Ashamed in Vancouver: The city I love, and the idiots I have to share it with

[terrencechan]

What can one say that hasn't been said by everyone? In a matter of less than 12 hours it's already become a cliché to say that the events of Wednesday night were a disgraceful embarrassment. I'm deeply and incredibly saddened by my city, the city which -- no matter where I was in the world -- was the one I identified with. The city in which I was

Comments

[dmorr]

I think there wouldn't have been a riot if Vancouver had won, actually. Studies of football suggest that there's a big increase in violence if the hometeam suffers an upset loss, but not if they win or suffer an expected loss.

Here's a freakonomics blog post that makes that same point.

Not that this excuses anything. I'm surprised and disappointed, too. I expect that sort of thing in Boston. In Vancouver... not so much.

[testing4l]

Of all the cities to lose the Stanley Cup, only one has rioted. That city is Vancouver.

[terrencechan]

Twice!

[true_north]

No, I think Terrence had it right, those idiots were there to cause mayhem no matter what the outcome was.

Vancouver

[anonymous]

Just shows that a small minority of people in Vancouver are exactly the same as people all over the world. All those idiots are the same and Vancouver is not exempt from morons.

Celtics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEqwt81wiN4

Sox:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa8zNDg7-qs

sad to see

[anonymous]

the 1 dude said I do not think there would be a riot if they won? does that justify it? geeze gimme a break

[ext_668711]

Terence, there are idiots everywhere. I believe we have taken natural selection on of the process. We keep trying to save people from themselves. We make it illegal to ride your snowmobile out on melting lake ice; don’t go on the train tracks when the gate is down. How can we expect natural selection to work if we keep the idiots from ending their live prematurely? Did you see the video of the idiot who jumped up onto a burning car and fell into the fire? Surely there is no way he should have lived to adulthood without intervention. The morons are reproducing faster that the reasonable people. It’s going to get worse. The dumbasses are going to be the majority soon.
Your city government let you down. It was going to happen, win or lose. The police should have been deployed in riot gear on every street corner and come down fast and hard on anyone who couldn’t control themselves.

[testing4l]

My parents happened to be on their second honeymoon in Vancouver during the '94 series. They caught word about game 7 (despite not being hockey fans) and got out of town the evening beforehand. Turned out to be a good thing -- the way my dad tells it, the riot started right outside their hotel.

I recall hearing in '94 that Vancouver was the first city to riot because they lost the Stanley Cup. I think that they're still the only city to do it once, let alone twice.

For what it's worth, most of the human population can be boiled down to a few, classless traits. It doesn't matter where in the world you are -- assuming anything but the worst from a group of over 100 people is likely to be a mistake.

Still, it's that same improbability that makes it powerful when people do the right thing.