OK, I'm going to be a bit controversial. Not defending the police

or anything, but my argument would be that they had no, or very little, training for the sort of situation that arose. Their subsequent behaviour was like any large organisation thrashing around protecting itself.

It's really about the complacency about safety standards in football generally, which really involves all of us. Jamming tens of thousands of people into inadequate spaces was the proverbial accident waiting to happen. Remember that awful fire (Bradford?). Who's fault was that?

As I say, I have no remit for the police. My experience of them has been mixed - depends on individual officers - but we expect them to do a lot more nowadays than collaring crims & clipping apple scrumpers round the ear. Proper training is essential.

Posted By: dennis moore on April 15th 2014 at 08:56:48

Message Thread

Hillsborough (Other Football) - thebigfeller, Apr 15, 00:43:52
- Great post. That's kind of what I was thinking about (Other Football) - Nelsons final flanel, Apr 15, 14:02:43
- OK, I'm going to be a bit controversial. Not defending the police (Other Football) - dennis moore, Apr 15, 08:56:48
  - pretty sure Hillsborough didn't have a safety certificate at the time either, so Wednesday (Other Football) - protheroe fitzgibbon, Apr 15, 10:28:18
    - Correct. Horrendously so in both cases. (n/m) (Other Football) - thebigfeller, Apr 15, 10:30:52
  - How can you say that it has something to do with how the situation was handled (Other Football) - nathan1986, Apr 15, 09:09:46
  - I don't think that's controversial at all. Broadly speaking, it's fair enough (Other Football) - thebigfeller, Apr 15, 09:04:07
    - There were also a few who still serve/are still around South Yorks police, (Other Football) - I Am Hoot, Apr 15, 11:11:37
    - ^^This^^ (n/m) (Other Football) - megson, Apr 15, 09:13:42
- I was living in Sheffield at the time. (Other Football) - avenging canary, Apr 15, 08:18:44
  - And oh look. You've just done it too. Go and read the documentation for heavens sake (Other Football) - thebigfeller, Apr 15, 08:23:21
    - You make the assumption I haven't read the report. (n/m) (Other Football) - avenging canary, Apr 15, 08:56:53
      - How can you make a statement about "covering up with another cover up" (Other Football) - thebigfeller, Apr 15, 09:05:34
    - PS. You are right on one thing though. It wasn't just the police (Other Football) - thebigfeller, Apr 15, 08:28:03
- Nice One BF (Other Football) - Martin Peters, Apr 15, 07:48:43
  - At the memorial service last year, Bill Kenwright said (Other Football) - thebigfeller, Apr 15, 07:56:10
- And of course the impact goes much further than the families of the 96 people who lost (Other Football) - Arizona Bay, Apr 15, 06:46:06
  - Poor guy, not sure how i'd cope with all that. (n/m) (Other Football) - megson, Apr 15, 08:30:43
  - makes you think, (Other Football) - I Am Hoot, Apr 15, 07:06:45
    - He's far from alone. (Other Football) - avenging canary, Apr 15, 09:09:36
      - Peter Jones, there to commentate for the BBC? Died less than a year later (Other Football) - thebigfeller, Apr 15, 09:17:00
  - Poor guy. Great, thought-provoking post AB (n/m) (Other Football) - thebigfeller, Apr 15, 07:02:50
- Thank you (Other Football) - norway, Apr 15, 06:23:57
- Nicely articulated. Thanks for restoring the faith! (n/m) (Other Football) - nathan1986, Apr 15, 02:19:11
- Another great post from the big feller (Other Football) - DJ Ginga, Apr 15, 01:44:32
- *25 years ago today, of course (n/m) (Other Football) - thebigfeller, Apr 15, 00:47:29

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