Are Canuck fans Sore Losers or Idiots?

[johnnybluenose]

Poor Poll question/answer choices. I don't think Nucks fans are poor losers, I think the fans (true fans of hockey and our team) were respectful and classy to the B's at the 'Rog and clips and notes I saw from Pub and living room gatherings, and the ovations given to Timmy Thomas and Milan Lucic were evidence of that. I think that these schmuck punk kids and their entitled silverspoon middle class girlfriends need to all be locked up and have the keys thrown into false creek.

I don't think the events of last night (We're talking likely no more than a few hundred hooligans surrounded by a bunch of equally retarded hangers-on snapping pics and getting vids on their iphones) reflect the city of Vancouver and Canucks fans. That being said perception is reality, and this is an epic black eye on our city. All of the credibility, respect, and goodwill built up during the month of February 2010 is gone. I feel sick.

I'm going to put my tinfoil hat on here: These "Black Block" guys were down there last night. Standing on top of the action from elevated spaces prodding the idiots to continue. They were there at the Olympic demonstrations, they were at the G20 in T-Dot, they were there last night.

A few thoughts:
1) Why weren't the cops on horseback and there in full garb ready halfway through the 3rd? *And I mean no disrespect to the Cops (RCMP, VPD and otherwise) - they showed restraint and put their personal safety on the line to protect the innocent and provide safe egress from harms way for the innocent and are to be applauded on an individual basis.
2) Why do we need to have these "Livesites"? In hindsight (which is always 20/20) these are usually a bad idea, are costly to run. this wasn't the olympics, we didn't have a $1B security budget in place. This was playing with fire.
3) I would honestly hope any of us that see our acquaintances and friends who have been caught on film, or have been posting on fb,twitter etc any shenanigans that they report them to vpd and rcmp. I had one "buddy" of mine displaying his loot from London Drugs (A pile of deodorant picture supposedly taken with his "new" ipad) and have grabbed the screenshot from fb and VPD will be emailed shortly.
4) These "Black Block" types. If you're a VPD member and you see someone dressed head to toe in black pants, shirt and hoody with a backpack why are you not tapping them on the back and asking to search their bag and arresting them on the spot?! If you're finding bandanas, masks bellaclavas, arrest them.

People protest and riot worldwide to better bad situations, like in Greece where their entire economic system is bankrupt, in the middle east and African countries where people are fighting for liberation from oppressive regimes

I shudder to think what people from other supposedly sophisticated societies are thinking of our fair city today.

Embarrassed.
Ashamed.
Gutted.
Disappointed.


again, I encourage all of you to look through your facebook and twitter etc and see if you can spot anyone you know amongst the rabble rousers and report them.

oh to own a glass business today.

 

[Sir M]

how do the streets look?

Like a bit of a war zone.

 

[oldtimer]

Like everyone else here, terribly embarrassed, ashamed, and angry over the events last night. As a parent watching the mayhem (knowing that both my son and daughter were downtown) just praying not to see one of them in the pictures, finally daughter phones, says she's OK but locked up in a Mcdonalds, sheer panic in her voice as she describes the scene outside. Can't get a hold of my son (he had told us earlier that his phone was dying) but he made it home OK. Tossed and turned all night, and still disgusted this morning. Just think, the fireworks are next month, should they even be on??? One other thing, what do the parents of these idiots think, seeing their kids on TV acting like this?? Or, what do these idiots think, knowing that their parents, grandparents, friends, are seeing them do this. I know what I would do...

 

[johnnybluenose]

My girls are almost 4 and almost 2. I don't pretend to know what I would do if I saw them on TV rioting (not at ages 4 and 2 obviously, in perhaps 15-20 years)... The parent in me would want to hide them away and protect them from "justice" the citizen in me would want to forfeit them over to the Cops for Prosecution.

For those of you with teenage kids... What would you do, in all honesty?

 

[Luch]

Like a bit of a war zone.

#whatadisgrace

 

[italian_stallion21]

The one nice thing out of this is the response from the true Vancouverites. I've seen numerous facebooks groups and websites getting people together to volunteer and help clean up Vancouver, which is maybe why Berg said it was so clean at 4:45 this morning. I've also seen a ton of pictures being thrown up of the rioter's/looters so hopefully that keeps up and we can nail as many as possible.

 

[trece verde]

The fcuktards who did the damage last night are not Canucks fans. Are Canucks fans sore losers? Collectively, no more so than any team's fans who have just lost out in a game 7 situation. The poll options aren't really indicative of the vast majority of us who are Canucks fans - we say "ah shite," grumble a bit, and go home and nurse our hangovers and wait until next season; losing in as graceful and dignified a manner as possible.

Personal thoughts: the VPD showed exceptional restraint, especially when two cruisers were flipped over and being trashed. Too slow to react? I don't think so; why would anybody want to make a volatile situation worse? Maybe not enough of a presence soon enough, but who can say? Would having more visible police presence earlier in the evening have prevented this from happening? Don't know; crowd management is always a dodgy subject. Hopefully this does NOT prevent future live sites or public events (anybody remember that this is an anniversary year for the city?).

Stal is correct about the Facebook cleanup groups. There are people who take pride in this place. There were also people documented last night who did stop or try to stop looting; some were shown on the news.

JBN: re your question about teens, I have 2, and neither were interested in being downtown last night. They watched with friends. Daemonspawn #1 went downtown with friends for Game 6, but they said that it was a royal pain trying to get home, so they probably would not have done it again. Some neighbours with kids that age "just said no." Others a bit older did go, but came home right after, all safely. You like to hope that you've done the parenting thing properly and that your kids (or others that you know) will not be involved in crap like this.

 

[reedie]

Text exchange with Reedie last night before 5PM:

Regs: You at the game?
Reedie: YES
Reedie: issues on Georgia street
Regs: uh oh

This is before the game had even started

Yes, it was quite eerie to read that text exchange this morning.

But you could almost see it coming before the game. We made a massive error and tried to walk down Georgia to Rogers Arena at 4:30pm and trouble was already brewing. It was a sea of people, including women and children, and you literally could not move in any direction without a giant push from several people behind you. Retailers who had locked down their stores were holding up signs in the window that read "police are on the way". Tempers were flaring. Panic was in the air and there were no signs of any order...or of any help. I don't know what would have happened if the Canucks had won but you just got this feeling a loss might push the situation over the edge.

After a very eventful game for many reasons, made a b-line to get as far away from Georgia as possible and ended up at Fortes. Did not even realize what was happening until we sat down on the deck and looked at the tv. Then the smoke started to rise over downtown Vancouver and the doors were bolted shut at the restaurant. Trapped in Joe Fortes...could be worse I guess.

The great majority of people on Georgia Street were younger people... even younger females....all in the 18-24 demographic. And if you look at the pictures, the same thing can be said about a lot of the morons that were doing the damage to the city. It just seems to me like the younger generation does not care about putting a black eye on the city...they are more concerned with "looking cool" because they are standing on top of a burning car. I think when they look back at this in 10-15 years, they will be ashamed of their own behaviour.

 

[R-Tee]

STD of course I meant to add to your post, hence the " furthermore"

Anyway, just looking over the pics online from yesterday, makes me sick. Like the guy lighting the cop car's gas tank on fire, I would have tried to stop that shite. On the contrary, it is good to hear/ read about good things people were doing to help out!

 

[Regs]

... Did not even realize what was happening until we sat down on the deck and looked at the tv. Then the smoke started to rise over downtown Vancouver and the doors were bolted shut at the restaurant. Trapped in Joe Fortes...could be worse I guess.

Deja Vu Reedie - remember in '94 walking along Robson from the bar we watched the game at all the way to the Shark club on Georgia, calling my bird at the time to come pick us up and she was asking "are you guys OK?" - we had no idea at the time what was transpiring back on Robson.

What a fcuking gong show.

 

[trece verde]

Post Riot Clean-up - Let's help Vancouver

 

[Luch]

Just heard Bruce Allen's Reality Check on the Mayor. A good rant.

 

[johnnybluenose]

Gregor will have to answer to inviting this amount of people down to the Downtown core and not having the police already organised and just hoping all will be well and then calling the reserves in.

Liek I said before, the Olympics has a $1B budget for this, this didn't. They tried to do it with existing VPD resources and everyone came out of the burbs and parts elsewhere and they devastated the DT Core.

 

[Bronco]

Ok, a couple of things.

First, most of you know I am a Leaf fan, but I was wholeheartedly behind the Canuck run this Spring.

The actions last night were deplorable. It IS true that this was pre-meditated and would have happened whether the Canucks won or lost. When you show up with a backpack full of accelarants and incindiery devices, you really don't give a fcuk what the outcome of any game is. Having said that, I disagree with the notion that there were no "fans" involved in this. Yes, the ring leaders are a group of career rioters who seized on an opportunity where tens of thousands of people had gathered. But folks, there were an AWFUL LOT of Canucks jerseys involved in the mayhem. The vast majority of fans are law abiding, but please call a spade a spade.

broncowaspartoftheweareallcanucksfor2months

 

[fat monkey]

Just spoke with one of our courier drivers, who is a complete dcik head. He was very proud of some video footage he shot while down at the mess last night involving wrecking police cars and destroying the big screen. In total, he showed us about 10 minutes worth of video that he shot on his phone, all the while you could hear him cheering the rioters on. When asked why he stuck around, he said "It was fun to watch."

After he said that to me, I had serious trouble controlling my emotions. But I politely said that we had work to do. After he left, I called his office and told them not to send him in anymore and that we requested a new driver. I said that we wouldn't allow him to take our stuff because we had serious conflicts with him personally. The supervisor I spoke with never questioned why.

I don't want anyone handling my product with judgement so mis-guided. What a twit.

Was that an over-the-top reaction? I happen to be quite comfortable with it.

 

[5bigtoes]

'94 riot - working
Hyatt riot - working
APEC - working
Guns and Roses - working
2011 riot - working

you think after working all these years and being involved in all these bloody riots, a grizzled vet like me I would have had enough and found a way out?

let me thing JB-NOSE?

IDIOTS!!!!!!!!! some people just do not care....

 

[STD]

Not at all monkey if it was me I would have told him personally how I feel about him (unless he was a big guy, God may hate a coward but I am not planning on meeting him for awhile). Yesterday before the game I was picking up a check from a customer of ours, thanks postal service, and I over heard their parts guy talking on the phone about how there was going to be a riot if Vancouver loses. He seemed almost proud about it but I thought Vancouver had grown since 94. The way I feel today I may tell him where to go if he calls for parts.

 

[Mercurial]

 

[fat monkey]

STD, the reason I didn't say anything to his face is because he had already loaded our stuff into his vehicle. I didn't want to chance it getting "lost."

 

[johnnybluenose]

'94 riot - working
Hyatt riot - working
APEC - working
Guns and Roses - working
2011 riot - working

you think after working all these years and being involved in all these bloody riots, a grizzled vet like me I would have had enough and found a way out?

let me thing JB-NOSE?

IDIOTS!!!!!!!!! some people just do not care....

I don't know what you mean by your comment mentioning me... I was applauding the individuals protecting the innocents. I take it you're a cop based on what you said above. I have the utmost respect for the VPD members and RCMP members... I'm not criticizing them. I'm criticizing Mayor Gregor for inviting every knuckle dragger Ed Hardy T Shirt wearing wanna-be thug and hooligan from the Burbs to wreck the DT Core and not having help from other muni's cops.

Hindsight is always 20/20 and last nights actions is the reason why things like a livecity event are a bad idea unless you as a city have paid the RCMP to come in an supplement the VPD force.

Just my humble ignorant opinion.