What happens when innocent people lose their lives becausestate institutions fail? Do political leaders admit fault and apologise? Notoften. But it happened, when Britain's David Cameron apologized for the grossfailures of his predecessors for the second time since becoming prime minister.
That reflects the magnitude of the case in question in theBritish psyche: the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, when 96 supporters of theLiverpool soccer club were crushed to death during a match at the Hillsboroughstadium in the northern English city of Sheffield. The initial police reportblamed drunken fans for the tragedy. Last week, the findings of a new inquestinto the event found that report to be a lie. The right-wing Daily Telegraphcalled it "The Biggest Cover-up in History." The inquest examined450,000 documents related to the event, as well as extensive interviews withpeople who were there.
Hillsborough shocked Liverpool, Britain and the rest of theworld. Television pictures of desperate fans penned into cages trying to climbfree, some being pulled up by their arms by supporters in more expensive seats,circulated the planet. The bodies of the dead lying on the field after thecages were finally broken down, when hapless emergency service workers tried torevive them reinforced the image of an event beyond the authorities’ control. TheSouth Yorkshire Police put out a narrative almost immediately: it was the fans'fault.
Only the people of Liverpool were unsurprised by theconclusion of the two-year official inquest, chaired by the Bishop ofLiverpool, James Jones. The key points: Thetragedy was caused by inept police work. The South Yorkshire Police laterdoctored 116 of 164 documents relating to the tragedy detailing theirineptitude. The emergency services failed to intervene in time because theydidn’t recognize the situation’s severity. Pathologists who examined the deadtainted the coroner's report by making gross errors about the time and cause ofdeath.
The original report said none of the 96 could have beensaved because they were all dead by 3:15, when the gates of the pen werefinally opened. It is now clear that 41 of those people were still alive andcould have been revived if the emergency services had reacted properly. TheHillsborough disaster was a central event in the last quarter century ofBritish history.
The city of Liverpool had virtually nothing left exceptfootball by 1989. Its population had halved since its glory days as a port 50years earlier. The Beatles had departed in 1963 and never really returned.Longstanding de-industrialisation had collided with the harsh reality offree-market economics endorsed by Margaret Thatcher. Unemployment andaccompanying social unrest were rife. But economic hardship was bearable becauseLiverpool FC weren’t just the best team in England, but the world. "We maynot have money,” one unemployed Liverpool fan told me back then, “but we've gotthe silverware, the trophies." When the 96 people died horribly atHillsborough did, the whole city felt it.
Cameron's apology is only a first step in the state’srestitution. The prime minister declared that the attorney general would now befree to decide whether criminal proceedings will be instituted. For the moment,however, the people of Liverpool are happy their community's name has beencleared and the families of the dead have seen the truth confirmed.
