Now That Things Have Settled Down...

:Spaz:The fooferah surrounding the Stanley Cup Playoffs and our resultant riot here in Vancouver led me to make comment: I don't know how many times I've heard people say in the last week or two, "the people involved in the riot weren't real fans."

Give it a rest. Of course they were. Just as much as anyone else that went to see game 7 with hope in their hearts. But the riot really had very little to do with losing the final. There will always be, in a crowd of that proportion, a minority bent on causing trouble. The final was simply an outlet; the same would have occurred if Vancouver had won. That Vancouver didn't take their cue from '94 and put preventative measures in place, beyond liquor spill-outs, is really surprising. A heavier police presence in among the crowd in the congregated areas would have done more to bring about a quiet end. Those dozens of guys called out in riot gear after the crowd turned mob could have been used to disperse the crowd beforehand. The cop/potential rioter ratio was just too low.

And the fact that the prevailing sense of schadenfreude kept an audience there didn't help. :Taking_Photo: For goodness sake, put the cell phones and cameras away and go home. So now we have a big mess to clean up, and egg on our face. And you know what? The next time the finals roll around for Vancouver again, the same thing will happen. Those in charge always underestimate the village idiot. It's a rule of nature.