Like a car wreck you can’t help but look at, I sat in front of my computer for hours last night watching the riots unfold live in Vancouver, with an ever growing pit of sickness in my stomach. When I finally got up from my seat, the sun had set and the house was dark except for the glow of my computer screen. I closed my laptop to the image of black smoke billowing up ominously from the city scape into the night sky, like a war movie ending without any answers.
Why did I watch that for so long, I wondered to myself. My only answer is that I was consumed in utter disbelief that it was actually happening; that my beloved home city had turned into a war zone.
Over a hockey game?
The disturbing images are all over the web today – overturned cars on fire, smashed store windows, fighting, looting, policemen and women in full riot gear attempting to handle thousands of people.
The overwhelming response to the mayhem on Facebook and Twitter (my own included) was that these weren’t Canucks fans; just a few morons who were out to cause destruction whether we won or lost the game. There weren’t “a few,” as Globe and Mail writer Gary Mason points out in this excellent article today, and they were Canucks fans. They were downtown watching the game, many of them donning Canucks jerseys. He argues the bystanders who wouldn’t leave the site are just as much to blame as the arsonists and looters.
But real Canucks fans wouldn’t do this, we all want to argue. Real fans graciously accepted defeat to the better team, patted our Canucks on the back for a stellar season and went home.
So where did it all go wrong? Is it simply the mob or ‘herd’ mentality? Get a large group of young males (because they mostly were), a big hockey game loss, alcohol, testosterone, the history of a rioting city and this is the outcome?
Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu reported at a press conference today that, “The rioters were young men and women disguised as Canucks fans who were actually criminals and anarchists. These were people who came equipped with masks, goggles and gasoline, even fire extinguishers that they would use as weapons.”
Bruce Arthur, responds to Chu’s comments in his brilliant National Post article: “Ridiculous. Surely there was a criminal element in the crowd, but to say that there were no Canucks fans among the rioters is like saying there was nobody from Vancouver among the rioters. It’s convenient, and impossible.”
Whoever they are, I hope they are caught and held accountable. I hope they grow up and realize how lucky they are to live in a peaceful country. The riot images being shown around the world today are not representative of Vancouver, of its people, or its hockey fans. At least I don’t want them to be.
I am proud to be from Vancouver, a beautiful, diverse, peaceful, friendly city. I am proud of those standing up for our city and those who took to the streets to help clean up the mess today.
So that is what we do. We clean up the mess, keep our spirits high, and move on.
It’s definitely clear now that there was a combination of average fans and people who had planned “riotous” behaviour. The majority of rioters were average fans, which is pretty obvious from the videos and photos taken during that time. I read yesterday that the vast majority of those arrested were not from Vancouver, but from the suburbs.