VANCOUVER — Angry Canucks fans are on a rampage, smashing windows, looting and torching cars and dumpsters on the streets of downtown Vancouver. More than three hours after the Stanley Cup final loss, police are moving up Howe St. toward the crowd massed at the Chapters book store on Howe and Robson. They are very gradually pushing the crowd North up Howe. Police spokeswoman Jana McGuiness warned earlier that police are about to escalate their response.
She said they will be igniting flash-bangs, which make loud noises and spray. “What we’re doing right now is bringing in hundreds of police officers.” The message is, you need to leave.” Officers armed with canisters massed on the corner of Granville and Robson. It is not clear whether it is tear gas or pepper spray. They are protected by shields, batons and masks.
McGuiness said the epicentre of the trouble is Granville and Georgia, she said. And even if transit isn’t operating, people need to walk away from the area, she said. When asked if police had lost control of the crowd, McGuiness would only say police have a plan to deal with the unruly crowds. Vancouver police are closing lanes on Granville and Burrard and Cambie Street bridges to prevent more people from coming Downtown. Bus service has been halted in the downtown core.
I can think of several good reasons for doing this…… sports isn’t one of them.
British Columbia has a huge number of retired people who love to have a fit about things like this.
The ‘riot’ if you want to have a look at some of the footage instead of these highly selective views, was not very violent at all.
The local media was making certain to have a fit over this toe cater to their base.
This isn’t the first time this has happened after a Stanley Cup loss in Vancouver. Long playoff runs cause a lot of problems for police in Canada. There’s just more cameras around right now and everyone knows Vancouver after the Olympics.
The real news yesterday was Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty leaning in on US and EU debt, tax laws and Canadian corporate tax rates while in NY.
Underlying frustration is the reason for the riot the game was just the trigger. As governments continue to clamp down on peoples freedom you will see more of the same.
I’m originally from Montréal, Quebec.
You call that a riot? Pffff.
I used to work at Alexis-Nihon plaza (across the street from the Forum where the Habs [The Montréal Canadiens] played) and it would regularly get its display widows (les vitrines) smashed by whoever lost.
It was just part of living in the city.
In Montréal the couple screwing in the road would have been photographed fucking naked in the park surrounded by the bus terminal across the street from the Forum.
Where’s the story here?
“It just takes 4 or 5 drunken idiots to start a riot.”
It’s true and scientific fact that people will do things in a group that they would never do acting alone.
That being said I am still trying to figure out which psychological disorder/disorders are responsible for this behavior. Or is alcohol the lowest common denominator and root cause here.
I Must say that I have drank more than my share in life though, and have yet to insight a riot while intoxicated. Maybe when Windows 8 is released I will make it happen
As a Vancouver resident, all I can say is this wasn’t representative of our usual attitude. Still, the fact that they had to close the liquor stores at 4pm, mobilize the police force in advance of the game, and still things got that out of hand says one thing to me: legalize it. If people were stoned instead of drunk, the only riot would have been over the last bag of ketchup chips at 7/11.
Seriously though… it’s embarrassing being associated with that level of douchbaggery and sore-loser-man-ship. It’s so bad I had to use words that don’t even exist to describe my shame.
What terrible violence. We must ask ourselves “What did we do to cause this? Why do they hate us?”
Clearly, the rioters were provoked by riot-ophobic bigots. We need to be more sensitive to their culture, and understand that for them, destroying public property is as much a part of their faith as charity is for others.
Come, let us reach out to the rioters, so that we can begin to find a peaceful means of coexisting with them.
Doesn’t this happen every year in Los Angeles, regardless of whether the Lakers win or lose?
Alcohol + losing fans= riots
This is normal behavior for drunken,scraggly coated, bob tailed primates _under the age of thirty_.
It was explained to me this way. Young people think they are immortal. Old farts know better so they tend to act in a more reasonable and prudent way with note worthy exceptions.
Looks like the Canucks are finally trying to emulate the U.S.
in # 11 Vaspers the Grate aka Steven E Streight said: the slightest most stupid things, like sports, can trigger massive aggression.
The average IQ is one hundred.
That means that half of the population are the intelligentia attending Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, Cal Tech, MIT and other institute of higher learning with execrable sports teams because they don’t give a shit about sports.
The other half, the ones with no degrees except the weather, no papers except the butt wad stuck to their shoes, who live in suburbs because they can’t afford to live in town, who hate [your favorite racial epithet,] for NOT being [your favorite color], are the ones who cause all the riots.
What I find funny is that everyone and their dog was taking photos or video, and so I doubt there were any rioters/looters who didn’t get photographed multiple times from multiple angles. Dummies. That can only bite them in the ass in the long run.
Some folks riot when their teams win, others riot when they lose… Me? I get a weekly cathartic release just smashing my glass bottles into the dumpster at the recycling center — it what makes life worth living. I guess others have a higher threshold of self-actualization(?)
Just my theory based on absolutely no evidence: a bunch of West Coast anarchists traveled to Vancouver to do this, regardless of who won or lost. And once it starts, the hooligans join in for the fun since they see a very tepid police response.
Alice was a riot.
J. Gleason
What riot? They are just replaying the game highlights.
#31: Actually, Americans are too porked out on beer, pizza, McD’s and, well, everything else that’s fattening to get off the couch to riot. Now where’d that onion ring go…
#33. Yeah, that is all too clear. Their face is in the database…..forever. And your giving that up for what…….a stupid hockey game. Really?
Then there’s the retards who put up big screens outside so large crowds have a better reason to gather down town with no where to go when the game is over. You got what you deserve morans! For the record I am a BC resident.