Top Comments: the Hillsborough Disaster update #2 edition

For the second time, an update to a story from a prior (2011) Top Comments diary, 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).

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In late 2011, I gave the account of a 1989 soccer match in England (and its aftermath) as it existed at that time. In what has been described as "the darkest day in British football history", the Hillsborough Disaster— the death of 96 fans of the noted Liverpool team, crushed to death at a match held at the neutral site of Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England — remains in the news ever since.

There are photos even more grim than this one

If you are unfamiliar with this event, please read at this link my original account —  suffice it to say, what made a tragic day even more tragic were the actions of your-friend-and-mine, Rupert Murdoch — and his Sun newspaper, which blamed the disaster on unruly fan behavior leading to the crush — and also afterwards, where they claimed fans disrupted police and rescue crews, urinating on (and picking the pockets) of the dead.

By 2011, events had already unfolded as to what had really happened - with poor decisions made by the police as what led to the crash, leading to two officers placed on trial for the disaster (with one acquittal and one deadlocked jury). It took awhile for the truth to begin to emerge, as the police engaged in a cover-up that was forcefully assisted by The Sun. As one commenter in my original account noted, circulation for The Sun — up to this very day — has always lagged in the greater Liverpool region, dating back to this event.

       A lucky few … were able to climb to safety

Three years later in 2014, I published an update:

In the autumn of 2012, an independent commission (headed by the Bishop of Liverpool) issued a nearly 400-page report - more complete than the original inquest, as it had access to previously unseen documents that the British government unsealed - which truly described the chain of events that led to the disaster. The original inquest described the deaths to have been accidental - effectively exculpating the police. The victims' families have always challenged the original inquest, which concluded all the victims were dead or brain dead 15 minutes after the game had kicked off - this new report estimated that 41 of the 96 dead might have survived with treatment (though unable to say how many would have survived).

Shortly thereafter, then-prime minister David Cameron addressed Parliament and offered an official apology into how the entire matter was handled. He referred to it as a double injustice - how police actions led to the disaster, and how a cover-up tried (unsuccessfully) to shift blame to the Liverpool fans.

The former (and present) prime minister

Now, a further update.

Just last week — 28 years after the incident — the British government announced that it would criminally prosecute six men in the deaths of 95 of the 96 people killed (Tony Bland, the 96th person, died four years after the incident — and thus past the then-existing statute of limitations).

"Following our careful review of the evidence," said Sue Hemming, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's special crime unit, "I have decided that there is sufficient evidence to charge six individuals with criminal offences."

These six included Graham Mackrell, who was in charge of the stadium grounds for Sheffield (for safety violations and neglect), four members of the South Yorkshire Police, charged with obstructing justice (amending the testimony of police officers to fit an agreed-upon cover-up) … and the prime suspect: the police superintendent in charge of supervising the stadium that day, David Duckenfield— who has been charged with 95 counts of manslaughter.

In that time, essays have been written — with one man writing about his time grieving over his brother, then concluding:

As I lie in my bed and think of the years of sleepless nights and the tears I have shed over Hillsborough, I know I will sleep soundly. There are six people whose lives will change forever ... and they’re welcome to the anxiety and sleepless nights to come.

Finally, one researcher who contributed to the campaign on the Disaster … felt it made a difference in how Britain now responds to tragedies — with a recent case:

Professor Phil Scraton, who also chaired the Hillsborough Independent Panel which investigated the disaster, said on the response of authorities to the Grenfell Tower fire that after initial failings "we've seen an immediate addressing of the issues".

 A man who lost his 18 year-old son

Let’s close with a very short piece by the guitarist John McLaughlin — who grew-up only 25 miles away from Sheffield — and is an aptly-named tune.

x YouTube Video

Now, on to Top Comments:

From cohenzee:

In the diary by Heavy Mettle about  the woman whose objection to Obamacare was Obama himself  — this is a brilliant early morning response from paz3 to a comment that replied to (what I hope) was a submitted comment for yesterday. I do love the irony impaired.

From Canadian Reader :

In the diary by Carolinaman on the underlying reasons why Russia meddled— this comment from killjoy adds a lot of depth… and deserves a wider audience and close reading.

From belinda ridgewood:

steel hammerhands posted their first comment today in the front-page story about Dolt45's speech in Poland ... and it is a barnburner! Their second one is not too shabby, either.    

Highlighted by Sidof79:

In his own diary about Paul Ryan announcing a women’s dress code for his office lobby — Snud takes an old right-wing phrase and adapts it to the situation-at-hand.

And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........

In the diary by RETIII about the comeback of Mark Penn— who you thought was dead-and-buried …. who you hoped was dead-and-buried —  in today’s NY Times (horrifically advocating a return to the DLC of the 80’s-90’s) — there were several nuggets; including these by Torta, then jrooth and also MargaretPOA.

TOP PHOTOS July 5th, 2017 Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Element removed Element removed (NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.)

And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:

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