Police Blamed for British Soccer Tragedy

A British judge Friday put most of the blame on the police for the soccer stadium disaster in which 95 fans were crushed to death in northern England last April, saying police authorities planned poorly, lost control during the panic and gave “evasive” testimony afterward.

“Neither their handling of the problems on the day nor their account of it in evidence showed the qualities of leadership expected of their rank,” Lord Justice Peter Taylor said of senior police officials in a preliminary report, part of his government inquiry into the tragedy at Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield.

Immediately after the report’s release, chief constable Peter Wright of the South Yorkshire police resigned. Wright’s department was responsible for security at the stadium on April 15. The police official directly in charge at Hillsborough, Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield, was suspended with pay. Officials said he may face criminal charges of negligence and giving false testimony to the inquiry.

The 95 fans, most of them from Liverpool, were crushed to death or suffocated, and more than 170 others were injured when they were shoved against metal fences as latecomers surged into the stadium. The crucial moment came when a police superintendent decided to open an emergency gate to relieve a crush of several thousand people at the turnstiles. But the incoming crowd pushed others into two densely packed central terraces against the fences.