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.
But it’s the Stanley Cup. I understand and sympathies with their anger.
Welcome to the Canuk spring!
ha ha … Vancouver is pretending it is a proper grown-up city ….
I guess the couple in the picture get turned on by their proximity to a riot.
Either that or they are rejoicing that their team won
Dear Canada: Vancouver just cost you the coveted status of “We Don’t Have Any Douchebags Here.” Sorry, guys, it was great while it lasted.
Isn’t rioting a sport up there, especially when the G8 comes to town?
Income from visiting away fans $80K
Cost of policing final $1.3M
Effect on $4Bn tourism industry – priceless
Here in Vancouver, the police have 2 policies for dealing with crowds:
1. For peaceful protests, they bring out the pepper spray and arrest people for talking on their phones or walking too slowly.
2. For riots, when cars are set on fire, they hold back and wait for people to go home.
I don’t want to criticize the police: their policies are written by the city bureaucrats. But maybe they should consider switching their policies around.
The bill for the police costs and clean-up should be sent directly to the Canucks. They’ve made extra $millions in the last few weeks.
Those “rioters” were all goons hired by window repair shops. I heard that from my Russian sources.
“I can think of several good reasons for doing this…… sports isn’t one of them.”
I’d love to hear those reasons.
As a Vancouverite who is NOT a hockey fan, I’m always relieved that the Canucks loose early. This year the agony was just prolonged. These rioters though are not from Vancouver proper. They come from suburbia looking to cause trouble. We are thinking of building a large wall around the city with check points to keep them out.
Some people just love to be violent and the slightest most stupid things, like sports, can trigger massive aggression.
But then again, sports is historically based on training for military adventures, so sports is intrinsically war-mongering and hateful to begin with. Civilization just sugar coats it a little.
That is pretty cool: Vancouverites have all gone downtown to help clean up ….
http://ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110616/bc_riot_cleanup_110616/20110616/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
There was going to be trouble win or lose. There were people in the crowd equipped for mayhem. Hockey fans don’t bring Molotov cocktails and lighter fluid to watch a hockey game. It was hooligans bent on causing problems and then the crowd got into it.
The DON, you are wrong.
They are trying to lead by example to “make love, not war”.
You think that Policeman is holding a riot baton? Guess again!
The comments were WAY harsher when the same thing happened in downtown Montreal, along Ste-Catherine’s street.
Montreal was such a disgrace, blah, blah.
It just takes 4 or 5 drunken idiots to start a riot.
#13 damn right. People came equipped with gasoline, goggles, masks, tire irons, baseball bats, etc. There were calls for a riot 20 minutes before the game even started! Idiots.
Headlining the news on TV in NZ.
At least it is more understandable because there is anger there since their team lost, comparing to stupid Lakers fans who went out and destroy things when their team actual won championship…
Protest bad government not bad hockey!
Sports fans are so silly. What would they do without their balls (and pucks)?
Hockey Game Doesn’t Go Your Way, Don’t Cry, Just Burn Your City to The Ground!
Bah. Rookies. In LA, when the game does go their way, they burn the city to the ground.
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?
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.