Before Liverpool host Chelsea in the Barclays Premier League at 4pm Sunday April 21st there will be a minute of applause (British football has replaced the minute of silence with this). One reason will be to join many others around the world in recognizing the horrific events in Boston this week; the other will be to remember Anne Williams.
Boston based John Henry was in Liverpool Monday to attend the 24th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy. As the owner of both Liverpool FC and baseball’s Boston Red Sox he was divided between attending a home game on Patriots Day in Massachusetts or attending a memorial service. This year he chose to be in Liverpool! He may choose so again but it was the last service for Anne Williams, a leading crusader in Justice for the 96. She passed away 3 days later from bowel cancer.
Williams 15-year-old-son Kevin died on April 15th 1989 after South Yorkshire police botched a crowd control situation leading to asphyxiation of many fans at the game in Sheffield, then purposefully denied paramedics access to the situation in order to cover their tracks. Williams lived long enough to see the High Court squash the Coroner’s verdict of accidental death leading to a new inquest (ongoing) and forcing a public apology from the Prime Minister.
On the Liverpool FC website, the club paid tribute to her saying “[Her appearance on Monday] was an act so typical of a mum who simply refused to accept defeat. Anne may not have survived to see ultimate justice for her son but her actions have played a significant part in ensuring that 96 families have moved closer to Hillsborough closure.”
She never believed the official police line that the fans of Liverpool were to blame for the incident and her instincts proved to be correct. Her tenacious badgering forced a court hearing in 1991, a House of Commons debate in’94, and review by the European Court of Human Rights in 2006. They all ruled that justice had been served, they were all wrong. As part of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign she forced an online petition for the public release of all the government documents. It was then that the awful truth was revealed.
On the last April 15th Williams would see, Sheila Coleman, of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, paid tribute to her in the Liverpool Echo saying “We applaud Anne's tenacity to draw on whatever reserves she has left to be here today - she is quite simply an inspiration.”
Liverpool striker Andy Carroll, on loan at West Ham, tweeted: “So sad to hear about the death of Anne Williams RIP”. He was one of many players, current and former, who remembers and is affected by what happened and how it impacts the city of Liverpool.
What can we learn from Anne’s fight and her life? That we should never give up when we know we are right. Sometimes truth has to pursued and sometimes it has to be exposed. When people walk in darkness they seek to cover the light. Many people sought to cover up what happened to protect themselves and others. But in doing so they deny justice and advance selfish thinking which harms innocent people.
When our thinking is self-centred we will be motivated to protect ourselves and blame others for our own shortcomings. This is what occurred at Hillsborough 24 years ago. Britain needs a police force it can trust, not one that thinks of its self-preservation first. Law and order in the nation is dependent on the highest moral standards in the area of law-enforcement.
Justice for the 96 remains a priority. Anne understood that justice for justice sake is enough. When the slippery slope of making exceptions is allowed to take hold the abuses of power rise and the protectors of liberty in the state become the enforcers of tyranny. I don’t know if Anne Williams understood that but instinctively she knew it to be so.
