Blogs Jun 17, 2011 at 4:15 pm

Comments

1
Fucking white boys.
2
Dan,
Definitely shocking. This occurred in 94' after the loss to the NY Rangers as well. I can't figure it out. Vancouver is a world-class city which I love very much. I just don't understand this kind of destructive anger. He was right the police were restrained. Most unfortunate.
3
Well. So much for the progressive enlightened Canadian stereo type.
4
I was there. Much worse than the video depicts, though I didn't think my pictures did it justice either. I kind of feel bad for even being present, but the audio I recorded got picked up by Chicago Public Radio, so I guess I've got the excuse of being a journalist.
5
At least they don't pee in reservoirs like they do in Oregon.
6
Here's footage from a BC documentary film maker Matt Frame of the beginning of the riot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuHByCuRf…

Reid's film here makes it seem like the police started out in riot gear--where Matt's footage shows the police helmetless in yellow high-visibility vests...and really only involving themselves once the first car fire started.

Regardless, what KILLS me is the fact that the goal of most of the people seemed to be to get themselves a picture posing in front of whatever was happening.

This generation documents everything and understands little.
7
If there was an appropriate time for police brutality.
8
So this is why we don't have straight pride parades.
9
This boggles my mind. It was a game, right? Vancouver has just been knocked down three notches in my book. *sob* I thought she was our better, older sister!
10
I've never understood the impulse to destroy your city after your team either wins or loses a championship. Maybe because I'm not a drinker, a man, or an asshole.
11
"I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out."
12
@10: Well, I'm a drinker and a man, and I don't understand it either. So I think we can factor those out of the equation and see what we're left with.
13
My head is hung in shame for my fellow countrymen. Disgusting behavior.
14
"The IQ of a mob is the IQ of its most stupid member divided by the number of mobsters.”
15
My reaction: the people in Egypt and Libya and Tunisia have something to riot about. These people are all douchebags. Even the people who are there just taking pictures.
16
I will never understand anyone who has a violent tendency. Maybe that comes from living south of L.A. for 53 years.
17
@10 You win.
18
These people represent a minority of Vancouverites. I'm not really sure why the actions of say 2000 (I honestly don't know how many people were downtown) out of 2 000 000 people is representative of an entire city.
19

The thing is, this could happen anywhere.
I don't understand what's happening to people anymore.
They're numb.
And that's really frightening.
21
@18 It could be said to be representative of the cowardice of the remaining 1,998,000. I mean if it was such a tiny minority of people rioting than the disapproving majority vastly outnumbering them could have easily stopped it. Right? Why didn't they? Maybe becuase it wasn't such a minority after all.
22
@21 Most people who were downtown in the first place decided to leave. I imagine people just thought that it would be a rowdy crowd and wanted to avoid that. Once the riot had started, how would you propose people get downtown to stop the rioters?
23
It sucks that this happened because it's just plain ugly to see humans act so barbaric but it also goes to show that Vancouver is not the heaven on earth it's marketed as. The whole 'worlds most livable city'/best place on earth is strictly skin deep. Underneath the glossy exterior is a some major ugliness.
24
@15, how are people who are taking pictures of rioters, "douchebags?" That makes no sense.
25
@24: I would assume he means the people that run out in front of a flipped-over car, and give a double thumbs-up so their douchebag friend can take a picture to post on Facebook are douchebags, but I could be wrong.
26
These are bridge and tunnel kids. Vancouver is still awesome. Just like the USA, Canada has an anti-intellectual consumer underclass that hate everything and everyone including themselves. It's just like Pullman's Beer Riots from 1998. These are good consumers being exactly as barbaric as they have been engineered to be by their shit education system, ignorant parents, and TV brainwashing. Our corporate leaders would much rather us riot over consumer products like sports or beer than for our freedoms. Well done everyone.
27
@8: Isn't Mardi Gras a straight pride parade?
28
More typical of the Canadian stereotype, people went out and cleaned up the day after. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2499/5840…
Including author William Gibson, who tweeted "Almost expected to see volunteers duelling with litter-pincers over one of the few remaining squashed cigarette filters."
29
It was downright scary watching this. I live in Boston and while we have had our share of post-sporting mayhem, I have never seen anything like this. We'll go to our parade tomorrow confident that the police will keep our kids and our citizens safe. How could this get so out of hand? We were considering a vacation in Vancouver, but now we're not so sure.
30
This is the result of allowing leftist depravity to ferment.
31
Um, I mean, *seriously* Canada??? LMAO!

And this was over which group of grown men were able to put a little piece of plastic into a net the most times??? LOL!

Fuckin' cavemen. Just like the British football hooligans. What sad lives these people have!
32
@29

Oh please. Your sportsheads are a bunch of dumbass white-boy thugs, too. You're Boston, for fuck's sake. Don't even try and play like you're enlightened.
33
One word: Anomie.
34
@29 Riots don't break out in Vancouver on a weekly basis.
35
This wasn't about sports. It was about some folks figuring out that the masses of people outnumbered the police, and that they could be randomly destructuve without perceived negative consequence to themselves.
36
10/Sheryl: I've never understood the impulse to destroy your city after your team either wins or loses a championship. Maybe because I'm not a drinker, a man, or an asshole.

Being a drinker, or male, by itself isn't a problem. It's when you combine the two (and the males are young) and they're in a mob. Being angry over a loss doesn't help matters either but it's not an essential component since there have been riots over teams winning a championship game too.

37
31/Confluence: And this was over which group of grown men were able to put a little piece of plastic into a net the most times???

When I was a teenager through my early 20s, I was really into my local pro sports teams and would get incredibly pissed off whenever they would blow an important game (which the football team, in particular, seemed to do in playoffs.) But as I got older, having this kind of an emotional response to a bunch of jocks losing a game (or, for that matter, winning a game) began to feel silly to me and now I couldn't give a shit about pro sports teams and their overpaid jocks.

This whole notion of "civic pride" over a pro sports team winning a championship also seems silly to me. I mean, let's say the Mariners were to win the World Series or the Seahawks the Super Bowl. That doesn't make Seattle a better city in which to live, or a better city than the city of the team that lost. All it means is that Seattle's overpaid jocks beat some other city's overpaid jocks. Big deal.
38
Hot guys in that crowd; I think I would have fucked half that riot.
39
@ 9 and 29

I can understand. I wasn't impressed with the actions of my fellow Canadians either. But I wanted to share this:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a…

Consider it an alternate viewpoint. :)
40
it's mob mentality. it could happen anywhere.

but it's still a fucking embarassment to the human race.
41
All that over a game? I'm sorry- just no. Seriously people. No. A game? Ugh. Seriously? I'm just at a loss.
42
@1 and @32 not just a bunch of dumb white boys--this was an equal opportunity riot--lots of Chinese, Punjabi, etc rioters. Only requirement is that you were drunk and stupid.

The police chief is saying that it wasn't hockey fans--it was anarchists! While I'm sure there were some of those in the crowd, I'm sure there were plenty of hockey fans. It is not as if hockey fans in Canada are pure as the driven snow, but that is the perception they wan't to put out there. There was much less violence at the G20 in Toronto but the police cracked down A LOT harder.

Have lived in Vancouver and love it. But there a bunch of brainless testosterone twits who come in (mostly) from the burbs when there are big events and act like this. This was an extreme example.
43
Saw something similar in Minneapolis, MN after the university won a game. It happened on a much smaller scale, but showed the same pointless, thoughtless destruction. The victorious mob trashed school, public, and private property... in celebration.
44
What gets me is that I've spent the last seven years defending my team's fan base from accusations that we weren't real fans because we didn't riot when the team won the Cup in '04, yet suddenly when Vancouver embarrasses themselves on the world stage we're supposed to believe it was just anarchists because real hockey fans would never destroy their city.
45
What a bunch of hosers, eh? Amiright...eh?
46


"Of course the Hill isn't a collapsing hellhole,"

Puuuhlease, I was at the Queen Anne one, darling. Parking is hell on Friday nights on the hill.

"Of course the Hill isn't a collapsing hellhole,"

Define 'prosperous' for a family of 4 please...how much do we have to make/own to be in that category?

"Ask around among the homeless living on the buses"

I believe I saw those bums out there in 2006 during the boom.....and 1998 during the dot.com boom.....and 1987 before Black Tuesday. There's no cure for bad choices.

" For everyone else, it's potentially going to get a lot less nice."

So they should get some of my stuff, after SEIU workers get a cut?

" not sure if you're trolling."

Well, I, like 66% of Washingtonians, and 55% of King County voted against the income tax and for 1053 so I could keep more of 'my stuff' and use it to make sure my kids are contributing members of society not leeches.
47
@21 It's a noble idea that the majority would stand up to the rioters, however it's really not practical. A large number of people left the downtown area so they would not be caught up in the chaos. Some of the remaining people stood up to the rioters, but there weren't enough and a few of them were seriously injured. You also have to take into account that some of the pople that remained and were not rioting were at a serious physical disadvantage to the rioters. If you watch the news footage, many of the rioters are big, young guys. Most people wouldn't put their life at such risk over property.

I believe some of the people who started the riots came downtown with the intention of perpetrating violence and vandalism, regardless of how the game went. These people certainly do not represent the views of the majority of people who live in Vancouver. As a Vancouverite (who wasn't downtown that evening) I am disappointed and apalled by the actions of the rioters. I am incredibly proud of the way the police, firefighters and ambulance service handled the situation.
48
My reaction (as a Canadian): hockey was an excuse (stupid excuse), but our fucking repressive society (not even close to the level of the arab countries, obviously) makes people crazy, makes them want to riot and get out from under all of the fucking laws and social rules for like five fucking minutes.
Our government (like yours, USA), is telling us what we can and cannot do with our bodies, minds, money, even when it doesn't harm others. I want to riot every time I have to hide my stash of cannabis, or put on a top (I'm a lady) at the beach on a hot summer day.
Not that I'm into smashing cars, or that it helps. But I feel it. Sad that it comes to this.
50
@26 "Anti-intellectual consumer underclass" is right. You nailed it.

Canadians are the most complacent people on earth. In Vancouver particularly, we're stuffed full of propaganda about how this is the greatest city in the greatest country in the entire fucking world, and how fucking special we are for having the Olympics and hockey and stuff. We casually make fun of Americans for being mindlessly patriotic and sports-obsessed, oblivious to the fact that we're just as bad or worse.

Meanwhile, Vancouver is in the middle of one of the world's worst real-estate bubbles, and there's a severe shortage of affordable housing, which our corrupt government refuses to address (gotta pay for the Olympics, you know). If this were, say, Greece, we would literally be rioting in the streets over affordable housing. But getting angry over real political issues is not the Canadian way. It violates a certain deeply-ingrained conformism in our culture. Instead, we have riots over hockey.

I love hockey. I grew up in a place cold enough to have natural ice, and the sport is deeply nostalgic for me. Unfortunately, our national obsession with hockey comes part and parcel with a set of attitudes and values that I hate.
51
This is only going to get worse. You have people who have nothing to look forward to lashing out because of a hokey game. What happens when this turns political? Clearly this anger isn't JUST about a hokey game. Vancouver, like every other big city, has been treating a very large section of their population like second class citizens. This is going to happen again, and when they're demanding the tar sands end, the police will fight back, they will silence speech and they will abuse their power. This was their moment to try and play good cop, but when the real revolution comes, they'll be hurting just as many people as the rioters hurt that day.
52
@24 - Just being there fuels the riot. People behave like that because they think they can get away with it in such huge crowds. But, taking pictures like that eggs on the people being destructive in a particular kind of way. I'm not necessarily referring to the people photographing and taking video because they're just documenting the event (like say, the person taking this video). But, the people in this video who are taking pictures in a "look, I was here, isn't this awesome!" kind of way are douchebags.
53
@51,
You're right. It's not just about hockey, not really. It's interesting to see the kinds of things that were damaged: police cars, banks, the HBC - symbols of power and wealth. People were posing and smiling for photos in front of burning cop cars. That doesn't mean nothing. (Do you mean "hokey" or "hockey"? Actually, it works either way....)
54
Reminds me of the Onion tshirt - my area sports team is superior to your area sports team. Or something like that.
55
o.m.g.....

the troll has always seen Canada as an enlightened beacon of what the human race is capable of.

a bright light of guidance in a sea of dark depravity.

a reason to keep on keeping on.

.

there is nothing to hope for. anymore.

no reason to live.

.

fuck glib youtube pseudopchycobabble-

IT DOES NOT GET BETTER!
56
"Vancouver is in the middle of one of the world's worst real-estate bubbles, and there's a severe shortage of affordable housing, which our corrupt government refuses to address "

So, they were rioting over real state prices and lack of affordable housing? And who says the far left doesn't have a coherent message.

"It's interesting to see the kinds of things that were damaged: police cars, banks, the HBC - symbols of power and wealth"

So, another riot by stupid, confused young far leftists angry at their bourgeois parents? I guess that makes 'Blenz' the Starbucks of Canadia?

"Our government, is telling us what we can and cannot do with our bodies, minds, money, even when it doesn't harm others."

Well, vote politicians into office who promise to reduce the size of the government and give you more freedom. Or, move to America. We embrace hard working freedom lovers who reject the nanny state.
57
@56: she wants to lie topless at the beach and smoke marihuana - the US does not embrace this kind of freedom lovers
58
@50: You've nailed it.

I'm a displaced Vancouverite. We left largely because of the outrageous price of housing and lack of any kind of employment opportunities. There's so much propaganda about how Vancouver is such a great place to live, which really grates on you when you're eking out a living with no hope of things getting better. And then you drive through the downtown eastside and think "there but for the grace of the flying spaghetti monster go I."

It's a beautiful city hiding some very serious social problems. That riot was just a symptom of what's really going on.
59
You know what I find more fucking frightening than looting, setting fires, and being vandalistic little shits? Cops holding machine guns in a low-ready position against unarmed civilians.
60
"she wants to lie topless at the beach and smoke marihuana - the US does not embrace this kind of freedom lovers"

Except for the nude part, I've been able to do that in America for over 30 yrs. and never once had trouble.

"when you're eking out a living with no hope of things getting better"

So sorry you're a loser. Try harder next time around, learn from hard working, successful people.
61
I watched the videos linked @6. What an incredibly display of dumbfuckedness. And it didn't look at all to me like that car was overturned and set on fire by "criminals and anarchists", just losers in Canucks gear.

But I have to admit I laughed when a couple of them decided they needed to "plank" on top of the car.
62
* incredible, not incredibly
63
@26 "Anti-intellectual consumer underclass" - I don't think so. Just a bunch of privileged kids blowing off stream.
" I got caught up in the moment" sez some kid, son of a surgeon; on the national water polo team (or used to be, anyway) . Photographed torching the cop car.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/st…

64
"Underclass" did it.

How elitist. How wrong. I understand why people think this and why they want to think it. But it's flat out wrong most of the time.

I have a friend who is a noted sociologist who studies riots. There are different types of riots that draw different groups. LA riot = largely underclass. Egypt = diverse classes.

Most sports riots in the "Western" world are populated by white, suburban, middle and upper-middle class white kids. They are, btw, the ones fueling both anarchist movements and right-wing movements.

By and large, most (truly) underclass young white men don't have the time or money to go rioting. They are too poor to afford to be there.

And no one is more "consumerist" than the middle and upper-middle classes in North America, Europe, and Australia....though I think the Aussies win that one by a mile. (Shopping seems to be some sort of national sport).

I bet if you did a demographic breakdown of the people involved, you'd be shocked.

Looking at the video, I don't see a lot of the truly poor, or even people who work like they are working poor. What I see is a lot of middle-class "typical" young men. Kids really.
65
On why we can't blame this on the "consumerist underclass". And the young + male + drink + no fear of being caught is actually the best explanation.

Some info on American college kids and riots. While these are all "state" schools, none of them are exactly cheap. The majority of students there are solidly middle class.

Ohio State University – November 23, 2002

How it Started:

It was what is known as the greatest rivalry in college sports: The Ohio State vs Michigan football game. Fans spent the day waking up in the morning for 'Kegs and Eggs', and continued tailgating until game time. There was much media hype of the event, as the game meant a lot. There was a huge crowd in attendance, with many Ohio State fans sporting vulgar anti-Michigan T-shirts. Ohio State ended up defeating arch-rival Michigan 14-9, clinching a berth into the National Championship game, and giving Ohio State a perfect 13-0 record on the year. Fans rushed the field after game, a few getting broken legs in the process.

After the game...

Every house on campus was throwing parties that spilled over into the streets. It was just a matter of time before things got out of hand.

A car tried driving through mobs of people on the street and made the mistake of honking his horn. In a matter of seconds the windshield was smashed in with a rock and the passengers were pulled out of the car and beat. The people in the car ran away as the crowd rocked the car back and forth until the vehicle rolled over.

Chaos ensued from there....

One car after another was being flipped over all down the street. Cars were set ablaze, then furniture. Police then hit the streets with riot gear. Dozens of tear gas canisters were fired into the crowd, scattering thousands of rioters in each direction.

The Aftermath:

The crowd of over 5,000 managed to start 107 fires, damage 20 cars, and produce massive amounts of trash on the streets of Columbus. 70 arrests were made with charges ranging from underage drinking to public indecency to resisting arrest.

Many say the cause of the celebratory riot was the excessive drinking that many fans took part in. Because of the all-day drinking binge, there were many “falling down” drunks.

That night in Columbus was a war zone: people were flipping cars over and lighting them on fire, uprooting trees and ripping doors off of houses to fuel the fires, and tear gas was being dispersed

...

Iowa State University – April 17-18, 2004

How it Started:

It was the week of VEISHEA, an annual week long celebration held each spring on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Students created VEISHEA over 80 years ago and has since evolved into the largest campus celebration in the nation.

On Saturday night, April 17, police received a complaint of a party that was spilling out into the street. Police responded and proceeded to break up the 400-person party in the campus district. The partygoers filled the streets, joining forces with another large group who was already in the streets for VEISHEA festivities. Altercations rose to riot intensity with hundreds crowding the streets and taunting police by mooning them and shouting phrases such as "Fuck the police" and "No dry Veishea." Police were armed with pepper spray and tear gas.

The Aftermath:

Police and about 2,000 rioters clashed until almost 5:30am. Lamp posts, street signs, parking meters and many storefront windows were damaged or destroyed. 16 officers and 22 civilians suffered injuries, some due to falling lamp posts. 37 arrests were made, including assault of an officer, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and interference with official acts. The night ended with nearly $250,000 in damages to public and private property.

Many involved in the riots claimed they were victims of police brutality, saying they were sprayed with gas for no reason. 42 complaints were filed against police who pepper sprayed and tear gassed people trying to leave the area and against officers who acted overly aggressive in attempting to control crowds.

Some blamed the previous six years of an alcohol-free VEISHEA as the cause of the riots, and these acts of violence were merely built up aggression. 2005 marked the first time in 82 years that VEISHEA was not held.

....

University of Maryland – April 1-2, 2002

How it Started:

The University of Maryland defeated Indiana to claim title to the NCAA men's basketball championship. It was Maryland's first ever college basketball title and the victory sent fans into a frenzy. An estimated 5,000 hit the streets in celebration. Fueled by excessive alcohol consumption, the mob lit trash cans and couches on fire and started overturning objects in the street.

The Aftermath:

Following the celebratory riot, 17 people were arrested, 6 police cars were damaged, over 16 fires had been set, two dozen were injured, and a Maryland state trooper was hit in the face with a plank. A night of bonfires, looting, drunken brawls, flying beer bottles and hundreds of troopers in riot gear caused roughly $50,000 in damages. The rioting was so bad, university officials later established a zero tolerance anti-rioting rule, meaning a student could be expelled if caught in acts of vandalism or violence after games.

Maryland, who has a history of rioting, had a similar riot a year earlier in a Final Four loss to Duke, when a bonfire set by fans caused $500,000 in damage. Rowdy fans smashed out storefronts, attacked police, and set fire to a mobile home.
66
Povertylaw...

One of the two principle reasons DH and I left the SF bay area was the whole hype about how great, tolerant, and liveable it was...was no where close to reality for the majority of people who lived there. I do a lot of work with the truly poor. SF is great if you are professional and white. Not so great if you are poor and black.

I can't tell you how many people I heard who would bang on about gay rights and sexual oppression one day and then bitch about "the type of people" who live in the "East Bay" the next and how "those people" were ruining the city and draining all the resources.

If you aren't committed to sexual, gender, ethnic/cultural/racial, AND class equality, you aren't truly committed to social justice....just committed to your pet cause.
67
@66 Social justice? What is that, can you define it? Where it exists in US law?

And remember folks, there is no war on cars.
68
The riot was not about housing or an underclass or discrimination or poverty. Do you have any idea how much a hockey jersey costs? They start at about $130. Did you not notice all the smart phones being brandished? Most of the rioters and looters that have been identified are privileged boys and girls of high school age or are university undergrads--one of the people arrested for setting a police car on fire comes from a family of doctors, lives in a million dollar house, and is (or was) a rising water polo star and Olympic hopeful. These were not people driven to the brink by unemployment, the cost of living, or minority status. This was a sports riot: the rioters were mostly drunk young men who got carried away and thought the crowds would give them the anonymity they needed to misbehave because they thought it was fun.

What happened might have been incited by a few people who went downtown with the express purpose of causing trouble, but the reason it turned into a riot comes down to a combination of factors, in particular not following the recommendations drawn up following a thorough study of the 1994 riots:

* Encouraging 100,000-150,000 people to congregate in a small area to watch a highly-charged game and not deploying anywhere near enough police to effectively control them (only about 400-700 by most estimates)
* Not responding quickly enough when it became clear that trouble was brewing--everybody who was down there with kids left in the 2nd period, but it was after 11pm before the police managed to bolster their numbers and regain some control
* Closing down exit routes and transit so those who wanted to leave when the problems started weren't able to
* Allowing people to park cars in the so-called "live zones" and not removing newspaper boxes and dumpsters
69
@68 The skytrain lines were running out of Vancouver, and the sea bus was taking people to the North Shore. Transit wasn't shut down entirely.
70
I was downtown that night, I watched the game about 20m from where the first fire broke out. When we saw smoke, about 95% of the people at that intersection walked away, including me. About halfway through the game, I think the whole crowd knew what was going to happen.
Like some of the comments above have alluded to, I think there are a large number of upper-middle-class kids who are pandered to by their parents, and really have no sense of responsibility. They were drunk, or at least tipsy, had impaired judgement, and didn't think they'd be held accountable. Well, they are being held accountable.

71
Lets not forget that Vancouver has gay marriage! That must be the source of this anarchy!
72
I didn't realize Antony Weiner was at the riot:

http://www.identifyrioters.com/?photo=59

74
I work in a homeless shelter at Hastings and Main, and was on the midnight to 8 AM shift the night of the riots. We are but five or ten minutes away from the downtown core where everything was going down, and yet my night? Pretty quiet! The people who live at our shelter were not the people looting, or setting cars on fire, or stabbing others. This wasn't an underclass of people causing these problems. These were privileged kids from the suburbs who got permission from mommy and daddy to come downtown for a night, got caught up in the excitement and did some really stupid things.

In fact, eight or ten of the individuals who slept in our shelter that night went downtown at 7 AM, armed with garbage bags and gloves, and helped clean up the mess that people who spit at them every day created. It was both wonderful and heartbreaking.
75
Didn't Tim Minchin put it best at the end of "Confessions"? He sang "We're just f*¢king monkeys in shoes."
76
@68, 70 & 74 have it exactly right. That's why I said the claims of " it's a tiny minority of criminals" rings false. These are your kids, man. And given the slightest excuse and met with no resistance THIS is what they do. Why? I don't know. But it sure as shit isn't because they are fucking "have nots." Some how, somewhere they were given permission to act this way. And when they get that permission in a collective like this? Whatch out. This is a hatred for civilization manifest.
77
@75

Monkeys don't burn they're own territories down.
79
@32: There is some cause to be smug about feeling safe after sporting events in Boston. The police clear all cars in a 10-block radius. They have cops in riot gear stationed around the perimeter before the game starts. They have helicopters patrolling the area all night long (which is fun when you live near Fenway, falling asleep to the whir of the chopper blades). Celebrations get rowdy, but people don't get hurt.

It's a bit disgraceful that Vancouver was smug enough to think they didn't have to take proper precautions.
80
All those of you trying to make this about something deeper: sorry I wish it were so. Wish people were misguidedly expressing righteous indignation at the country's deep problems: our shitty evil federal majority government (elected with a plurality of less than 40% of the popular vote), the unemployment, the homelessness, the corruption, the curtailment of free speech... But no, this really was about hockey. Really and truly. No one was sticking it to the man. We are a fucking apathetic bunch who will lie down and let our rights and principles be trampled on but goddamn if we'll let fuckIng Boston take the cup home without protest.
81
"These are bridge and tunnel kids."

Schweethart: just one more reason to knock down the bridge and not build the tunnel.
82
Um, people, I don't think "underclass" here means the really poor. I thought that was obvious. (And, to be clear, I almost certainly make less money than most of the people involved in the riot.) It means the masses in the fat part of the bell curve, who can afford hockey jerseys (hence "CONSUMER underclass.") Perhaps "underclass" may not have been the best choice of words. What I said (or thought I was saying) has nothing to do with class snobbery and everything to do with the ugly side of consumer culture.

Anyway, I live close to Hastings and Main. I think it's pretty fricking obvious that, like @74 says, the troublemakers in this instance were not Vancouver's homeless/very poor. (Those people mostly just want to be left alone in my experience.) I do worry about my safety on, say, Granville street after a hockey game or when the bars let out. The latest riot is a case in point.
83
Arrgh. I meant to say, I don't worry about my safety on Hastings and Main, where the poorest people hang out. I do worry about my safety on Granville street, where the better-off masses go to get wasted (and watch hockey).
84
3 things are necessary, in descending order of importance.

1) an amalgamated police force for the whole lower mainland (instead of the 10+ now)

2) Bulldozing the downtown stadiums and erecting them in the suburbs.

3) $20 congestion fee to drive downtown
85
Yeah, what @10 said, plus @16 (tho LA has had its moments, too -- not sports related that I can recall).

What really appalls me is reading about studies that show a significant uptick in domestic violence after an unexpected loss by one's sports team. If the loss was expected or the team won, there's no blip. But an unexpected loss -> sharp spike. (@26 doesn't surprise me either.) Good thing I've never been attracted to die-hard sports fan types :-P

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