We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
The thing that sticks in my mind … is the state of panic that … overcame the senior officers. The command structure of the force totally broke down for several minutes and no one appeared to grasp the severity of the situation.
Police Constable S. Smith on duty during the Hillsborough football disaster.On April 15, 1989, the Liverpool and Nottingham Forrest football clubs prepared for their semifinal match at Hillsborough's Sheffield Wednesday Stadium, a neutral venue in the north of England. The game was stopped only six minutes after kickoff when spectators standing in the stadium's terraced ‘pens’ behind the Liverpool goal began staggering onto the field and collapsing; ninety-six Liverpool fans were killed, many suffocating to death while standing up. More than seven hundred people were injured, four hundred received hospital treatment, and thousands more were traumatized by that day's events. Fearing a riot or outbreak of hooliganism, police actually pushed escaping fans back into the crush amidst the confusion. How could officers trained to ‘protect and serve’ have contributed to such a devastating tragedy? What happened to their sense-making capacities when the situation began to go awry?
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
