Vancouver recently rioted over the Canuck’s loss to the Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final. No one could have predicted that a full-scale riot would erupt over something as trivial as a hockey game, except that the exact same thing happened seventeen years ago. There was once a riot when Guns ‘N’ Roses cancelled a concert at the last minute, but no one in the media has mentioned that, because it’s not hockey related. I mention it only because it gives you a broader sense of the Vancouverite mentality.
Over 100,000 people attended an outdoor gathering to watch the game on big TV screens as the Canucks lost, and lost hard. This is after months of over-hype for the Stanley Cup playoffs. People had Stanley Cup predictions before the season even started, as they do every year. You know when you see ads for a movie everywhere you go, only to find out later that the movie sucks? That’s how this went, in the absolute extreme.
Allow me to give you some examples of the hype going on. Bear in mind, I am not a hockey fan, and I am biased as hell:
Every morning, when I’d get in my car and go to work, and turn on the Jeff O’Neil Show on C-FOX on the radio, they’d be discussing the Canucks. This wasn’t isn’t sports program, by the way: it’s about alternative rock. It didn’t matter if there was a game the night before, a game that night, or a week from the date in question, they’d be talking about the Canucks. Then people would call in and talk about the Canucks. Then someone would make a dick joke.
Every time I’d log on to facebook, I’d have to scroll through a sea of status updates about the Canucks, and everyone’s opinions on them. This would go on and on, until I realized that facebook is secretly hell, and I’d give up and leave. Meanwhile, cross-posts to facebook from my blog received comments from my “friends,” like, “Why do you post these? They’re stupid and they’re not funny.” Indeed, they’re not, and I don’t know. I just don’t know.
People would wear their jerseys to work every damn game, then drone on in the break room about the game. Customers would too. “Did you see the game?” I’d be asked, and I’d have to remind them that no, I don’t watch hockey. I don’t particularly like hockey. Please stop asking. The store would become deserted every game. People would call in sick or leave early.
With every win, the streets would be shut down as people lined up in their cars and honked loudly, creating a traffic-jam parade, so even if I didn’t watch the game, I’d still have to plan my day around it. My wife was pregnant, and there was genuine concern that if I had to get her to the hospital in a hurry, I wouldn’t be able to make it past the crowds. The Canucks won a game the day my son was born, and it seemed as if the hospital was understaffed as a result. The nurses all asked me if I was a hockey fan. My parents got stuck in the mob on the way out of the hospital after visiting us and the baby. A week later, I had to go to the emergency room with chest pains, and there was the same situation. I was trying to get a ride, but of course the game was on, so that was a no-no. My basic point is: the more the Canucks won, the greater the chance was that my wife, my unborn son, and myself would die.
Everyone had only one thing on their tiny little minds for months, and that was the Canucks. Then they lost. Riots ensued. Sports riots by themselves are nothing new. Depending on where you live, soccer can be synonymous with riots. This riot was a little unusual, mainly because of the hipster crowd, the fact that 100,000 people were basically stranded together in the city, and because of cell phone cameras. 90,000 people stood around and filmed people with their cell phones while the rest looted and rioted… while filming themselves with their phones.
Yes, people were standing on top of overturned cars, taking pictures of themselves, while other were taking pictures of them taking pictures of themselves. There’s a slim chance this riot may have been better documented than 9/11. I thought that the covers of the Province and the Sun had used the same photo of a dude jumping over a garbage fire, with the flames licking his nuts, but then I realized that the photos were from two different people likely standing shoulder-to-shoulder. There’s already been a full story done about this picture:
Which looks like one really kinky couple about to get it on in the middle of a riot, which is deserves a reward, but really it’s some dude checking to see if a chick needs medical attention. It wouldn’t have been so popular so quickly if anyone had bothered in the slightest to help out, but no. In a crowd of 100,000, only one dude bothered to help this chick. Now papers and news are running stories every day about the heroes of the riots, who either tackled looters, or told them to back off and not torch cars.
They’re trying to show the good side of the city in the outcome of the riots, but as far as I can tell, the crowd was 10% doucebags, 1% hero, and 89% indifferent. Everything was fodder for facebook, especially the aftermath.
Then there’s this dude:
Dude straight-up has some balls. And some sweet kicks. Honestly, if I were in a riot, I’d loot those off of him. Look at how wide a berth this guy has. Dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of people are watching him as he goes through the convoluted process of trying to light a cop car on fire. He’s clearly put some thought into this. Now: at any point, anyone could have stopped him. He’s seventeen. A person wouldn’t even have to necessarily have to fight him. A smack upside the head and a, “Knock it off,” could have sufficed. But no, no one did a thing, except take pictures and post them, because it’s easier to be passive aggressive on facebook than do something in real life. If you want to talk about facebook leading a social revolution: this is it. It’s basically allowed people to become so detached that it’s easier for them to react through a c became an instant pariah, and he and his family have received numerous death threat on facebook. The kid committed a major offense, but it’s not like he deserves to die for it. People demand justice.
Except they don’t really understand “justice.” An angry mob has formed over the actions of another angry mob. Bear in mind, no one died in the riots. Stuff got wrecked and stollen, and people got pushed around. That’s it. Now they want to kill a kid. He made a full public apology, and he’s still likely to face some kind of charge at some point, and then have it thrown out of court because he’s seventeen. Every day in the paper, it’s this:
People are basically responding like a mob. They’re using facebook to track down the rioters and to harass them. Even with all the photos, it’s difficult to ascertain who committed a criminal act during the riots and who was basically some douche standing around and flashing gang signs like a hipster. Then there’s people bragging about their looting. There’s no real way to tell if they’re serious or not, but they’ll be treat the same by people either way. Facebook is the number one tool in catching the rioters, but it’s leading to more crimes, namely: uttering threats. So in confronting the criminals, average citizens are becoming criminals.
Also, there’s this:
People doing graffiti on the plywood they put up to cover the broken windows. I know it’s all innocent, but GRAFFITI IS A CRIME! Think of all Vancouver’s gone through. Now it has to put up with your poor penmanship? Even the major came out to take part in this bullshit, when really the whole thing is kinda his fault. There was a lot of poor planning that went into the event, and if you’re the mayor of a place that riots after allowing drunken sports nuts to congregate in the city streets with no supervision, you should think about what went wrong. If you want to point fingers, you can’t just blame the rioters, because statistically: Yes, there was going to be a riot. The police get off Scott Free because no one died. People still love the Canucks, so it’s not their fault. So it’s basically the government at fault for thinking their dickish people wouldn’t be dicks.
With regards to people “paying the price,” today in the paper the cover said that, “Apologies aren’t enough.” In the inside cover it talks about an anarchist leader who caused over $5,000 damage during the Winter Olympics walking free without having to do so much as community service.
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