My city is burning...

[Godfather]

Just wanted to vent my rage. My city, one supposed to be amongst the best and most beautiful in the world, has lost face. We were having a blast and being peacful and loving during the Olympics just months ago. Enjoying the Canucks successes and failures as adults these past weeks

But tonight a small section of young fuckers are looting, burning and rioting. Police cars are on fire. People have been stabbed. Businesses have been pillaged

This city is disgusted. Embarrassed. Furious. Humiliated. Facebook is alight with friends venting their anger at what is going on by hoodlums. We are all heartbroken. No true Canucks fan would participate in this nonsense. The Canucks Organization and Mayor of Vancouver have stated their disappointment. Even news anchors cannot contain their anger that this is happening.

I'm especially pissed because two of my girl friends were harassed by jumpy cops (understandably.) Another of my friends, a Boston fan, narrowly escaped being hurt trying to go home. And my girlfriend is trapped at a friend's condo overnight because the tear-gas and violence isn't worth trying to get through.

If you want something to rant about... move to Egypt or Libya.


So........ I know there aren't any other Vancouverites here other than Noilly to spread the word on. But a cleanup is being organized tonight by the good citizens of Vancouver for tomorrow morning. We are going to volunteer our time to help clean up the mess that a small group of bastards is creating. This mess will not be ignored by the good people of this city

Secondly, a website has been set up to link pictures from Twitter and Facebook where we will attempt to tag looters and have them convicted for their crimes. If you by chance know any youngsters who may be participating, please help identify these criminals. http://vancityriotcriminals.tumblr.com/



Anyways. Sorry to the rest of Canada and the hockey world for looking like jackasses. We'll do what we can to pick ourselves back up and prove it's the few bad apples but they will not ruin it for the rest.

Congrats again to Lance and all Bruins fans.

/rant

[AntZ]

This is a relatively new thing! I don't remember shit like this when I was young. Los Angeles has had a long history of teams winning big and losing big! Only in about the last 15 to 20 years, cities all around the country and Canada catch fire no matter if they win or lose. The Lakers and Dodgers won championships in the 80's and there was nothing but clean celebrations. When the Lakers won again in 2000, there was that huge riot at the Staple Center that spread out across down town. And like every other city, it has been repeated in some form ever since.

It's all part of the bigger problem, people have less and less restraint and respect for people and property. Just a damn shame!

[golfer]

lol welcome to Los Angeles... where fans are fans only when they win and when they do win they burn down the city to show how proud they are of a team and players who are only in it for the money...

[Godfather]

Miserable. This city lost so much more than a championship tonight. Can't explain it. I'm heartbroken. 99% of this city is heartbroken


This was really unexpected by most. Even the police who worked so hard to learn from our last riot 17 years ago didn't expect a riot. This city and the fan base have really grown up it seemed. The Canucks are much more White-Collar and corporate than they used to be. The NHL is a less underground league than years ago. Which is why this is just more shocking.

But the interest here was humongous. We had 100-120,000 people downtown -many young, many drunk. And even if 1/1000 are bad apples you're in trouble when things go sour with crowds like that. A small group of hooligans were probably going to cause trouble win or lose

[Godfather]

What scares me is that there were people were jerry-cans pouring gasoline on cars right after the game. How long had they planned this shit?


Turned from something that was at best going to be pure joy, and at worse should have just been a little depression - into hell on earth. Not we have no dignity.




I could cry...

[DemonGeminiX]

Man, I'm sorry bro. That's terrible. I hope things get under control quickly and people are safe.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

That's awful GF....it's true that just a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch. We all know this isn't representative of the vast majority of Vancouverites. Be safe my friend.

[Softdreamer]

There will always be the few that thrive on destruction, Ironically I believe that these same people would have been passionate artisans if their lives had gone down a different path. In modern cities the population is condensed and this sort of thing happens more and more.

Moving to an underpopulated area merely decreases the chances of it happening, But eventually the ugly side of expressionism rears its head.


Deep down inside us all there is a dark side, that can be pushed in any direction. You only have to see 3 men lighting a BBQ to understand how close we are to chaos.

[Yt Trash]

Well at the very least, Miami didn't burn when we lost they NBA finals!

[Goofy]

Just seeing this on sky sports news right now

[Goofy]

It's all part of the bigger problem, people have less and less restraint and respect for people and property. Just a damn shame!

My thoughts entirely

[Wyeast]

There will always be the few that thrive on destruction,

Not only that, but there are those that thrive on being literally dicks to their fellow human beings. Any excuse. Those are the ones who brought jerry cans to the game.

[MrsM]

One thing that I saw last night in the news footage that bugged me was the people that were gathering around to watch and take pictures of the riot. If these people who were not doing the damage just left then the few that were causing the damage would stand out. Instead they were hidden in these big crowds and were able to get away with crap.

GF - I know how passionate you are of Vancouver and I think the planned cleanup will show how great the true people of Vancouver are. However I doubt this will make worldwide news like the riot.

This makes me angry and I hope many people are tagged in the pics and get what they deserve.

[Wyeast]

Goddamn Youtube punks.

[Muddy]

Jesus GF....