conclusion. If I had relatives that died there I would would want someone to blame and go to jail but that is not justice it is why we pick an impartial panel to try and arrive at that.

Edited by Badger11 (03 Apr 2019 5.50pm)

One more point

There's a man speaking from experience

"It feels much better than it ever did, much more sensitive." John Wayne Bobbit

Waiting a trifling 30 years for an inconclusive outcome ?

Shhurrley not ?

We have only waited a season for the police investigation into Palace fans bringing knives and knuckle-dusters to the Mansex.

Here's a theory

*A man opts to take a task beyond his capacity, in order to seek promotion.
*The man has recorded alcoholic tendencies
*The man should have undertaken a walkover of the site before his designated task. This was not done
*The task goes belly-up
*The man cannot remember what he was doing in the
hours before his task began, when the walkover should have been done
(fill in the gaps)

AAAAAnd, after taking legal advice,..the person on trial doesn't even testify.

Edited by Forest Hillbilly (05 Apr 2019 1.36pm)

I disengage, I turn the page.

Your point of view ignores certain facts. Duckenfield lied about how Exit Gate C was opened to Graham Kelly of the FA. That lie was repeated in good faith by Mr. Kelly on national Media. Mr. Duckenfield repeatedly failed to act to alleviate the situation in the Leppings Lane terrace even though he had full sight of it from the Control Box. The testimony of countless PCs assigned to the match confirm this. A commander must take responsibility for actions both taken or not taken which results in a disaster the scope of Hillsborough. Your apologia for Mr. Duckenfield failed to convince the inquiries chaired by Lord Justice Taylor & the Bishop of Liverpool. The Corner Inquest at Warrington found him to be one of many to be culpable.

However, blaming Hillsborough entirely on him is grossly unfair and allows others to escape responsibility. The FA chose Hillsborough knowing, or they should have known, of the potential for a catastrophic crushing dating back to 1991. Sheffield Wednesday also bears a lion’s share of the responsibility and this criminal court jury recognized that with the conviction of Mackrell. Too few stewards placed badly plus too few entry points led to this disaster. The club, the FA & the command of the South Yorkshire Police bear responsibility right up to & including the Commissioner & Chief Constable. This the Warrington Inquest recognized.

I hope you are not falling back on the tired lie that drunken, ticketless Liverpool supporters are responsible. All credible evidence put that deception to bed. It took a quarter century for that to happen. Professor Philip Scraton perhaps put it best. The underlying, fundamental cause of Hillsborough was a “conspiracy of complacency.” It must never be allowed to happen again.

Divorced...And LOVING it!
VJRAM Rev.
CPFC since Boxing Day 1989 CPFC 2-2 CFC
Gregg Berhalter, US International & USMNT Head Coach
Jill Ellis, England International & Retired USWNT Head Coach
Trevor Francis, International PRAT

Correct.

The police trying to pin blame on innocent victims and their treatment of the families was an absolute disgrace and deserves admonishment of the highest order.
That said, this has been a 30 year war to clear Liverpool fans of culpability, it's got nothing to do with justice.

Justice would be recognising all of the root causes. An inadequate ground, over selling by the fa, an inexperienced commander and as tough as it is to swallow for them, 50,000 odd ticketless fans turning up last minute and rushing the turnstiles.

If, from the very beginning, old bill had gone with the truth (we had to open the gates as a crush was developing outside) leading to the inevitable crush happening in the ground, a decision made through lack of experience under extreme conditions, rather than disgracefully trying to shift all blame onto those poor innocent victims then all of this would be avoided. The Sun newspaper didn't help matters.

No, that is not my point. They went with what was presented in court just as the jury in the OJ SImpson murder trial did and came back with an acquittal based on the admissable evidence. Duckenfield and his legal team has presented evidence that some in the jury believed and others didn't. He will be tried again. Based on all I have read and heard, which is considerable, my opinion of the actions or inactions taken by David Duckenfield remains constant. He is materially responsible for the events at Hillsborough Football Ground on that dark April day in 1989. He is not by any means the only one responsible by any means. He is also not responsible for the cover-up. His is a sad story. He was never meant to be in that position but a series of unrelated events caused him to be there. Yet, there he was and with a full view of the Leppings Lane shelf terrace. He is, to be sure, a broken man, done in by his own failings and by those above him in the South Yorkshire Constabulary who allowed their biases concerning football supporters to influence their professionalism and then their innate sense of self-preservation to create an intolerable situation. By no means do I want Duckenfield to become the Hillsborough scapegoat. HE should answer solely for what he did and didn't do on the day. Others must answer for the cover-up, how the ground was staffed and indeed chosen for that match.

As for the so-called "50,000 ticketless fans" mentioned in an earlier post, that has been disproven by video evidence released in the Independent Commission (Bishop of Liverpool et.al.) report and corroborated by the Warrington Inquest. When the exit gate was opened on Duckenfield's orders, fans were clearly shown waving their tickets at the camera. If there were ticketless people at the match the objective evidence shows they were not a factor in the disaster, It was just another canard foisted upon us by those in the establishment to obstruct justice.

Divorced...And LOVING it!
VJRAM Rev.
CPFC since Boxing Day 1989 CPFC 2-2 CFC
Gregg Berhalter, US International & USMNT Head Coach
Jill Ellis, England International & Retired USWNT Head Coach
Trevor Francis, International PRAT