The Boston Marathon bombing hit home for a great deal of Elon University students.
With such a strong representation of Bostonians and other New Englanders, it didn’t feel like we were 700 miles from the attack. Being exactly one year removed from the bombing has left many still with heavy hearts. But, there was at least some sense of closure when the Tsarnaev brothers were caught and the surviving one was arrested.
The Boston Marathon bombing occurred exactly 24 years, to the day, after arguably the worst tragedy in sports history, yet nobody is exactly certain as to what happened.
On April 15, 1989 soccer fans packed Sheffield’s Hillsborough Stadium for an FA Cup semifinal between Liverpool and Nottingham Forrest. An overpacked Leppings Lane grandstand created a human crush, like a stampede, that killed 96 and injured 766.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUuSHrhPQyk
The incident was horrifying, but the aftermath may have been even worse. In the immediate aftermath, the Liverpool fans were blamed. It was thought that drunken Hooligans had forced their way into the stadium without a ticket. But, after two lengthy investigations of the incident, rowdy fans were considered secondary problems.
In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombing, policemen were rightfully praised for their role in the manhunt. It was their bravery and courage that provided a silver lining in what was a truly horrific incident.
At Hillsborough 24 years earlier, spectators were left in the hands of what turned out to be incompetent law enforcement. In an investigation carried out by Lord Justice Taylor, police failed to regulate entry of fans into the stadium. Taylor believed, “policing on April 15 broke down,” and “the main reason for the disaster was the failure of police control.”
There were not adequate entrances for the fans to enter the Leppings Lane End of the stadium. Police poorly herded fans into the ground, and even failed to block off sections of the stands that were already full. The swarm of fans soon became too much for the grandstand. The few crush barriers that existed were crushed, leaving fans helpless in a sea of bodies.
Fans at the front of the stand tried to escape over the fence, separating them from the field of play, but police tried to usher them back. Things went from bad to worse when only one of the 44 ambulances was allowed to enter the stadium.
After years of uncertainty, it has become clearer and clearer that the South Yorkshire Police did everything possible to deflect the blame of the incident on themselves. The Hillsborough Independent Panel, which reopened the investigation in 2012, found that 164 witness statements were altered, 116 of which were changed to eliminate negative comments regarding the police. The Panel also conclude that nearly half, “up to 41”, of the deaths could have been avoided had the medical reposes been improved.
The Hillsborough Disaster was a major factor in the English FA’s decision to eliminate standing areas from all stadiums in the country. This decision created more anger from fans, as standing at soccer matches is a tradition comparable to eating hot dogs and Cracker Jack at baseball games.
Hillsborough was a prime example of what can go wrong at a sporting event and even how much worse things can get when law enforcement fails to gain control of the situation. Boston law enforcement has been showered in praise, and rightfully so. But, I think it’s important for people to truly understand just how much they did for a city that was temporarily crippled.