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Understanding Vancouver's 'Hockey Riot'
How do we understand the riots that exploded in Vancouver after the beloved Canucks lost the Stanley Cup Finals? How do we understand the burning cars, broken glass and injuries that stand as an enduring coda of their game seven defeat at the hands of the visiting Boston Bruins? Having communicated with several dozen people in “the most livable city in the world,” I think I have a modest perspective on why the Canucks’ 4-0 loss was followed by fire.
One thing was made abundantly clear to me, Please disregard the “analysis” of TSN’s Bob McKenzie a k a “The Hockey Insider” who blamed “left wing loons” for the rubble. Mackenzie tweeted that he was sure responsibility lay with “anarchists and some organized extremists…many of the same people and groups who orchestrated riots in Toronto last summer at the G8.” This is unsupported and profoundly irresponsible garbage with no basis in fact. Vancouver activist Harsha Walia said to me, “It’s ridiculous that even a hockey riot needs a scapegoat. A deliberately created media circus of sports fervor, millions of alcohol advertising dollars and City-sanctioned street party zones all over downtown will unsurprisingly lead to a massive street brawl.
Let’s also dispense with the fiction that this was the fault of all “Canuck fans.” The fans on the whole were actually in fine form after the game. They gave Conn Smythe winner, Bruin goalie Tim Thomas, a standing ovation and also rose and cheered for every Bruin from Vancouver British Columbia. Of the millions of Canuck supporters, this was a minuscule mob. As Shiema Ali of Vancouver wrote to me, “I live in Vancouver and left the downtown core just before the game started. There were tons of people coming into the city who were already drunk and rowdy (in a bad way)—win or lose those people were ready to riot.”
What happened after the game was neither in the spirit of people at the arena not the spirit of those who bravely protested the G8. As activist and hockey fan Derrick O’Keefe said to me, “Sometimes a riot is the ‘language of the unheard,’ in the words of Martin Luther King Jr. But sometimes a riot is just an expression of young male stupidity and violence—this was the case last night in Vancouver.”
Another person said to me, “There were lots of [LGBTQ people] down there, some got roughed up, some dental care needed. There are also attempts to pin this on ‘black bloc’ and references to ‘protesters.’ There are lots of frustrated young men for sure lashing out at authority but no analysis of what might be spurring this.”
I did receive this incisive bit of analysis from Dru Oja Day, an editor at the Media Co-op. “If you ask people to pour all of their emotions and anger into a game, then a major event (Montrealers have rioted after first round game 7 wins!) is going to occasion some outbursts. Hockey commentators like Hockey Nights’ Don Cherry are constantly associating hockey with the troops overseas (he went to Afghanistan and fired a live shell, for chrissakes) and promote fighting and big open ice hits. We shouldn’t be surprised.”
John Ward-Leighton also pointed out on his blog the role that the liquor lobby placed in turned an entire area around the arena into a branded “Entertainment Zone” larded with bars and free-flowing liquor.
“It was clear that a lot of of the participants in last night’s riot and looting were at the very least impaired and looking for trouble,” said Ward-Leighton. “This ‘zone’ has nothing to do with entertainment and much to do with the almost criminal profit taking of the proprietors of the establishments who far from ‘serving it right’ pour drunken idiots into the streets nightly to brawl and drive drunk…. The fault for last nights idiocy was not about losing a hockey game or the police response, the bomb had its fuse lit with the myth that the only way you can have fun is to get stinking drunk.”
And yet the action —or inaction of the police is garnering attention as well. Alex Kerner, a law student and activist said to me, “How the police dealt with this riot compared to the G20 in Toronto last summer is instructive. While the destruction of police cars, property and lighting of fires was much more extensive this time, the police tended to focus only on those who committed the acts of vandalism. Some tear gas was used, but for the most part the targets were the actual rioters. Contrast this to the G20, where police used much more limited property damage by anarchists during the protests to sweep through the entire protest and arrest a record number of participants, irrespective of their actions. This sends a pretty sharp message from police that being around a pointless hockey riot is much safer than being at a protest with an actual purpose.”
It’s also worth noting that of the dozens of people who have needed medical attention, the overwhelming majority have required treatment for “exposure to tear gas or pepper spray” from, of course, the police. In addition, the push from police and the media for people to “post on Facebook” pictures of rioters so they can be identified and prosecuted signifies some kind of queasy step toward “social media as police state” that we should reject. Today a sports riot, tomorrow a demonstration.
One aspect that’s not getting nearly the publicity as the riots themselves are the people who risked danger, going in the street doing volunteer cleanup, while the streets still raged. As O’Keefe said to me, “Here in Canada, we’re dealing with a federal government hell bent on cutting back public services—they’re about to legislate postal workers back to work—but these are exactly the working people who tended to the wounded and put out the fires that night. In a way, we could thank the testosterone-laden morons for reminding a hockey crazed city that the real heroes in society don’t play a game for money; the real heroes fight fires, drive ambulances, treat the sick and clean up garbage.” The real heroes are also those who try to connect with the angst and alienation that leads to such destruction and channels it into protesting the very people “hell bent on cutting back” the services we so dearly need.
As one of those real heroes, Harsha Walia said to me, “There is a sense that people rioted over a ‘stupid apolitical hockey game.’ While I too wish people were motivated by social justice issues, the hockey game is not apolitical by any means. The riots were a fundamentalist defense of a type of nationalism, most evident in the beatings of Bruins fans in Vancouver last night. NHL hockey is not simply a game, it is representative of obedience to consumerism and is part of the state’s attempt to forge a false identity—despite vast differences and inequalities across race, class and gender, through the spectacle of sport.”
The state does reap what the state sows. We should remember that as the hand-wringing by police and government officials commences in the wake of Vancouver’s Great Hockey Riot.
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Show All“Here in Canada, we’re dealing with a federal government hell bent on cutting back public services—"
Those of us on the lower decks are sinking deeper into despair daily over what is happening to our lives, the future, and everything we hold dear. We're being herded into a black hole, and it seems there's little we can do to change course and save ourselves. This is hard enough to deal with at the end of life's road. For those young people at the beginning of that road, what they must be feeling is unimaginable. Without a doubt situations such as what happened in Vancouver are bound to be something we'll be seeing a lot more across the globe, unless something really drastic changes our course.
Drunken rioters are never, never ever motivated by a lack of public services. They riot either because they are drunk or because they cannot obtain the means to get drunk. Please do not let the rotten powers of Canada direct your despair into acts of violence. Mind the so-called "icon smashers" of the 16-th century. The movement started with desperately hungry, poor weavers in Northern France who threatened to attack the homes and castles of the rich until they were told by these rich and powerful that they could find much greater riches in convents and churches. It worked.
Crowsnest - You're no doubt right about drunken rioters. I remember the senseless destruction in Southern California some years back where they were throwing things through store windows, overturning cars, and anything and everything else that they could think to do. Of course those rioters may not have been drinking at all.
As for my own despair turning into violence, I've always considered myself a reluctant dragon and abhore violence of any kind. At 73, half blind and rarely getting out except to my garden, I will mostly just sit here feeling sorry for the mess my kids and grandkids have yet to experience first hand, and be thankful they probably won't add any more to the overpopulation in the world while getting there.
Thank you for that bit of history. I know very little of France, having mostly read about Great Britian's history.
The use of the term "anarchist" in connection with any riots demonstrates the abject poverty of historical knowledge of the users. With regards to violence, the Russian anarchists specialized in the assassination of what they considered to be despotic rulers with small groups of bombers. The Spanish anarchists of the 1930's were initially a non-violent political and social movement. Yes, they armed themselves when attacked by the Franco and the Stalinist gangs but would you not have done so too?
Good point. The bomb throwers get all the attention, but the majority of anrachists, e.g. the Wobblies, were and are just opposed to the kind of authority that leads to vertically structured hierarchies.
If a group like that formed nowadays, they would operate in the shadows b/c they would either be branded as terrorists(with the govt making up evidence of violence as they went) or just shut off the Internet and presses.
Great commentary, Dave.
Agreed. Excellent commentary: valuable, fair and important insights.
I'm a fan of Zirin and appreciate what he's trying to say, but it doesn't appear that anyone commenting here watched the game or post-game ceremony. The Canucks turned into an undisciplined mob on the ice, and the crowd would not stop booing long enough for the NHL chief to award the Stanley Cup. Civility made only a brief appearance when the lines formed and players shook hands.
I don't dispute Vancouver activists' accounts about bar owners facilitating a riot, but this was, um, brewing before game seven ended.
Why not compare the rioters to the British soccer thugs who seem to riot at nearly every game, and who have been banned by some other countries?
You're more than 20 years out of date.
The British soccer thug is now an almost extinct species, whether due to:
1. the Brits cracking down harshly on them, ie, lifetime bans from buying tickets for example. The clubs have consciously sought out a different fanbase than the soccer thug, women, children, families.
2 or basic economics. As the soccer has become ever more popular, ticket prices have gone through the roof. The soccer thug either can no longer afford the tickets, or, if he can, he realises that the tickets are so expensive that it would be extremely stupid to pay for them (season tickets), and then, have them be cancelled without a refund if he riots.
Other countries have kind of love hate relationship with British soccer fans. They don't necessarily like them, but they like the money they spend.
The great spike in using sports to promote militarism is very important to realize as commentators have become propagandists for and promoters of war and terrorism.
Indeed. Its gotten incredibly bad in the U.S. Very bad.
In my head I can hear Frank Zappa singing "It can't happen here" as I read about Vancouver. Those of us in the rest of Canada who are getting tired of the hype about "Van" and it's amazing housing prices, etc. are enjoying this latest rampage: of course they have the same amount of louts and idjuts as anywhere else, no more, no less.
The absurd claims of 'anarchist' action by commentators IS disturbing, however; just as Crowsnest pointed out. The rioters here were all middle-class goons who probably tend more to the smirking conservatism that is being promoted these days: "I can get away with whatever I want: because I AM FORTUNE'S FAVORED ONE!"
Vancouver is no dream destination of mine to begin with: I wish them well, but outside of their aboriginal and natural history, the place is not yet 'accomplished'. The immigrant communities are a big plus, but there are huge gaps between property values and harsh social realities in zones like the east side of town. I always discourage those who muse on relocating there: if you want to run the risk of being a self-absorbed careerist with diminishing interest in wider society, you might find a home there.
The Rioters were just a bunch of young people, the bulk "Sons of Privilege" who went downtown with the expressed purpose of blending into the crowd and starting a riot.
I was downtown for the day and followed the events closely.
My own observations .
1>Many of the "rioters" were not drunk.
2>This crowd started building at noon some 5 hours before the game. I could sense myself this was a different type of crowd then had attended the past games or the Olympics.
3>The "Rioters" were all posing to get pictures taken and rushing to see them posted on facebook. Most were not even INTERESTED in the hockey game and were not even paying attention to it.
This was driven more by the "Cult of Celebrity" then anything. The people involved wanted to get their faces on TV, on the Internet , Or on You Tube so they could tell people "They were there and a part of it".
The rioters brought with them the items they would need to riot. This was not a spontaneous act of drunkeness. They brought hammers and lighter fluid. They brought goggles and tear gas masks. There was over 100,000 people down there and this small group was going to riot no matter what.
People are now complaining the Police were not harsh enough. Contrary to the suggestion in the article the Police were remarkably restrained. Some 100,000 people managed to get out of the downtown core safely and without having to deal with tear gas or batons.
There are times when yahoos are just yahoos. These "rioters" were neither of the "Right" or the "left". They very likely have no interest in Politics or Social justice, or Corporatism. They recognized by experience that when such loud masses crowd together it easier to act as a mob and get away with things they otherwise could not.
Now I went to that area the next morning and expected to see a mess. The streets were spotless. All the glass and papers and signs of looting and rioting gone barring the many boarded up windows.
People by the tens of thousands, far more then the number of rioters, started showing up at 5 in the morning and volunteered their times to clean things up. These were young people, teenagers, retired citizens and older men and women.
I saw a little old Oriental lady on her knees picking up cigarette butts and putting it into a bag this next too a young teenaged girl with her hair spiked and dyed purple scrubbing graffiti off a storefront wall.
There was not a whole lot of cameras out there filming the spirit of COMMUNITY.
Thank you for your post GwNorth. Most interesting is the contrast between what the eyewitness sees and what gets reported.
What I find interesting is your describing the riot as approaching the status of an organized riot where the rioters came prepared with the equipment to riot with well in advance of the start of the hockey game. I hope that the details on how this got organized come out.
duplicated post
Well said. Thanks for the on-the-spot commentary.
GwNorth: very perceptive post. The first picture I saw of the rioting depicted a young man smiling happily and holding a camera as he filmed the event, no doubt as part of his participation in the "cult of celebrity," as you so aptly put it. You put your finger on a great pathology of our times, the absolutely frantic need for people to get themselves "noticed" on facebook and on TV. (When I've been at the scene of any public event that was televised, invariably the statement when I got home was "turn on the tv and see if you were filmed.) The "preparations" that wanna-be rioters brought to the scene long before the events are indicative of nothing so much as arranging the stage setting of a theatrical performance with themselves as a "star." As myself a community theatre director and actor, I'm familiar enough with the narcissism for which theatre people are so well known. As a sociologist I'm well aware of William James' discussion of the "self" and his observation that people crave attention and are willing to settle for any attention, even negative, if the best attention is being withheld from them. (I believe it was he who said that the assassin of McKinley uttered the words "the press of this country has a big bill to pay me.") With so many "invisible persons" thrown up by a society in which everyone is too busy looking into the mirrors at their own images, it's no wonder that these riots, like the "race" ones of the 1960s for example, are likely to show up wherever any media turns up in any excitable crowd situation. Of course the best "police control" would be to ignore them and reduce their staging value, but with the democratization of publicity introduced by the Age of Facebook, people will still stage those personal acts that they can promptly post on their "walls" to impress their friends (or try to outdo them in "impressive"---look at me---behavior.)
"You put your finger on a great pathology of our times, the absolutely frantic need for people to get themselves "noticed" on facebook and on TV. (When I've been at the scene of any public event that was televised, invariably the statement when I got home was "turn on the tv and see if you were filmed.) The "preparations" that wanna-be rioters brought to the scene long before the events are indicative of nothing so much as arranging the stage setting of a theatrical performance with themselves as a "star." "
Since this is the great pathology of our times, surely people should be rioting all over the world, and not just in Vancouver?
Alternatively, it could just be that the rioters in Vancouver were a bunch of idiots.
Well, give em time. "The world" is likely to be next. In fact, what we glorify as "democracy protests" in Europe and Africa and Asia may have large elements of the same "narcissism" of the Vancouver hockey riots.
"Well, give em time. "The world" is likely to be next. In fact, what we glorify as "democracy protests" in Europe and Africa and Asia may have large elements of the same "narcissism" of the Vancouver hockey riots.
"
Even if this is true, they are not rioting, unlike the idiots in Vancouver, even though they have far better reasons to do so.
So, it is far more likely that the rioters are just a bunch of spoilt idiots, than that "celeb culture", the need to get noticed is to blame.
"People by the tens of thousands, far more then the number of rioters, started showing up at 5 in the morning and volunteered their times to clean things up. These were young people, teenagers, retired citizens and older men and women.
I saw a little old Oriental lady on her knees picking up cigarette butts and putting it into a bag this next too a young teenaged girl with her hair spiked and dyed purple scrubbing graffiti off a storefront wall."
Never in a million years would you seeing Americans doing that (with exception to perhaps a natural disaster.)
Canada is pretty darn cool.
moonpie: I'm not so certain about the overall validity of your cross-national comparison of altruistic behavior in the aftermath of a damaging event (natural or man-made). There's a point to the contrast of American with British culture. Soccer hooliganism aside, Brits (and presumably Canadians) are a tad more "ruly" in their public behavior.
That said, there is in fact a great deal of that kind of post-traumatic event behavior, though as you suggest, it is usually expressed in "natural disaster" situations. The news (and presumably the Facebook postings) do tend to pay a lot of attention to people who do "heroic" acts of rescue and relief, featuring daily stories of such actions and designating some of them "persons of the week." It's not derogative of the admirable nature of their actions to suggest that these, too, maybe motivated by the favorable publicity attached thereto. To cite one example, "kids" have received well-deserved recognition when they do things like give up the customary Spring Break involvement in going to Louisana for hurricane or the Gulf of Mexico for oil spill relief work. I think if you content-analyzed facebook postings or newpaper and televison stories you would see the same kind of heavy emphasis to the relief effort as attention to the damage of the disaster itself. Since "kids" are a mainstay of social media, the prominence of that communication form may be promoting certain kinds of constructive as well as destructive social behavior.
I live in Vancouver. So my observations and viewpoint are just as valuable and instructive.
From what I witnessed as the hours crawled by that dreadful night, many of the so-called 'rioters' had these factors in common:
1) Many of them WERE drunk. Credible reports clearly state that the drinking had begun by 10:00am, and thousands were severely inebriated by noon. No effort was made to halt sales of alcohol until 4:00pm, and before that time there were solid, hours long lines for off-sales.
2) Many of them were 20-25 (for those of you who don't live in BC, and don't know, the drinking age in BC is 19)
3) The majority were male.
4) Going by their behavior, many of them demonstrate a lifetime of childish emotional immaturity, poor impulse control, and rampant narcissism.
I was downtown today to look in on some local independent merchants I frequent, to see if they had survived the riot, and if there was anything I could do to help them out. I saw the results of the destruction, of the wanton license and greed. The MAJORITY of the damages were to stores with brands promoted as 'must owns' to the segment of society that has become incredibly status conscious - John Fluvog, Chanel, Converse, Fila, Ekko, Black & Lee, all these 'must have' urban brands were the ones smashed and looted. iPads, iPods, cell phones and consumer electronics were stolen. Ironically, a Hummer SUV and two BMW Smart cars were destroyed, flipped and torched by these thugs who had started moving via PUBLIC TRANSIT into the downtown core to deliberately cause trouble.
These sociopathic narcissists are dangling from the bottom rung of the socio-economic ladder. Subconsciously, they KNOW that these 'golden days of youth' are as good as it is going to get for them. They are staring blankly into a future of service sector employment, a destitute politics, and a wasteland environment. Of course they are going to lash out in a drunken rage.
But, in contrast, there have also been the children of privilege. who engaged in these senseless acts of destruction. A 17 year old star player for the Canadian national water polo team was video-taped starting the fire that destroyed a car. His exultation and elation in the act was honest and transparent. Today, he has come forward after being positively identified, saying he is ashamed, saying he was 'caught up in the moment'. He made the choice. He chose an act of pure destructive narcissism. His future is now ruined.
The looting was similar in many ways to the growing incidents of 'mob robbery' or 'mob looting' that have been reported more and more often in America. This is an expression of suppressed rage at a system that is tacitly denying opportunities, while at the same time exhorting the rampant over consumption and promise of the 'good life' like the one these boneheads see in the glimmering images on the TV.
As a final note, a personal acquaintance stood outside one of my favorite shops with several like minded friends. They had seen what was coming, and prepared themselves with tear gas masks and collapsable batons to defend the store, the employees within, each other, and innocent people caught up in the mayhem.
They succeeded.
The rioters were cowards, who were unprepared to confront people who were willing to defend themselves and their lifestyles.
These men, my friend included, protected members of the local LGBT community, the anarchist community, the punk and alternative communities, young and old, men and women of every kind from across the community of Vancouver. Even the cops gave them a wide berth once they explained what they were doing. The shop they were guarding, and surrounding shops were some of the only undamaged ones in the worst of the Granville mall.
Given that:
"The MAJORITY of the damages were to stores with brands promoted as 'must owns' to the segment of society that has become incredibly status conscious - John Fluvog, Chanel, Converse, Fila, Ekko, Black & Lee, all these 'must have' urban brands were the ones smashed and looted. iPads, iPods, cell phones and consumer electronics were stolen."
I suspect that many who smashed and looted these stores were not drunk but rather were thieves using the cover of the event for their activity and much of what was stolen will soon be made available. Possibly a cut goes to some of the organizers of the riot.
Kudos to your friend and those who stood up to defend members of the various communities from the drunken mob, and for defending some local businesses.
From the numerous videos, I think you can see most of the looters were just opportunistic morons who didn't want to pay. I don't think any mythical 'riot organizers' invented by the VPD were involved.
That's not to say that many of the trouble makers are not unknown to police. As they sift through the tapes, I would be willing to bet that a whole bunch of habitual club neanderthals will be recognized.
I would also be willing to bet there are several hundred people who will shortly be called into the offices of their boss', and told that they were recognized, and that their minimum wage employment is now terminated with cause. That means no unemployment money, no welfare. If you get fired for cause in BC, you are shitoutaluck.
Tx.
Zirin's observations of police behavior is instructive.
I was in Lexington, Kentucky when the "Cats" won the NCAA victory and the cops just stood by as the kids rioted - just good ol' boys having fun. The same year in Lexington, there had been a peaceful march from the poor black north side neighborhoods to city hall after a cop beat up an unarmed young black guy. This time the same police ordered downtown evacuated and that came down on the peaceful marchers hard.
Then, the same thing up here after the Steeler's Super Bowl win and the Penguins Stanley cup win. Streets barricaded with burning couches (a "tradition" borrowed from WVU fans in Morgantown), an overturned burning car; drunk and disorderly behavior. The cops stepped in, and arrested a handful of people, but it definitely was the kid glove treatment. This was in stark contract to the anti-war protests in Pittsburgh around the same time. The mere placement of a newspaper dispenser into the street being an excuse to arrest 129 people as they were peacefully walking on the sidewalks after the protest march, to their bus stops and cars. The only consistency in the arrests being the tendency of the arrestees to be middle eastern, latino/a, and other "darker races".
I have always been amused at how "white" a sport hockey is. Of all the throngs in the southside bars wearing their Penguins jerseys like a uniform you will never see a black hockey fan. (then again, you will rarely see a black person at all in the southside on a Saturday night). And black Pittsburgers do ignore the Penguins as "openly" as the young white Yinzers adulate Sidney Crosby and the other tough, young, Aryan-handsome stars form the Great White North.
Gee, you trashed an entire race, sport, and fan base in one fell swoop. Even I couldn't do that well with my criticisms of mestizos.
Hockey is certainly better off without your participation.
You might also google "black hockey players" to find out how many black players are in the league. I played and coached hockey and both my kids played,; my son to this very day at 28 and he coaches and refs in CO. I welcomed any kid that wanted to play and often found gear for the kids who loved the game but couldn't afford it. In my neck of the woods we even had a few latinos especially in Taos, NM which has a great youth hockey league. It's a special game that has a lifetime positive effect and families are close-knit and supportive. Not as bad as Little League, that's for sure.
Hockey fans really don't care who wins as long as it's a good game.
All we can ask for in life.
My criticisms apply to Pittsburgh (and possibly other NE or Midwest cities) not necessarily anywhere else.
hockey is a mindless waste of time.
Obviously, you can't skate.
Sorry.
Thank you, Dave, for the brilliance and common sense of your comment. I agree that the attempt to link this riot to anarchists, black bloc, extremists, and leftists is on of the most irresponsible tricks I've seen in my life. Was the policeman who made that announcement so naive and ignorant, or was he looking for a greater role in the "homeland security" racket? He should be dragged by his hair to a gibbet and forced to make a public apology, and then charged with public mischief.
I did see a Seattle (KIRO 7)tv station report on the cleanup crews during and after the riot, and with some admiration. That was a tonic.
"It’s ridiculous that even a hockey riot needs a scapegoat. A deliberately created media circus of sports fervor, millions of alcohol advertising dollars and City-sanctioned street party zones all over downtown will unsurprisingly lead to a massive street brawl."
It is ridiculous to blame "left wing loons", it is equally stupid to assume that party zones, alcohol, etc, will lead to riots.
Not everyone is an irresponsible idiot.
"John Ward-Leighton also pointed out on his blog the role that the liquor lobby placed in turned an entire area around the arena into a branded “Entertainment Zone” larded with bars and free-flowing liquor.
“It was clear that a lot of of the participants in last night’s riot and looting were at the very least impaired and looking for trouble,” said Ward-Leighton. “This ‘zone’ has nothing to do with entertainment and much to do with the almost criminal profit taking of the proprietors of the establishments who far from ‘serving it right’ pour drunken idiots into the streets nightly to brawl and drive drunk…. The fault for last nights idiocy was not about losing a hockey game or the police response, the bomb had its fuse lit with the myth that the only way you can have fun is to get stinking drunk.”"
Nope. Sorry. Other people in other places can get drunk, can party, without rioting.
Amazing mini-doc on the Vancouver riots
http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/06/stunning-mini-documentary-goes-inside-vancouver-riot/
Too bad all that rage couldn't be channeled into something useful.
There's something mesmerizing about this sort of footage, to see the rules of property flouted so openly, even if it's by a bunch of drunken yahoos. The massive outrage that follows such property damage -- in contrast to, say, the damage to human flesh caused by bombs or police truncheons -- is instructive. Marx once wrote --
"The bourgeoisie of the whole world, which looks complacently upon the wholesale massacre after the battle, is convulsed by horror at the destruction of brick and mortar."
There were people on Canadian radio shows calling for Public flogging of the people involved in the riot. Public flogging. That's how sacred is property, and how horrified we are to see its desecration, even if by a bunch of angry hockey fans.
Good point.
I'd like to call for the public flogging of all drone pilots and other remote control killers
All those greedy banksters need a good whuppin also. After all the banksters caused much more damage, by many trillions.
I would be curious to know the make-up of a ice hockey crowd.
Here in Australia the national football code is 'Australian Football'. (It is not soccer, rugby or gridiron but a free flowing game of extreme athelitcs and physical contact where a match with fewer than 20 goals scored is considered low scoring. ) In a crowd of 100,000 around 40,000 to 50,000 will be women ranging from under 10's to grandmothers. A high percentage of the crowd is also made up of family groups.
Besides increasingly rare and isolated brawls limited to a few individuals there has never been anything that could be considered a 'riot' in connection with the sport in over 130 years of organised competition.
In country of 22 million, the national Australian Football League has annual attendances of over 7 million and the consensus seems to be that the lack of 'hooliganism' and 'riots' is due to partly to the high proportion of women attending and the cathartic nature of events in the game - high and frequent scoring and physical clashes.
Australian's have had cause to riot from time to time but not because of Australian Football.
I can't beleive no one has posted this yet. but........
I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out!
"I would be curious to know the make-up of a ice hockey crowd."
Depends in which city you live. In Vancouver, Canada you'll find a pretty balanced makeup of races and classes engaging in hockey and (unfortunately) hockey hero worship. Same Toronto. Though Torontonians are so used to losing that they don't much care any more (I'm kidding).
That's because these two cities are two of the most multicultural in the world. In the images of the riot you'll find a roughly equal proportion of East Indian/Hong Kong/Taiwan/Chinese/Sikhs/Anglo white folk etc. But they all consider themselves Canadian -- and rightfully so.
Must come as a shock to our friends down South, who assume that "riots" must be caused by either drunken frat boys or COLOREDS.
Kids here of all ages take up hockey because it is the de facto national sport. I'm not very fond of Hockey myself but it's arguably more conducive to developing multiple physical skills that any other sport short of the Triathlon, perhaps more so.
I really dislike the pandering -- ie encouraging these sports figures to engage in fist fights. Then acting surprised when then "fans" do so the same.
Alfie Kohn wrote a magnificent book called "No Contest -- The Case Against Competition". He appears in the film "Human Resources". Now would be a good time to watch/read his work.
>>Durrutix: "In the images of the riot you'll find a roughly equal proportion of East Indian/Hong Kong/Taiwan/Chinese/Sikhs/Anglo white folk etc."<<
If you're talking of the people in the crowd, maybe so, but not "roughly equal". And if you are talking of those actually doing the breaking, burning and looting, again, it doesn't look anywhere near "a roughly equal proportion". And an interesting way to order the ethnic groups too, though I'm sure it was inadvertent :)
>>"Kids here of all ages take up hockey because it is the de facto national sport. I'm not very fond of Hockey myself but it's arguably more conducive to developing multiple physical skills that any other sport short of the Triathlon, perhaps more so."<<
Hockey may be the de facto national sport, but it is also one of the most wasteful of sports in terms of energy and resources used per person per hour of play time. Ice rinks are like giant freezers, but freezers that are left open. Controlling the temperature at the ice surface and the temperature & humidity inside the arena takes a lot of energy. The energy requirement increases as outside temperature increases, and the Stanley Cup finals are always played close to summer. Maintaining hockey rinks in places where there is hardly any natural ice is an abomination especially in this day and age when there is a crying need to cut out ALL non-essential use of energy. I read that the BC government is pushing ahead to build another dam despite protests from environmental activists, farmers whose farmlands would be submerged and First Nations people. It seems to me that the electricity that is sought to be generated from this new hydro plant could largely be obtained by simply cutting out certain wasteful uses of energy.
Of course, taking such sensible actions would require that a majority of the people truly give a damn about the environment and climate change - something that does NOT appear to be the case, judging by the clamor for more NHL hockey teams all across Canada. This should suit the establishment just fine, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the opportunity for the NHL team owners to find new suckers as they are forced to find new "markets" due to the economic situation in many US cities. So, as the people of Winnipeg are thrilled to bits at finally getting their own "local" NHL team, bought for what, around 170+ million dollars, from Atlanta and transported wholesale, do they realize that the main reason that they are getting this team is because the people of Atlanta simply do not bother to buy enough tickets to keep the venture profitable there? And are the people of Manitoba capable of making the connection between the floods there and all the carbon emissions? Speaking of carbon emissions, the teams in the 2011 Stanley Cup finals flew to Vancouver --> Boston --> Vancouver --> Boston --> Vancouver --> Boston (the last one being the Boston team alone). That is, from one end to the other end of a whole damn continent! And all for what??
I have no problem with people "developing multiple physical skills", btw, as long as they don't trash the environment more than they really, really have to.
The riots were a fundamentalist defense of a type of nationalism, most evident in the beatings of Bruins fans in Vancouver last night. NHL hockey is not simply a game, it is representative of obedience to consumerism and is part of the state’s attempt to forge a false identity—despite vast differences and inequalities across race, class and gender, through the spectacle of sport.”
......nonsense....I'm a Vancouverite living 15 floors up and 2 blocks away from the riot....nothing to do with obedience to consumerism, state's attempt to do anything,,,,drunken hooligans were arriving from the suburbs an hour after the game, ....this is not a reflection of anything Canadian, social media et al, simply the spawn of the "94" riot morons, the last time the Canucks got this far.
Vancouver is a big city with a big heart; I walked to work at 7 am Thursday morning, the streets were clean and the air fresh......the police tips website had crashed from the out pouring of pix and videos...nothin political about that....everything is normal again and the "crims" are in jail.
This "riot" comes as no surprise to me, disgusting as it is. I have been harping on the mindless cheering of a commercially owned sports team imagining it to be a "local" team when there is not much "local" about it at all! This is just plain stupidity, moronic behavior and thuggery. Although Vancouverites may feel proud of "their" city, I cannot imagine them having the same kind of relationship with the land as a population that has evolved as a society over hundreds, if not, thousands of years. A fundamental disconnect with nature is probably at the root of such insanity - that is, not just the riot, but cheering for a commercially owned team in the first place.
The very fact that over a 100,000 people showed up, repeatedly, to cheer for a mindless series of games, in a championship that is held **every year** where the only teams are from the USA and Canada, with some players from Europe, of course, (unlike a soccer world cup or the Olympics held every 4 years and is international in scope), wearing their jerseys and waving their flags, all made in China of course, shows that some people do need to get a life.
The teams are commercially owned, the players are not all "local", and the ****ONLY**** reason these games are even played is because the owners of the teams stand to make a whole lot of money. The ONLY reason that the business community supports these shows is because they stand to make money. The ONLY reason TV channels ramp up the hype is because they get to make money. It is a totally manufactured hype, and the loyalty, in its initial stages, is a totally manufactured one. Of course, it can also be a voluntarily cultivated loyalty, in the case of new immigrants feeling the need to "fit in" and prove their loyalty. Yes, there are the elements of "fun" and thrill-seeking and mindlessness. It really doesn't take much thought to declare you're a "fan" of some team and then join the other "fans" in rooting for your team. So many people in various parts of Canada that do not have a "local" team are actually fans of teams based in the US.
This mindlessness is dangerous in these days when there are all kinds of looming threats. From climate change to a serious erosion of whatever "democracy" there is, to the state's increasing moves towards surveillance and other encroachments into people's privacy and other rights to the totally unquestioned expansion of military intervention in foreign lands, there is EVERY reason for people to completely tune out of such MADNESS and take a good hard look around.
For example, Canada has been part of the Libyan "mission" that just got extended until September when the MPs voted 294-1 after the opposition parties made their token speeches raising "concerns". The lone member to oppose the extension was the lone member of the Green Party, Elizabeth May. How many of the 100,000 "fans" assembled would care for why Canada is bombing Libya, do you think? These are most likely the same people that did not bother to show up to vote on their provincial elections that also had a referendum question on a form of proportional representation in 2009 because it was hockey season, which is for 8 months in a year, FFS!
The hype over this Stanley Cup thing has been building up for weeks. For an annually held championship where the only teams are from the US and Canada, this much hype is over the top. Of course, same with the Super Bowl and all such inanities. When one gets a glimpse into what happens behind the scenes for events such as the Olympics, any minimally sane person should be repelled by the hype even over the Olympics or any mega sporting event. I highly recommend the book "Five Ring Circus: Myths and Realities of the Olympic Games" by Christopher Shaw. People should be repelled because they are being played like fools by the establishment.
It is my conclusion that people who give in to such mindless hype will not be bothered to participate in any action for fundamental change towards a better, more equitable and more sustainable society. I would say that even the people who showed up for cleaning downtown Vancouver, despite their admirable sense of civic duty and all that, are doing so only from an extremely limited sense of civic pride. How many of these "volunteers" would be willing to participate in serious, meaningful action on climate change and the move towards a sustainable society? How many of them would question the criminality of waste and pollution involved in playing a 7-game "finals" on artificial ice so close to summer (which increases the energy demand) and where the teams flew back and forth across a whole damn continent? The 7 games were played thus: Games 1&2 in Vancouver, 3& 4 in Boston, 5 in Vancouver, 6 in Boston, game 7 in Vancouver! Does anybody give a damn about the implications on climate change due to all this mindless travelling back and forth across a whole damn continent?
And I agree with Harsha Walia (quoted in the article):
>>“There is a sense that people rioted over a ‘stupid apolitical hockey game.’ While I too wish people were motivated by social justice issues, the hockey game is not apolitical by any means. The riots were a fundamentalist defense of a type of nationalism, most evident in the beatings of Bruins fans in Vancouver last night. NHL hockey is not simply a game, it is representative of obedience to consumerism and is part of the state’s attempt to forge a false identity—despite vast differences and inequalities across race, class and gender, through the spectacle of sport.”<<
And Dave Zirin is right: "The state does reap what the state sows. We should remember that as the hand-wringing by police and government officials commences in the wake of Vancouver’s Great Hockey Riot."
The hype over what in the final analysis is a totally pointless, wasteful show was deliberately created and relentlessly ramped up by so many players, especially the media, that to feign surprise and shock at the turn of events is disingenuous.
And finally, I get this sneaky feeling that this riot will be used as an excuse for increasing the policing budget, surveillance, such as installing cameras, etc. It is unbelievable that even the fire trucks were not called in sooner, and according to at least one news item, were told to stand back due to "safety concerns" for the fire crew. Burning cars, especially burning police cars obviously make for a fantastic spectacle with a huge psychological impact on the viewers. That the police chief, the mayor and others are quickly talking about some people coming "prepared" to create trouble even before any investigation has taken place is troublesome.
"Burning cars, especially burning police cars obviously make for a fantastic spectacle with a huge psychological impact on the viewers..."
Remember the police car that was sacrificed in Toronto during the G8? The one that was actually set alight by a timed device when the Police 'abandoned' the car a hundred yards out from the protestors? Remember how up in arms the people were over that?
Yeah, that idea ran through my head too during the 2011 Hockey Riot.
The VPD and RCMP have always had an axe to grind with social activists in BC, and in Canada in general. So to let a bunch of easily predicted drunk idiots ride the trains into the downtown and a volatile situation was probably accounted for. Maybe even hoped for.
You have this wrong - if you want burning cars you go to a NASCAR race, not a hockey game. Hockey games are for bloody brawls, silly.
I agree, this is a different kind of insanity. But I was referring to the possibility that the cars were allowed to burn for maximum psychological impact, especially when seen on TV. It's hard to understand why the fire trucks were not called in sooner to put out the fires. As Galenwainwright reminds us, same thing was allowed to happen at the G8/G20 protests in Toronto. Check out the link
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/06/16/AskForIt
The eye witness account gives the impression that the Vancouver police just stood back for the most part. The excuse about concerns for the safety of the fire crew is difficult to reconcile with this account that insists that the "mob" did not look threatening at any point and the "escalation" of the riot was pretty gradual.
I understood your comment and appreciated it. Just couldn't resist a little frivolity.
I think people read way too much into this. This had little to do with axes to grind and Social activism , anarchists . leftists or such.
Teachers reported they heard students talking about going downtown with friends to be part of what they hoped would be a riot. They were telling one another what sort of stuff to bring with them. They were talking about the riots of 94.
Indeed one of the participants wrote on his facebook page something Like "I made HISTORY man...history just like those guys in 1994..." he then detailed all of the things he did and showed pictures of it on his facebook page.
The cop cars were sacrificed no more then was that truck they turned over or the dozen or so other cars they tipped and set aflame. Indeed you could see pictures of people going into parking lots and parking their cars at the very top and then masses of people staying at the top of the parkade to watch over their vehicles.
This was very different then G20. At G20 there were no riots. IT was a brutal police action against peaceful protesters. Just as Apec here in Vancouver was all those years ago.
People should refrain from trying to define all riots or such as being created equally. Some are just riots. Yes the Police like to blame it on "Anarchists" and the right wing Radio folk on "left wing radicals" but it was none of that. This was JACKASS 1 and JACKASS two type stuff. It was a typical mob scene with a whole lot of people posing for cameras and being encouraged by crowds to act even more outrageously. It was a whole lot of posing for one another .
There was a guy from the 94 riots I recall being interviewed. He mentioned he never really intended to riot when he went downtown back then but that when he saw all these other people breaking windows and looting shops he just got swept up in it. Its just how mobs act and grow. That one was much more spontaneous when it happened and it is almost romanticized on talk radio.
94 was the last time the Canucks got to the Stanley cup finals. They lost to the Rangers in the 7th game and after that game there was a much larger and more destructive riot then this one. If you listen to talk radio they rarely talk about the 94 cup run without mentioning the riots. If you look at how kids are fascinated by violence.....the types of Video games played and movies watched there's a WOW factor.
GwNorth: Once again you are right on with your comment. The observation about students planning to riot on the thrill of thinking "I made history" is especially telling. It seems an extension really of the "cult of celebrity" to which you earlier referred. If one's actions not only will be "noticed" but will "go down in history" if they are extraordinary, the narcissists of today will revel in an even more durable reflection of their images in the mirror of history. Which really shades off into the "cult of history" which defines something----anything---as "historical" if it is highly unusual (or of unusual magnitude---the biggest margin of victory in a hockey contest, the largest number of acres of forest ever burned by wild fires). In this mentality the Guiness Book of Records is the bible, and to be "in" that book is just the gravy on top of the thrill of being "on" TV or a facebook wall of photos as one participates in history-in-the-making. I believe someone actually got elected President of the United States in one recent episode of "history-making."
"This was JACKASS 1 and JACKASS two type stuff."
Lol. You're probably right, but I also don't think this sorta stuff just comes out of nowhere. Watching the footage there is undoubtedly a huge amount of rage at "play", so to speak. Even if most of the rioters were completely unaware of what they were angry about (even so, I would venture that a lot of the folks rioting came from the downtown east side -- considering the proximity -- it's a few blocks away; and poor people seem to have a better idea of the injustices of our society -- ya think?) , they were definitely angry. Again, not to say this was a political riot, but why so much anger?
Why so much anger? I think this is the question we should be asking rather than simply blaming "drunken hooligans". You may argue that sometimes an apple is just an apple. But that's not what I see in the footage. I see an enormous amount of pent up rage. It doesn't even matter much (in today's social and political climate) that most of these kids are probably middle class.
Would these symptoms manifest in a remotely "healthy" society?