Fans Riot in the streets of Vancouver like 1994

[Musashii]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playof...ory?id=6666608
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2011/06/15/fans_streets/

A small group of rioters appeared to be at the heart of the action reminiscent of a similar scene that erupted in the city in 1994 following the Canucks' Game 7 loss to the New York Rangers.

Furious hockey fans set fire to cars and garbage cans, tossed beer bottles at giant TV screens and ran rampant through downtown streets Wednesday after the Vancouver Canucks lost 4-0 to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing at least two overturned cars burning in the streets, which were strewn with trash and filled with acrid smoke in the moments immediately following the game at Vancouver's Rogers Arena.

Flames were seen shooting nearly 10 metres into the air as bystanders tossed firecrackers, setting off intermittent barrages of staccato explosions. The stench of stale beer mingled with the smoke.

Patrick Fleming, 15, from Richmond, B.C., said a small group of fans took out their anger on nearby cars in the game's dying moments, flipping over two vehicles and setting one on fire.

Another upturned vehicle was visible nearby as orange flames erupted from the exploding car, prompting bystanders to duck down in alarm. Fans who were trying simply to get out of the danger zone found their visibility reduced to zero by the thick black smoke.

Som Gosh, 16, said police blocked off the area and detained a number of people, but it did little to quell the violence.

[BGY11]

Absolutely disgraceful! It's sad how a few people end up ruining things for everyone.

[stampeder]

A small group... repeat, a small group... so no, NOT like 1994.

As a Flames fan who moved to BC I was rooting for the Canucks in these playoffs but all in all I was heartened that Vancouver fans were classy en masse in the end towards the hard working Bruins.

It was still early in the evening when the game was over, and the skies were clear and bright as the bbqs sizzled away. As people wandered outdoors it seemed that the real feeling on the street in my neighbourhood was that the Bruins were the better team and deserved the win, while many are wondering (with kind concern) whether Roberto Luongo needs to get some sort of intense counselling regarding his mercurial play during pivotal playoff series.

[Jase88]

I'm shocked, given the pride I sense with Vancouverites when I visit this city.

[hugh]

Sounds like more than a small group according to this CBC story

Riot police fired tear gas, pepper spray and flash bombs in downtown Vancouver Wednesday night to try to disperse angry rioters who set cars on fire, looted stores and taunted police officers after the Canucks' 4-0 Stanley Cup final loss to the Boston Bruins.

Police declared the downtown fan zone area near the CBC building and the central post office a riot zone. Anyone not leaving the West Georgia Street area immediately could be arrested, they warned.

Police used batons and also turned police dogs on the rioters, slowly pushing the crowd back along Georgia Street from Hamilton Street to Cambie Street.

and

The number of arrests is expected to be in the dozens.

[Korak]

The story made headlines on all the networks (US included)....That's how Vancouver will be seen to many people. Disgraceful !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[becks]

This was nothing like 1994, I was in the middle of both (not by choice) and yesterday's riot was a pre-planned event unlike 1994. Both of them were wrong but in 1994 it wasn't this scary, 1994 was more of a looting then a riot.

[alebowgm]

Originally Posted by stampeder

A small group... repeat, a small group... so no, NOT like 1994.

Um, I don't think so...

First, it wasn't a small group. We're talking hundreds, probably thousands, of citizens involved in the ugliness that erupted even as Gary Bettman was handing the Stanley Cup to Bruins captain Zdeno Chara. Having been around other sport "riots," I can tell you this was a whole other level.

Vancouver was an ugly, dangerous city last night, and people got hurt. Frightening. Not just police cars on fire. Not just looting and tear gas. Stabbings. Vicious, fights. Wanton violence accompanied by the joyful whoops and hollering of young people who apparently believed they were part of something exciting and were having a great time.

http://thestar.blogs.com/thespin/201...f-this-go.html

[jshel101]

I really hope all these morons are caught. There is this one "smart" individual that posted what he did in the riots on FB

http://placeblip.com/blip/Brock-Anto...7j-2g7-canada/

[stampeder]

There are 4 1/2 million people in BC, a great deal of whom live in the Vancouver area. Some idiots went to downtown Vancouver with nothing more than troublemaking on their minds. They brought hammers and other things that have no place in public gatherings. Their number is said by police and the authorities to have been quite small.

By contrast, the number of people gathered downtown and in other parts of the Vancouver area to watch the game in public places was in the thousands upon thousands.

The small number of savages who rioted were just that... a small number. So, while the great majority of people in the Vancouver area were feeling heartbroken about their team they did not, en masse, create any particular problems anywhere but in a specific, small area of downtown Vancouver.

Unfortunately the impact those few cretins have had has been beyond all sensible proportion.

[hugh]

from Damien Cox's article

First, it wasn't a small group. We're talking hundreds, probably thousands, of citizens involved in the ugliness that erupted even as Gary Bettman was handing the Stanley Cup to Bruins captain Zdeno Chara. Having been around other sport "riots," I can tell you this was a whole other level.

and

When Montreal "fans" went wild two years ago after a first round playoff victory over Boston, it was contained to a small area of the downtown. Passersby watched it almost as a surreal sport unfolding, but unless you were in the middle of it, there seemed to be nothing to fear. It was over quickly.

Not this last night in Vancouver. It went on for hours. At one point, there were four separate areas where police were trying to stop violence and looting. People were left lying on the street covering in blood. Crazed young men smashed windows of stores and business, ignoring police commands to disperse, seemingly uncaring that they were being videotaped and photographed, as if they believed they were untouchable.

It was like the city had lost its mind. Over a bloody hockey game.

Both CBC and Cox's article suggest otherwise.

[stampeder]

It goes without saying that the intense media interest in such a story is perfectly justifiable and necessary, but it illustrates what I mean by "sensible proportion".

For example, we know that thousands of Torontonians did not murder Jane Creba, but to have read about her murder one would have thought that gangs roamed Toronto's streets in blood lust that night. The sensible proportion was lost to the sensationalism.

I am not minimalizing the horrid behaviour of the few rioters, but I am pointing out that apart from a small group of them who arrived before the game in a specific area with specific malicious intent (given the "tools" some of them brought) the mood in general across the Vancouver area was much, much more somber than troublesome.

What a lousy end to an amazing hockey season here.

[NeilN]

But again, you're using the phrases "few rioters" and "small group" when news reports say otherwise. Are you saying Cox and the CBC are incorrect?

[stampeder]

If it's me, with a vested interest in saying what I deem to be really happening here based on everything I've seen and heard, against them, then I lose, right? After all, they're the media and I'm just some guy posting on a web site. Oh well, I've said what I mean to say and I have no control over how you take it.

[becks]

^^ I was there in person and it was a small group, there was over 100,000 people down there and only a few hundred went down for the sole purpose of causing crap and to fight with the police and not to celebrate the 'Nucks.