Posted on 06/16/2011 7:46:13 AM PDT by MplsSteve
Angry Canucks fans are on a rampage, smashing windows, looting and torching cars and dumpsters on the streets of downtown Vancouver.
More than three hours after the Stanley Cup final loss, police are moving up Howe St. toward the crowd massed at the Chapters book store on Howe and Robson.
They are very gradually pushing the crowd North up Howe.
Police spokeswoman Jana McGuiness warned earlier that police are about to escalate their response.
She said they will be igniting flash-bangs, which make loud noises and spray.
"What we're doing right now is bringing in hundreds of police officers."
The message is, you need to leave."
Officers armed with canisters massed on the corner of Granville and Robson. It is not clear whether it is tear gas or pepper spray
They are protected by shields, batons and masks.
McGuiness said the epicentre of the trouble is Granville and Georgia, she said. And even if transit isn't operating, people need to walk away from the area, she said.
When asked if police had lost control of the crowd, McGuiness would only say police have a plan to deal with the unruly crowds.
Vancouver police are closing lanes on Granville and Burrard and Cambie Street bridges to prevent more people from coming Downtown. Bus service has been halted in the downtown core
(Excerpt) Read more at vancouversun.com ...
But from the pictures on the website, parts of downtown Vancouver appear to be a total mess. I'm only slightly amazed that no one was killed.
But when you look at thiese pictures, I get the feeling that a strong majority of the rioters were only casual hockey fans at best and most were street punks and other assorted dirtballs who frequent downtown Vancouver.
Comments or opinions - anyone?
Its a shame, this stuff is usually limited to NBA games.
The outcome was obvious before the series even started. The refs were giving Boston the cup.
They need to calm down and resume wrestling bears and drinking maple syrup like Justin Morneau.
They need to calm down and resume wrestling bears and drinking maple syrup like Justin Morneau.
Uhh. Yeah. Sure.
I didn’t get to bed until after 2 AM EST, because I couldn’t tear away from the live feed.
I feel bad for the normal people in Vancouver. They are clearly disgusted and embarrassed by this, and who wouldn’t be?
If it happened in Boston, I would be angry, disgusted and mortified as well.
This gives me some impetus to read Ann Coulter’s new book “Demonic” which covers liberalism and mob mentality.
Angry Canuckistani *ping*...
Tim Thomas gave Boston The Cup.
And, that's coming from this diehard Montreal Canadiens fan
Any way.....way to stay classy Vancouver.
Or, they could get more people to try to jump over flaming cars and fall inside, or others to get hit in the nuts by an exploding, concussive crowd control devices.
As lousy and disgusting as this behavior is, those two incidents were priceless and gave me pause to laugh.
This business in Vancouver is strange, since it follows of very disappointing loss in the deciding game of a best-of-seven series.
Very strange also for usually placid Canadians.
Coming from a Montreal fan, that comment takes class and guts, because I know how wrenching that is.
We have burned a Montreal jersey in effigy here (in my younger days) but we did it in the privacy of our backyard, not by torching a car and toasting the jersey over it...
Besides. We only have a couple dozen more Stanley Cups to catch up to the Habs...
This sounds like an ideal situation for the new area denial microwave crowd control device.
I actually thought the Canucks scored early in the first period. Thomas caught the puck in his glove and swung the glove back over the goal line. The net was dislodged. There was only one slo-mo replay. The announcers were clueless as ever.
ML/NJ
It bothered me. I was so disturbed by it that I completely lost track of the fact that the Cup had been won.
Watching that stuff made me resolve to begin conceal carry all the time.
Happened in 94 too when Vanc lost to NY Rangers. Footage was shown on World’s Wildest Police Videos
The refs were giving Boston the cup.
I actually thought the Canucks scored early in the first period. Thomas caught the puck in his glove and swung the glove back over the goal line. The net was dislodged. There was only one slo-mo replay. The announcers were clueless as ever.
ML/NJ
I know Vancouver is a fairly liberal city, having visited once for a week and noticed the extremely high incidence of aggressive panhandlers and people casually shooting drugs (I presume heroin) in parks as you walked by, so I bet the police force is accordingly trained in pussified crowd-control techniques, as is the norm for most municipalities frightened of litigation, as they all are.
I thought they let it go on too long. Once things started escalating, they should have marched forward in unison, tased the people egging everyone else on, cuffed them where they lay, stepped over them and kept going to the next one.
They should not allow a SOB to stand 10 feet in front of them throwing things at them.
No, what they need to do is arrest the people. Sentence them to a few months in prison and take their bank accounts or garnish their wages (if any of them work) or make them pay back every penny of damage they caused, plus a penalty for good measure.
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