a Riot either way was inevitable. You could feel it building. I am cities away and could feel it building. Then for it to go on and on and on as it did. Holy Carp! numerous car fires. Paper boxes and mailboxes being used as kindling. I called Charlotte out to watch. People standing around being entertained and taking their memorabilia shots instead of doing something about it and leaving. I'd say the social media had something to blame for this.
I can't help but wonder, while watching the group of people move their violence from one block to the next, didn't it on some level in their brains occur to them this was wrong. Breaking windows, looting, starting fires in the street does not a good party make. Most of them young 20 somethings. Most of them men. Who brought these people up?
Were their parents at home watching them ham it up for the camera or answer their tweets as the moment happens.
It was like watching a movie. Like those movies you see where they blew up the bridges to Manhatten or LA and the crazies were all left to feed off each other. The decent trapped people being airlifted out.
What the Hell happened out there?
Booze, testosterone, emotions, strenght in numbers and the full moon.
Some young men trying to find their way out of a downtown city that they don't know. Finding that skytrain had been shut down and who know where a bus or cab might be. Nearly innocents trapped in the chaos. Not knowing that there are bridges, that if they could get to them, they would be able to get out of the trouble. Others working and living watching their neighborhoods and belongings be destroyed at their feet below.
Its hard to concentrate or think about the win of a team that worked just as hard to get there as ours did. Their excitement and pride being ripped a apart and shit on by Vancouverites. Young men, with their hands cocked up in the popular sideways peace sign or fingering that I've never understood. Baseball caps on crooked. Don't you know you look like an moron? Yet there they are posing for the many, many TV units and IPhones and camera's. The fire is not big enough, so let's add another jersey.
The police seemingly to stand back and allow more and more looting to happen. Ordering the fire dept to leave the scene, for their own safety, when the rioters started throwing debris at them. I say turn the hoses on them!!!
I watched till midnight. I could not stop. So I suppose on some level I am no better than the people on the streets still taking pictures and posing with their friends in front of the riot police. The riot police that are men and women just like our selves. Probably scared and unsure of the career they have just chosen.
Could more have been done? I think so. Firehoses, beanbags teargas I feel all should have been used more. The physical presence and force of the police obviously not phasing this crowd.
WoW - i think that's all that is left - Wow
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