Delete This Account Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 I've no doubt JW is more clued in about Vancouver than me but it seems from an outsiders view than Vancouver has a penchant for rioting. They rioted after the '94 finals. They rioted during the '97 APEC meetings. They rioted during last years Olympic games (small compared to the others but still a few hundred people). Now there's the past riots from the '11 finals. Could it be the culture there? I've read that there's a anarchist movement that's pretty strong there. Some are reporting the riots were organized by these groups others saying the opposite. What I'm NOT saying is that all those people where that, but it doesn't take many to whip a mob up into a frenzy. Maybe I'm completely full of it but there seems to be something going on their that's more than Canada's version of being an "Ugly American". So any more insight JW can give I'd appreciate it. the APEC riots were minor. i was there in the midst of them. and it was a bunch of out-of-town protestors who tour around to attend these things. it's much of the same folk who ripped apart Seattle a few years back. there is an extremist fringe of nutjobs out there, but to have the VPD chief pin all of what happened on "20 or 30 well-organized anarchists" is quite specious to me, and self-serving. it was these "anarchists" who did some damage at the Bay store during the Olympics, but i don't know. rebels without a clue is more like it. as i noted, anarchists aside, from what i saw in the pictues, this looked like a bunch of hopped up kids -- many of them who had ridden the skytrain down from Surrey, Coquitlam, Richmond and Burnaby -- along with a bunch of rabble that hang out downtown that decided a hootenany was in order, and took advantage of those who couldn't handle their beer, which is another reason to question how Canada's gone soft. of course, this couldn't happen in most places in Canada, because there's just not enough people to go around, which is why i think you see this stuff happen in major cities, Vancouver and Montreal. i'm leaving out Toronto because, really, the Maple Leafs haven't given their fans reason to be passionate for 50 years. but i could see the Scarboroughites going nuts. as for calgary and edmonton, i don't know. it would be like people in Boise or Des Moines rioting, or Mizzoula. jw
ricojes Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 not sure if this link was posted yet, but I have heard this theory several times.
Delete This Account Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 (edited) not sure if this link was posted yet, but I have heard this theory several times. well aware, but there are doubts. here's a well-written opinion piece from a doubter. Bruce Arthur: National Post what's funny about the mayor's comments is they evidently had "no advance warning." ... uh, how do you respond to that? 1. well, after all the damage, would you admit that you actually HAD advanced warning? 2. is there some form that the rioters were supposed to fill out? 3. maybe it got lost in the fax machine. these things happen, you know. 4. not only are they anarchists, but the worst kind of anarchists: they're impolite! 5. maybe you didn't check their facebook page. jw Edited June 17, 2011 by john wawrow
shrader Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 As usual, the truth lies somewhere in between. There were some people who were there looking to cause trouble and there were those where the rioting was far more spontaneous. Either way, it seems to me like this was going to happen no matter who won, which does say a bit about that area.
Jauronimo Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 well aware, but there are doubts. here's a well-written opinion piece from a doubter. Bruce Arthur: National Post what's funny about the mayor's comments is they evidently had "no advance warning." ... uh, how do you respond to that? 1. well, after all the damage, would you admit that you actually HAD advanced warning? 2. is there some form that the rioters were supposed to fill out? 3. maybe it got lost in the fax machine. these things happen, you know. 4. not only are the anarchists, but impolite! 5. maybe you didn't check their facebook page. jw In China citizens are required to fill out forms to get permits in order to protest, so I can see where the Mayor is coming from. I cannot imagine how much paperwork it would take to get permission to riot in Beijing. And fax is all but obsolete, so I would wager the anarchists forgot to attach the agenda to an e-mail.
DC Tom Posted June 18, 2011 Posted June 18, 2011 And fax is all but obsolete, so I would wager the anarchists forgot to attach the agenda to an e-mail. Anarchists getting permits to be anarchists. Most of the few I've known are just that dumb.
Spun Posted June 18, 2011 Posted June 18, 2011 Canadian smackdown... I was thinking that maybe the low drinking age in Canada - 19 years old (18 in Quebec) might have had something to do with the riots... Sometimes, all it takes is a few hundred people to give an entire city and an entire country a bad name. Losing hurts the most when the expectations are high.
Jim in Anchorage Posted June 18, 2011 Posted June 18, 2011 Canadian smackdown... I was thinking that maybe the low drinking age in Canada - 19 years old (18 in Quebec) might have had something to do with the riots... Sometimes, all it takes is a few hundred people to give an entire city and an entire country a bad name. Losing hurts the most when the expectations are high. Hence the 4 Buffalo Super Bowl riots.
Just Jack Posted June 18, 2011 Posted June 18, 2011 Hence the 4 Buffalo Super Bowl riots. And the riots in Miami when they lost to the Mavs this week.
DC Tom Posted June 18, 2011 Posted June 18, 2011 Hence the 4 Buffalo Super Bowl riots. It's Buffalo, we expect to have our high expectations unmet.
Jim in Anchorage Posted June 18, 2011 Posted June 18, 2011 It's Buffalo, we expect to have our high expectations unmet. Too cold to riot in January anyway.
CowgirlsFan Posted June 18, 2011 Posted June 18, 2011 And the riots in Miami when they lost to the Mavs this week. But NONE in Dallas and we won!! Dallas fans even behaved at the parade. However... there were 2 parades in the 90's...I'll be kind and not say why... and those didn't go as well as the one on Thursday but not as bad as the ones in Miami.
Delete This Account Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 Want to take a wager on the proportion of suburbanites vs city dwellers in the rampage? though there are no numbers, here, this story in the Globe and Mail helps confirm my belief that this was a bunch of entitled suburban kids. ... well, entitled rich kids at least. The sad, painful truth about the Vancouver riots jw
Spun Posted June 21, 2011 Posted June 21, 2011 (edited) You're absolutely right John! People in Vancouver and Toronto are exactly the same type of "boorish, arrogant maple-leaf peddlars" as people from Regina, Saskatchewan and Flin Flon, Manitoba. Those two towns are full of rampant patriotism gone amuck! Your comments about Ottawa absolutely wreak of the smug obnoxiousness that a Vancouverite possesses. It's the same level of nonsense the city of Buffalo has to put up with from "better" cities like New York. Just like the people of Buffalo don't give a rat's arse what New York thinks, we of Ottawa could care less how Vancouver views our "boring" "surbananite" RIOT-FREE city. But carry on your need to present the "Ugly Canadian". Painting an entire nation with one fell stroke I guess is required these days to make the world a happy place. I get what you are saying Heels20X6. I wouldn't venture to portray the people of Yellowknife and Whitehorse in the same barrel either! I went to the WJC in Buffalo and met Canadians from all over the country. Vancouver, Regina, Gaspe, Quebec and of course all over Ontario. It was impressive to see people travel from so far away in support of their junior team. As cities and countries get larger mob mentalities also grow. The Ugly Canadian moniker is neither fair nor accurate in describing the range of people in Canada, including Flin Flon! The same argument applies to the Ugly American who can stench their way from most anywhere but still be atypical of many places. Grouping 34 million Canadians together? Try 311 million Americans. I do think that along with the boozed fans erupting in riots an ugliness in the cultures of both countries has come out as one in recent years. Same TV, internet and phone technology has changed both countries together in some not so evolved ways. The "Look at me" syndrome gets old. Too cold to riot in January anyway. Or in June '99 after "No Goal" when maybe a riot was in order... I can't remember, maybe it was cold that night also! Edited June 21, 2011 by Spun
Jim in Anchorage Posted June 21, 2011 Posted June 21, 2011 Or in June '99 after "No Goal" when maybe a riot was in order... I can't remember, maybe it was cold that night also! Too hot. Buffalo has a very short outdoor rioting season.
DrDawkinstein Posted June 22, 2011 Posted June 22, 2011 Sad post right here: http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/rds/msg/2449158332.html
bbb Posted June 22, 2011 Posted June 22, 2011 Too hot. Buffalo has a very short outdoor rioting season. None when the Bandits have won - usually in May!
KD in CA Posted June 22, 2011 Posted June 22, 2011 though there are no numbers, here, this story in the Globe and Mail helps confirm my belief that this was a bunch of entitled suburban kids. ... well, entitled rich kids at least. The sad, painful truth about the Vancouver riots jw I've always assumed that's who made up most of the 'anarchist' crowd anyway -- college educated white guys who are either too lazy to work for a living or believed a little too much of the global conspiracy crap that some wacky professor told them about.
DrDawkinstein Posted June 22, 2011 Posted June 22, 2011 I've always assumed that's who made up most of the 'anarchist' crowd anyway -- college educated white guys who are either too lazy to work for a living or believed a little too much of the global conspiracy crap that some wacky professor told them about. The problem is not a "college education" as you infer. The problem is the "Special Little Prince/Princess" upbringing, and their college education being paid for entirely by the parents. All of this stuff starts at home with the parents. Not the college professors.
DC Tom Posted June 22, 2011 Posted June 22, 2011 I've always assumed that's who made up most of the 'anarchist' crowd anyway -- college educated white guys who are either too lazy to work for a living or believed a little too much of the global conspiracy crap that some wacky professor told them about. There's a core of professional anarchists (professional protesters, really, of which the anarchists are only a part) that travel the country to different events and get college kids organized by convincing them they're being "counter-culture" and "edgy". Not that that's what happened in Vancouver...I highly doubt the professional anarchists travelled to Vancouver just to riot after Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. But it is a different - and much smaller - crowd than the stupid spoiled college kids crowd.
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