God rest their souls.

[frode]

Never to be forgotten! Rest in peace 96.

[Code]

Rest In Peace.

[Flying Pig]

 

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3213/2872998856_80b92fc2e2_o.jpg (Front cover 17th Apr. Main image in colour; very graphic and distressing.)

 

 

 

This picture absolutely angers me to fucking boiling point. I'd be interested in the photographers thoughts as he was obviously more interested in taking photos than actually helping people survive. Hope he's happy with his days work.

 

 

RIP 96.

 

And to Colin Wafer, who I new personally. YNWA.

[Wor Horse]

Oh my god that first picture is terrible.

 

Fuck fuck fuck.

[joeyk]

My thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families of our 96 brothers and sisters. Rest in Peace. You truly will never walk alone.

[melons]

There are no words to articulate that day, never forget.

 

 

Rest in peace.

[The Robot Tank]

We shall never forget. We shall never rest.

 

Justice For The 96

 

RIP

[KevinM]

RIP - YNWA

JFT 96

[Anubis]

RIP. Our thoughts are with you.

[bossy]

Justice For The 96.

 

It's still so heartbreaking, God bless the families.

[Roge C]

We shall never forget.

Rest in peace and God bless.

JFT 96

[mni]

R.I.P. 96.

 

Never forgotten.

[Steve Holt]

Never forgotten.

 

JFT96

 

YNWA RIP

[a stoner]

Our thoughts are with their families and you are always in our hearts.

 

YNWA

[duffy]

This picture absolutely angers me to fucking boiling point. I'd be interested in the photographers thoughts as he was obviously more interested in taking photos than actually helping people survive. Hope he's happy with his days work.

 

 

RIP 96.

 

And to Colin Wafer, who I new personally. YNWA.

 

I remember seeing that picture, at the time I was 17 years old. To this day it is as stomach turning and horrific as the day I first saw it. An awful awful image of a dark day.

 

Rest in peace.

[JMARKH]

You'll never walk alone. Rest in peace.

[Juniper]

That photo is a hard view. Can't put it into words so I won't even try to.

 

Never forgotten

 

YNWA

[a stoner]

This picture absolutely angers me to fucking boiling point. I'd be interested in the photographers thoughts as he was obviously more interested in taking photos than actually helping people survive. Hope he's happy with his days work.

 

 

RIP 96.

 

And to Colin Wafer, who I new personally. YNWA.

 

I doubt he was happy. Infact I wouldn't be surprised if it still haunts him today. He had a job to do that day, a job most would find too distressing and some did. It hurt the world to see those images and for us it still hurts now. We will never forget or forgive. We will always hurt inside on this day.

[23_Carra_Gold]

I doubt he was happy. Infact I wouldn't be surprised if it still haunts him today. He had a job to do that day, a job most would find too distressing and some did. It hurt the world to see those images and for us it still hurts now. We will never forget or forgive. We will always hurt inside on this day.

 

'He had a job to do'

 

People were dying infront of his eyes! And he snapped pictures?

[Steve Holt]

Victims who still wait for justice. - Free Online Library

 

In April 15, 1989, I stood outside the Hillsborough ground and spoke to Albert Cooper a Daily Mirror photographer and a veteran of the Heysel Stadium disaster. He had just watched more than 90 people die.

 

"There were so many arms," he said. "You couldn't see who they belonged to. I could see people trying to rescue others and knowing it was like catching raindrops."

 

Inside the ground, there was panic, chaos.

 

But Cooper already sensed a terrible blunder. He asked: How could people have been let pour into a deathtrap

 

The answer was for British justice to decree. It has failed.

 

Last night, seven years on, it was left to a TV documentary to show how families have been torn by loss and by the scorn - for it is little more than that - directed at them.

 

The disaster was forged by unimaginable police neglect. Peter Taylor, the former Lord Chief Justice, said so.

 

But even his voice held no sway against those cowards who sought their own salvation in claiming that the supporters were somehow culpable. Football fans. A lesser breed.

 

"Was my lad's life worthless?" wept a father - offered funeral expenses as the police claimed millions to soothe their trauma. "He was one of 96 - processed and despatched," said Jan Spearitt, as she mourned her brilliant son, Adam.

 

Their human narrative stood in stark contrast to the sheer inhumanity

 

It was clear, even in the first hours, where the blame lay. The following day, I watched flowers piled on the pitch to wither, along with any dream that fairness might prevail.

 

Instead, so long afterwards, there is only evidence of a system which rewards cowardice and scorns tragedy. A bleak epitaph to the dead of Hillsborough.

 

And a bleaker indictment of British justice.

 

-------------------

 

Albert Cooper was the man who took that photo.

[Yerma'satexan!]

I remember that so vividly, consoling my mum and wondering if my dad will ever come home.

[Flying Pig]

Victims who still wait for justice. - Free Online Library

 

In April 15, 1989, I stood outside the Hillsborough ground and spoke to Albert Cooper a Daily Mirror photographer and a veteran of the Heysel Stadium disaster. He had just watched more than 90 people die.

 

"There were so many arms," he said. "You couldn't see who they belonged to. I could see people trying to rescue others and knowing it was like catching raindrops."

 

Inside the ground, there was panic, chaos.

 

But Cooper already sensed a terrible blunder. He asked: How could people have been let pour into a deathtrap

 

 

 

I understand Albert Cooper's thoughts. It doesn't make them right. He explains how he "had just watched more than 90 people die". Well, fucking Albert Cooper, I guess that if your child was in that crush you would not have been checking the exposure and focus, you would have been climbing the fences trying to drag them out.

 

 

Sorry, to go on about this but imagine what the parents and families of those children and adults are thinking as they bought the paper the following day and saw their loved ones on the front cover.

[Steve Holt]

I understand Albert Cooper's thoughts. It doesn't make them right. He explains how he "had just watched more than 90 people die". Well, fucking Albert Cooper, I guess that if your child was in that crush you would not have been checking the exposure and focus, you would have been climbing the fences trying to drag them out.

 

 

Sorry, to go on about this but imagine what the parents and families of those children and adults are thinking as they bought the paper the following day and saw their loved ones on the front cover.

 

I can't say I disagree with you at all. But when I saw the question of who took the photo I went digging and that was all I found so I thought you might be interested to read it (if interested could really be the right word).

[Pidge]

I don't mean to cause hurt with any of this, and not one word of it is typed in anger.

 

edit: and I'm not talking in disagreement either. I'm just trying to apply my general beliefs to a situation where it is difficult to do so.

 

Shocking images are a catalyst for change, less so in this example (as the cultural significance was massive anyway), but in general in all tragedies around the world, documentary photographers document. It's what they were trained to do. His camera would have been set up for the action and exposure of the day anyway so it's unlikely he had to do much other than focus, which is second nature for a veteran.

 

I also have no idea what he did beyond that photo, or how many shots were on the contact sheet, he could have been helping later for all I know. At that point much of the damage had been done and it was only down to the great efforts of those who were there that we aren't mourning even greater numbers. He might have been documenting the great efforts of the crowd in the immediate aftermath or he might have been helping. I highly doubt he would have obstructed anyone for the sake of a good shot.

 

I wouldn't judge his actions in a post-Diana papparazzi world, was he motivated by avarice? or did he do it because he felt it was important to document the tragedy as clearly as possible? It's unlikely that he did it out of avarice as he wasn't an independent photographer but was under contract by the Mirror, he would have been paid either way. Hillsborough will live on as a tragic example of the responsibility that those in authority hold in these situations. For us, who are connected to the club, that goes without saying. In the wider world images such as this ensure that crowd safety remains a vital issue.

 

Having said that, it's understandable to consider his actions callous at best, but I can't help but feel that to be angry at him would be misdirected, the blame for what happened does not lie with Albert Cooper.

[tenner]

Never forgotten R.I.P