unapologetically scouse

April 15th 1989. Liverpool v Nott Forest, FA CUP SEMI FINAL.

97 dead. 766 injuries. Countless of suicides. Leppings Lane. The South Yorkshire police. The Sun newspaper. Parliament. One lie. One cover up. One of footballs greatest tragedies.

Sunday the 15th, 53,000 allocated tickets for a 3pm kick off.

Liverpool fans had shown up to the Sheffield ground early, just as we have always done rocking up hours before hand to create an atmosphere whether it be our ground or someone else’s was our norm. Thousands of fans laced the streets. Kids, teenagers, adults and the elderly all eager to see kenny lead the team to the final. David Duckenfield was in charge that day. He was the match commander. he was also at the pub drinking prior to kick off. Drinking whilst on duty. Drinking whilst being responsible for two clubs, 53,000 fans and his police department. Upon his return from the pub match goers had started to enter the ground, 5000 Liverpool fans were still waiting outside though to get in, and kick off was fast approaching. In order to attempt to ease the thousands of fans waiting outside to be let in Duckenfield, drunkenly, made the decision to open gate c. Leppings lane. A standing pen. Despite Liverpool having a larger fanbase they were allocated the smaller leppings lane end, it consisted of a seated upper tier and a terrace for 10,100 standing fans. Once the gate had been opened, which was instructed to be opened by duckenfield, it caused chaos. Once fans, Liverpool fans, had made their way through the turnstiles they came to the opening of leppings lane and the more people that came through the tighter the pen became. 2000 of the 5000 fans still waiting to get in had been given access to enter a pen, a pen that was already quite full. Liverpool fans had started to be crushed. Liverpool fans were begging and pleading for some help but it fell on deaf ears. The police watched on whilst fans begged for their lives. 3pm, kick off. The leppings lane pen was becoming tighter and tighter, the fence was bearing the weight of thousands. Fans screamed for help, they tried jumping over the fence and onto the pitch to create room. Police pushed them back in. Even as they explained what was happening they continued to be pushed back into the crush. Liverpool fans above in the upper tier started pulling those out the crush to help try and create some room. 3.05pm the match stops. Liverpool fans and leppings lane collapse. People were already dead, people were barely hanging on. Liverpool fans dragged other fans onto the pitch to clear space within the pen. They tore the advertisement boards off the sides to create makeshift stretches, they did everything they could to save their family and friends. That’s the truth. But the truth isn’t good enough. Despite Liverpool fans behaving correctly that day, despite their best efforts to save themselves and other fans they became the villains of the story. The South Yorkshire police had failed, a drunken Duckenfield had failed and after all of that failure they were ready to fail Liverpool some more. Ticketless fans we were. Drunken fans we were. Hooligans. We robbed from the dead. We peed on the dead. We peed on the police. We stopped ambulances from entering the pitch. We stopped paramedics giving ‘the kiss of life’. We spat at the authorities who were giving aid. We caused it all. We forced our entry into gate c. We forced our entry into leppings lane. We caused the crush. That was the story duckenfield, the South Yorkshire police, the sun and Margaret thatcher put together. They wanted that story to be true. They tested children for alcohol, and surprise surprise the result came back positive. But only they didn’t, there wasn’t a single drunk Liverpool supporting child, they falsified those records too. They villainized children to cover their own backs and the country let them.

94 people died that day, 2 more later on and the 97th victim died in 2021. People ended their lives. People never attended games again, and people (mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, cousins, friends, nans, grandads and neighbours) devoted their lives to letting the world know the truth. For almost 23 years I’ve experienced this day as a scouser, as a family member of a survivor and as a Liverpool fan and this year as it draws closer it feels so different. I’ve always sympathised with Hillsborough because of all of the above but after being involved in the Paris CL final I’ve come to understand Hillsborough to be a whole lot different. I now truly understand the fear of those in attendance that day. I now truly understand what it’s like to experience a cover up happening. We always say justice for the 97 and 34 years on we’re still yet to experience that justice. I wouldn’t even know what justice would look like for us. An apology from the sun isn’t justice. Being cleared of all blame in 2016 isn’t justice. No one has paid a day for what happened 34 years ago. So many people lied and so many more died and everyone disregarded them asif they were nothing. They accused the dead and the survivors of doing the most unspeakable things you could ever imagine and the public still to this day laugh and chant about it. Even if Duckenfield and the rest of them faced time it wouldn’t feel like justice because they got to live their lives. 97 people didn’t, grieving families didn’t, the city didn’t. Peoples lives stopped. Scouse lives stopped. The city itself came to a stand and in ways it feels like the city hasn’t ticked a day past April 15th. People dedicated their lives to get the truth and they’ll never get that time back. It wasn’t wasted time but it was time that shouldn’t have ever been taken from them. The coverup shouldn’t have ever happened. They robbed people of their lives literally and figuratively. We never got justice and we never will. Maggie dying was one of the greatest days for scousers but it was bitter. When duckenfield dies we will rejoice but that will be bitter. Their lives went on after Hillsborough, ours never. Everyone involved got to live happy lives, they experienced holidays, birthdays, children being born, weddings etc but scousers had to devote their time and their lives to trying to clear their dead relatives, friends and neighbours names. Nothing will ever bring us justice. Justice isn’t real, it’s a made up term to give you hope that one day it’ll get better. But it doesn’t. You just learn how to keep going despite it all.

Sadly I have to remind everyone to please not engage with the sun. I still see people on football tumblr engaging with them and there is no excuse for any of you that continue to do that. When we say don’t buy the sun it also means don’t read their articles online, don’t share their posts, don’t save pics uploaded by them. Fuck the sun means fuck the sun on all accounts. You can hate Liverpool during the 90 mins your teams plays ours but after that a sense of compassion should be withheld. That also being said stop the chants. The ongoing chants “always the victim it’s never your fault” and others like it enable other disastrous events to occur and not only that it is incredible insensitive. Many people have stopped attending the games because of the chants and now they can’t even watch the games on tv because the chants can be heard, if you don’t call out the behaviour you’re just as bad as those that chant what they do. I’ve seen plenty accounts on here making harmful statements in reference to us Scouse Liverpool fans and there is only a select handful of people that call it out. Hate us scousers all you want and hate our club all you want, but that hatred shouldn’t extend to 97 dead people, those that took their lives, those who survived and those who are family and friends of all of the above. At 3.06 on the 15th the city of Liverpool will come to a familiar standstill, lightly in the distance we’ll hear the faint sound of you’ll never walk alone and we’ll all sit in silence thinking of the family members and friends lost that day. I can only ask that if you can do so that you join us in doing that. Spare a thought to our ever growing death toll, because realistically 97 doesn’t even begin to cover how many people we have lost. Spare a thought to think about why you shouldn’t engage with the sun and why you shouldn’t remain silent on the relentless chanting. Spare a thought to how it took 27 years to clear the dead and those in attendance that day of all blame, April 26th 2016 was the day the blame and the false narrative was lifted off of our shoulders.

God bless our 97 angels and those that decided it was their time to join them to watch us play footy from the clouds. You are all incredibly missed🕊

Everyone knows someone who was at the match that day and knows even if they survived, they live with the physical, mental and emotional scars. Everyone knows the reputation it has given us- "always the victims" "thieving scousers" "Scouse scum", we've had it shouted at us in pubs and bars and matches all round the country.

I'm devastated that the authorities continue to shirk responsibility for the disaster, for the cover up and the lies they spewed, for the hell they have put the families and the survivors through. But this is even more worrying because whilst people continue to think of the Hillsborough Campaign as just scousers playing the victim, the victory of the campaign impacts everyone in this country and strengthens our rights against corrupt authorities and corporations. We have seen so many times in the past decade how the government, the police, the media, refuse to take responsibility for disasters that occur and the lives they ruin. They continue to slander the memory of Grenfell Tower victims, of those lost to COVID, the young people murdered in the Manchester Arena attack, of so many people killed by police negligence, corruption, brutality.