Riots in downtown Vancouver

[scottbee]

Sadly; on behalf of the sane citizens of Vancouver; I'd like to apologize for what's going on downtown right now

http://www.cknw.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocal/Story.aspx?ID=1443631

 

 

If you're here visiting tonight, stay indoors.

[sail7seas]

Being from Boston, I almost feel like I want to apologize for the Bruins having won. It isn't worth violence in any city.

 

[Cruise_More_Often]

Just saw the coverage on a San Francisco station. Those who don't know Vancouver are getting the wrong picture of Vancouver.

[ell52]

I'm saddened and disgusted at what's happening. These are not true hockey fans and certainly not indicative of most Vancouverites. I hope no one gets hurt tonight. :(

[Keith1010]

I just saw coverage of this on one of the cable stations.

 

As much as we enjoy sports, it's only a game.

 

Wow!

 

Keith

[arewethereyet]

Unreasoning emotional fans + loss + a lot of alcohol = riot

 

It can happen anywhere if you have those ingredients.

[cruiseryyc]

Sadly the same thing probably would have happened if the Canucks had won. Hooligans NOT hockey fans.

[BCHappyGal]

Please do not judge Vancouver by a few "Hot Heads" who are definitely not representative of Vancouverites. Last nights actions in downtown Vancouver shames me deeply! Yes our Canucks lost the game. We had enjoyed a wonderful time getting together each game night in huge crowds to watch and cheer on the players. All other nights it was a joyful crowd who cheered for their team and at the end of the night went home peacefully.

 

Last night a few caused trouble. Please do not let this make you think poorly of the rest (majority) of us here in Vancouver.

[quincytoo]

These were not true Canuck fans nor were they proud Canadians, these idiots were thugs whose only intent was to cause trouble. A good game was played last might and the hand shakes and hugs given to the the Boston team by the Canucks is truly how most of us felt.

 

It sickens me that this happened. I have my sister working in Vancouver for a few days and staying close enough to downtown to walk down last night with family. They left very shortly after the third goal and spent most of the night behind their locked door, listerning to the sound of helicopters and sirens, praying that they would be safe. :(:mad:

[drlynn]

We watched the game on tv last night and we were disappointed in the way fans were booing so loudly at the end of the game that hearing the announcers was nearly impossible. At the end of every game some team will be on the losing end, doesn't have to result in bad sportsmanship by the fans. I don't think the fans from the game were responsible for the terrible reaction in the streets...

[Langley Cruisers]

We need to pull together, clean up, begin to heal, and prosecute those who are responsible. Thankfully in this day and age of media coverage, Facebook, You Tube, social media, facial recognition and so on, the instigators will be brought to justice.

 

Such a different scene than last year's highly successful Winter Olympics. Tell me... which do you think we'll be remembered for? :(

[LeftcoastBC]

We watched the game on tv last night and we were disappointed in the way fans were booing so loudly at the end of the game that hearing the announcers was nearly impossible. At the end of every game some team will be on the losing end, doesn't have to result in bad sportsmanship by the fans. I don't think the fans from the game were responsible for the terrible reaction in the streets...

 

If you were a real hockey fan you would know they were booing one tiny little person who we blame everything on and always will. Gary Bettman.

 

He's the reason for all wrong doing in the NHL and why "We" (the Royal we" never win. :D We never booed the announcers just Bettman.. That little weasel. !!!! Being a real fan myself it was the only time I smiled all night. :)

 

Seeing the pictures from last night my first thought was. Wow were we ever lucky at the Olympics.

 

Unfortunately with the general population increase the fools also makes gains in numbers and they seemed to all be there last night.

[HillbillyInBC]

SMH at what a bunch of brainless bridge-and-tunnel yobs did to my city last night. Hope you folks won't hold it against the rest of us.

[CMYK_iNK]

It is sad and disgusting but the VPD are working hard to catch many of the offenders. It is a small group of disturbers like many of the other posters have mentioned, and fortunately there are some very clear photos of their faces out there.

 

That being said, for those of you visiting Vancouver soon, rest assured that this morning other than a couple boarded up windows, Vancouver is looking clean and peaceful. Hundreds of fans in Canucks jerseys came to the city this morning for a big cleanup, and our city is looking much better today.

[sail7seas]

It can happen anywhere given the right (or more correctly wrong) circumstances.

Boston Police were 'all hands on deck' last night in Boston and the game wasn't even played here. They refused to permit a 'watch the game' party in the Garden (where Bruins play) as they feared trouble either if they won or lost. They limited parking in the general area and there was a huge presence of uniformed police. Thankfully, Boston fans gathered and celebrated but so far as I have heard there was no destruction etc

 

There will be a celebration parade Saturday where the team will ride the Duck Boats (google if you're not sure what they are and you are curious) with the Stanley Cup.

 

Some of us are speculating they may change the usual celebration route to bring the Bruins to Fenway Park where Red Sox have a game scheduled. Would be so exciting for the Bruins to all appear there with The Cup and throw out the first ball.

 

Most reasonable people know what happened in Vancouver last night is not the norm nor what to expect. It was a bunch of out of control, disappointed, poor sports..... and worse.

[gillybean1974]

As a Vancouver Canucks fan also living in the Vancouver area I apologize also. It is very humilating for us to see what happened last night, many of these people were not true hockey fans, some only wore those jerseys as a disguise. I'm listening to the VPD conference right now about this, very sad.

Vancouver is a beautiful world class city, truly hoping that this black mark will not stay with us forever. The tourist staying before or after their Alska cruises must have been terrified. Please don't let these events put you off visiting this beautiful city!!

It is inspiring to hear hundreds of volunteers downtown right now cleaning up, those are true Vancouverites and hockey fans!

 

There was no reason to riot, there was noone to blame for this. Tim Thomas was amazing, Congrats Boston on your Stanley Cup win.

 

Gillian :)

[gillybean1974]

It can happen anywhere given the right (or more correctly wrong) circumstances.

Boston Police were 'all hands on deck' last night in Boston and the game wasn't even played here. They refused to permit a 'watch the game' party in the Garden (where Bruins play) as they feared trouble either if they won or lost. They limited parking in the general area and there was a huge presence of uniformed police. Thankfully, Boston fans gathered and celebrated but so far as I have heard there was no destruction etc

 

There will be a celebration parade Saturday where the team will ride the Duck Boats (google if you're not sure what they are and you are curious) with the Stanley Cup.

 

Some of us are speculating they may change the usual celebration route to bring the Bruins to Fenway Park where Red Sox have a game scheduled. Would be so exciting for the Bruins to all appear there with The Cup and throw out the first ball.

 

Most reasonable people know what happened in Vancouver last night is not the norm nor what to expect. It was a bunch of out of control, disappointed, poor sports..... and worse.

 

I think your city had the right idea in not having any game watching big crowds last night. We did not have nearly enough police downtown to deal with this despite what they are saying. Congrats to your team, it must be so exciting to see your team win the cup!!

 

Gillian :)

[Cruise_More_Often]

If you were a real hockey fan you would know they were booing one tiny little person who we blame everything on and always will. Gary Bettman.

 

He's the reason for all wrong doing in the NHL and why "We" (the Royal we" never win. :D We never booed the announcers just Bettman.. That little weasel. !!!! Being a real fan myself it was the only time I smiled all night. :)

 

Seeing the pictures from last night my first thought was. Wow were we ever lucky at the Olympics.

 

Unfortunately with the general population increase the fools also makes gains in numbers and they seemed to all be there last night.

Thank you for explaining this, because I also didn't understand the booing. I just Googled Gary Bettman, and it looks like EVERYONE involved with hockey would have booed him. Here's a link to an article in the Atlanta paper about the Vancouver booing and how Atlantans would have booed, too: "Bettman booing music to Thrashers fans' ears . . ."

[scottbee]

Thank you for explaining this, because I also didn't understand the booing. I just Googled Gary Bettman, and it looks like EVERYONE involved with hockey would have booed him. Here's a link to an article in the Atlanta paper about the Vancouver booing and how Atlantans would have booed, too: "Bettman booing music to Thrashers fans' ears . . ."

 

Switching to the Gary Bettman discussion, he is pretty much universally despised by hockey fans, especially those in Canada where he has allowed the departure of two Canadian teams to the United States.

 

For example, Winnipeg's franchise moved to Phoenix (not exactly a hockey hotbed) and now the team is owned by the league because the previous ownership went bankrupt, and it's subsidized by the league and the city ( to the tune of $25m/yr). A Canadian billionaire offered to buy it cash and move it to Hamilton (50 miles from Toronto); to an existing arena; had major sponsors lined up etc etc and the league nixed the idea.

 

I doubt it's actually safe for gary bettman to wander alone in the streets of Canada; and it was wonderful to watch him say "I'm happy the NHL has returned to Winnipeg" when Atlanta's failed NHL franchise was bought and has tentatively moved back to Canada

 

TV revenues for national contracts are split amongst all 30 teams, sadly more than 50% the TV revenue comes from Canada but that's only 20% of the teams; and Canadian fans are fed up in supporting failed US experiments in hockey. Heck, Canadian companies are buying the naming rights to US arenas, because they realize it ends up being broadcast in Canada. Can you say "TD Gardens" in Boston (Toronto Dominion Bank), or the "RBC Center" in Raliegh (Royal Bank of Canada) ??

[CoolCruiser1979]

Vancouver is a beautiful world class city, truly hoping that this black mark will not stay with us forever. The tourist staying before or after their Alska cruises must have been terrified.

Gillian :)

 

 

I see no reason for anyone on these boards to apologize for the terrible actions of others. A similar situation happened a few years ago in Detroit that gave our city a black eye for years. It's just a shame that so many were hospitalized and arrested over a game.

 

I will second what a beautiful city Vancouver is and has always been. I can't wait to be there in a few weeks for our cruise. Still planning on a few days stay in the area, too.

[CMYK_iNK]

Glad to hear. You will be very safe. Vancouver is one of the safest cities in the world to travel to, and this one incident is an extremely rare occurrence and easily predicted/avoided. Walking downtown, you can see it's almost been completely cleaned up. I hope you have a great trip!

[mr.jdm]

Just to let you people know. Vancouver Police have began arresting those "kids" part of the riot last night. They even pulled out someone from summer school. placed under arrest right in the school. He was seen smashing windows at Bank of Montreal in downtown last night

[Urban trekker]

Thanks for Scott and Left Coast BC for telling it like it is with Bettman - he is more despised than some of our local politicans and that is saying something.

 

A few more facts:

 

Police estimate the crowd in the downtown core at more than 100,000 - the number of serious idiots at less than a thousand so that is less than 1% of those there - some have been identified as the same thugs who caused some of the Olympic carnage in the same general location.

 

The flagship London Drug store at Georgia and Granville had there staff trapped inside for over two hours while the police worked to get them to safety - they suffered about a million dollar in inventory loss and store damage - BUT THEY HAVE OVER 200 HD PHOTOS OF THE THUGS AND ARE ALREADY ASKING THEM TO TURN THEMSELVES IN - LIKELY NOT TO HAPPEN - for those who don`t know the London Drugs chain of more than 70 stores and one of the largest employers in the Province is a Vancouver tradition - okay there head office is in Richmond a suburb and are well respected in the Community. A spokesperson for the company stated that the looters knew what they wanted and where it was in the store. They7 were also opened for business today and receiving lots of people offering there support - given their financial and political clout I wouldn`t be surprised if they took out full page ads in the papers and posted the pictures.

 

There are also reports that many people found some of the looted stuff and turned it into the police or transit police as they were leaving the area.

 

It was announced that around 12,000 people came down town to help clean up the mess - many were told thank you but there isn`t enough work for you to do.

 

As stated large numbers of young people in Canucks gear are down in the area doing the clean up etc.

 

People were very angry today - as once again a small band of anarchists and thugs have spoiled it for the masses.

 

Police are getting good marks for there overall handling of the situation.

 

While I was on Granville last night a younger person passed me with a Trevor Linder tri-color 1994 era hockey shirt - one of many that were been worn - what makes me mad was when he turned around his faced was completely covered with a red bandana - For those who don`t know Trevor is as close to a hockey God in this town as we are likely to see and to see someone who was probably involved in the chaos wearing a Linden jersey makes me sick.

 

One of the reporters for our all news station had his cell phone ripped out of his hands while attempting to film a group of thugs breaking down the doors to the Sears store and after the first person dropped the phone and he tried to retrieve it he was warned not to attempt to and another person took off with it.

 

I also feel sorry for the couple that I met on the street - near Davie and Granville earlier in the evening who were staying at the Comfort Inn - near the epicenter of the war zone who were going to eat on Davie and then return to there hotel - don`t know if they made it back or not.

 

As I posted on some of the other threads and on my FB page - what in our DNA turns us from fun loving - high fiving fans into hooligans in a matter of minutes.

 

AS A NATIVE BORN VANCOUVERITE PLEASE ACCEPT MY APOLOGIES FOR THE DESPICABLE BEHAVIOUR SHOWN BY SOME LOWER LIFES LAST NIGHT.

 

I normally sign off with the word Cheers but I don`t think that is appropiate for this post.

 

Thanks for letting me vent - I can accept the hockey defeat I can`t accept the mob mentality that ruined it for so many last night - there actually is a person posting on an alternate media site bragging about the great job that was done in breaking so many windows.

 

Dennis

[Urban trekker]

Thanks Mr JDM for the update - given how mad people are I suspect a lot of video will be forwarded to the police - these thugs have to realize that the social media can work both ways.

 

Dennis

[sail7seas]

I see no reason for anyone on these boards to apologize for the terrible actions of others. A similar situation happened a few years ago in Detroit that gave our city a black eye for years. It's just a shame that so many were hospitalized and arrested over a game.

 

I will second what a beautiful city Vancouver is and has always been. I can't wait to be there in a few weeks for our cruise. Still planning on a few days stay in the area, too.

 

 

I agree. There is no reason for anyone here to apologize unless they were among the wrongdoers and I seriously doubt anyone meets that description.

 

I look forward to someday having the opportunity to visit Vancouver. I've heard all wonderful things about your city.... and seen beautiful photos. :)