The Vancouver Riots, 2011 (aka What The Hell is Wrong with People???)

I’ve never been to a riot before.  And I didn’t intend to go to one last night.

I went to a downtown restaurant to watch Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.  As an Oilers fan, I had no real heartfelt stake in what was going on, but wanted to cheer on the team for my adopted home as they tried to win their first championship in franchise history.  The game itself was a heartbreaker, but maybe not entire unexpected, considering how a 2-0 series lead devolved into a 3-3 tie that forced a Game 7.  And afterwards, my friends wanted to check out Granville Street to see what was happening. 

Now I had been down to Granville after the Canucks won Game 5, and have video of a lot of jubilant people cheering and high-fiving and generally behaving themselves.  And we had all seen the ghost town that downtown became every night they lost.  Expecting a ghost town, here is what I saw:

• Not only a fight, but also a large crowd that flowed around it as it moved
• People tearing down the five-ish year old trees that line Granville Street
• People cheering on the young man (dressed in a Canadian flag) who climbed one of the light standards, and then chanting at him to destroy the light
• Young guys stomping on top of overturned cars
• More young guys, dressed in Canucks jerseys, smashing the shit out of a luxury car parked on the street
• One of those jersey guys had somehow managed to get hold of a crowd control barrier, then threw it off the top of the car at somebody which not only started another fight, but had the crowd fleeing in fear of being caught up in whatever came next

And this was all within 30 MINUTES of the game ending.  Needless to say, we immediately left when we saw how quickly things were devolving.

The police are saying that this was instigated by anarchists who came down to the area specifically armed with masks and incendiary devices and who were generally aiming to create as much chaos as possible.  That may very well be.  But there is NO EXCUSE for the thousands of (mostly) young men who decided to descend into mob mentality and destroy and steal other peoples’ property!!

I don’t know if the cops were as effective as they could have been, but I sure as hell know that they were outnumbered.  As we were trying to get out, we would see groups of a dozen or so at various intersections just trying to deal with what they could see, and I don’t blame them one bit for not diving headlong into any situation where they could be hurt.  The fact that there were only nine police injuries is a miracle.

I am ashamed for this city.  I am embarrassed that I call it my home.  I am shocked and horrified that people I saw in the crowd who were carrying a beer bong were later filmed jumping on top of an overturned car.  There are no words to describe just how I feel about this.  I didn’t have a lot of faith in people before this, and I sure as hell don’t have any in them now.