Life imitates...

Many will blame hockey for this - and hockey is to blame - but not necessarily in the way most people will assume.

These are not disappointed fans of hockey - these are the sheep who get swept up in a culture of violence.

Let's examine the last big game played in Vancouver - the Olympic gold medal game - clean, skilled, fast, and sportsmanship in abundance - still overly corporate, mind you.

Now the Stanely Cup game last night - an entire playoff run of violence, lack of penalties, lack of players being self-regulating, injuries - several career threatening - a total lack of sportsmanship - and did I mention the violence?

The NHL has created a culture of violence around the Stanely Cup - with media like Don Cherry and Mike Milbury fanning the flames of burnt cars.

Tragic for the game - which can be beautiful - and tragic for our ever-shallowing culture.

THE BEST EXCUSE

This is the best excuse to get rid of Hockey (Canada's blood sport of choice) and replace it by filling our stadiums with fans for public floggings. Judging from the crowds last night, there would be no shortage of volunteers, either as whips or whipees.

Our whole economic/political

Our whole economic/political system is built on violence against the ecology and the human race.

Such events are clear signs of people subconsciously realizing that something is badly wrong, but, being misled by politicians and so called "economists" and "business leaders", the only thing they can do is jump on the bandwagon of violence to become part of the system, screwing them.

The fact that anybody gives a damn whether a group of overpaid showbiz performers win or lose a performance, while calling it "sport" is alone a good sign of the sickness.

Even the Olympics have long ceased to be a "sport" and became theatrics with paid performers.

Ed Deak.

I was watching a "not hockey" TV program.....

.....when someone thought it "better" that I watch the clown carnage, and cut into my movie. Now I'll never know if the earth was saved (again).
But then, seeing the idiots at work, perhaps we shouldn't be.......

Decline and fall of Vancouverian Civilization

It just shows that life here is only superficially fulfilling. It's all about keeping up with the joneses, whether your joneses are penthouse lawyers or east van hipsters. What does our little society believe in? Not democracy, no one votes. Not Jeh-hay-zus. Not Queen, country and empire. Not social justice, too busy paying off debt racked up buying stuff that makes us superficially feel like we've defined ourselves to care about building a sustainably just society. So what?

I posted on the other article about how I think the team and the rioters are affected by the same malaise. A lacking meaning in their lives kinda thing.

Remember the article not so long ago about how Vancouver men and/or women are hopeless romatically? The problem with us as a society is twofold. first, we don't live in the moment. Luongo's too worried about his rep etc to focus. People are too worried about a petty game to make their own lives meaningful in some way. People looking for lerve here are too focused on sex and 'where this will lead' to just sit back and enjoy a conversation with some weird stranger for a few minutes.

Second, everything here is commodified. This digital attention nonsense, obviously the hockey, and people. We use people like accoutrements that express the identity we want to project. If they don't do that how we want, we aren't buying. The looting is in some way of compensating the failure for our personal commodification value to have been raised in the rink.

Just Plain Old Dumb And Stupid

I was surprised that people chose to behave in this manner. I live in the west end and the noise and the helicopters was indeed something to hear and see. Rioting over a hockey game?, Stupid. Destroying property?, Stupid. People not listening to the police to go home and stand around and take pictures for social media?, Stupid and dangerous. Too bad some people chose to behave this way, it reflects badly on all of us. I hope that the police nab some of these people and charge them to the fullest of the law as they deserve it. Hockey is a great sport and this is not how a great fan respects that sport. As for the Canucks, they are an awesome team and as a fan I am sad that they lost but there is after all always next year.

THE HOCKEY SHOW

Over twenty years ago I worked on televising what, we at that time called the "Hockey Show". Many of us in the media realized that hockey had become not so much a sport, but a show, a spectacle and a reason to put bums in overpriced seats. These "games" are not for sport, they are for profit. I ask you to think about how many millions of dollars would have been lost if the playoffs had gone only 5 instead of 7 games.

Public embarassment or public intoxication?

It used to be that our youth were taught that when in public one should present one's self with dignity and decorum. As is evidenced by last night's shameful display and present day's celebrity obsessed culture, attention at any cost has become the new cultural paradigm.

If indeed our culture has changed then perhaps it's time to do something about the enabling elements of yesterday's debacle. We can't stop the kids from recording and broadcasting their jack-assed stunts but we can to something about the fact that they can't hold their liquor. Perhaps it's time to raise the legal drinking age to 21. Are you listening Premier Clark?

Bread & Circus: Controlling the Great Beast

The democratic polity was called the Great Beast by ruling elite in the 1700's. In non-democracies like ours, the ruling class seek to control and coddle the masses (us) with blunt instruments. Like ramping up huge crowds to watch sporting events, then firing tear gas into the crowd when they don't do as they're told.

Very symptomatic of corrupt regimes and failed states. A sad time for a once vibrant, modern, progressive society.

Of course, the public will be blamed just as the French aristocrats blamed the peasants in 1789. Expect calls for more prisons and more police powers...

"Bread and Circuses" (Latin: panem et circenses) is a metaphor for a superficial means of appeasement. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the creation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace. The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the common man."

"In modern usage, the phrase has become an adjective to describe a populace that no longer values civic virtues and the public life. To many across the political spectrum, left and right, it connotes the triviality and frivolity that characterized the Roman Empire prior to its decline."

Good coverage as always.

Interesting questions Mark

If your sources are correct, and I assume that they are, what happened last night is at least partly a result in a clear breakdown in what had been (as you observe) an effective and safe security environment at every other home game in this series.

What was different about game 7?

Why was the security cordon relaxed and back pack checks foregone?

Why did it take the police so long to react at the very beginning of the mayhem?

I got the impression that 'fans' started gathering downtown far earlier in the day than on other occasions and I also suspect that a long stint in the sun with nothing else to do but drink wasn't a great preparation for what turned out to be an anti-climactic game.

I think there was a serious lack of planning for this event and its aftermath.

Sad!

I suppose the Victory Parade

I suppose the Victory Parade has now been canceled ?

Ed Deak.

Maybe some people in the

Maybe some people in the media should be looking at themselves too. For the last 2 months we have been pumped up about hockey, playoffs, Stanley Cup and it goes on and on and on adnauseam. One had a feeling that the world had stopped because NHL hockey playoffs was the only thing that was happening or worth talking about. The lazy mass-media had it easy for the last 2 months. All they had to do is stick some brain-dead reporter out in the street and stick a microphone in front of some passerby's face and ask some stupid question about the playoffs; and that's news?

Hey! We made "THE NEWS"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13788491
We don't riot for basics like human rights or food supply. We go to the Barricades for a lost game or a moment on facebook

Like the Clockwork Orange

Like the Clockwork Orange reference. The Winter Olympics were a mirage.

put blame where it belongs

A lot of good comments here but I have to take exception to the ones calling for stricter liquor rules and raising the legal age, etc.. In the song "Women without Whiskey" the Drive-By Truckers sing, "No, the bottle ain't to blame and I ain't trying to. Cause it don't make you do 'a thing, it just lets you". The problem here is society. Period. This "me me gimme gimme" attitude only existed amongst the wealthy elites till the Gordon Gecko "greed is good" 1980's. And it's been shovelled down our throats by the laissez-faire free market capitalist, libertarian Friedmanites ever since. People bought the bullshit. How else could a scumbag like Harper ever become a "leader" of a country. I'm all for civil disobedience for the right reasons. This is just stupidity.

Lets put the blame where it belongs - the scum who rule us

Be nice to see the hostility directed against windows and cars directed against our rulers. For a different take on the riot - putting the blame where it really belongs - see this article - http://porkupineblog.blogspot.com/

Veni, vidi, tumultum

This is the new global entertainment for the masses - riots.

We are so controlled in today's society that the only way to express oneself is to fire up cars and smash windows.

A sad comment, about a sad city and province ruled by even sadder politicians.

Just wait, this is just the beginning as the mob has found what real power is all about. "timorem multitudinis"

When our 'corrupti politici' fail to obey the law, why should the 'vulgus' do as well. The politicians lead by example and the people 'disce exemplo' from the 'corrupti politici'.

Lex favet divitibus

sure pass the responsitility

I suppose it never occurred to the fire-department to use their hoses to disperse the crowd?
They never watched water-canons used as crowd control in other countries?
So much easier to just stand there and say: "It's not my job, Man!"

Smoke one and mellow out

Too bad you can't buy pot at Hockey Games.

Drunk?

Why are so many people setting blame with no foundation. Many say these people were all drunk. People get drunk without rioting. Why not try to identify the actual problem rather than make lame excuses. Now the government pass more silly laws that will do nothing to stop riots. Brilliant!
Doctor Art, keep to diet advise, you are a puritanical idiot.

Van Isle has it bang on

I've read every single comment above, and I most agree with Van Isle. Some of my friends were "speechless" and "shocked" at what happened last night... and at first I agreed. Then I asked myself, "but, really???" This was hyped and hyped and hyped and even intelligent people I know were referring to "history in the making"... um, no sorry, that was Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on a bus. THAT was an example of history in the making... but back to the point, we set the stage and rolled out the red carpet for the idiots who caused this damage, and we all turned a blind eye to how badly it could go wrong (like it did before!) because people were so easily and stupidly convinced that it was a bunch of gods (not men) playing this game, and that they could not lose. Having said that, it may have turned out exactly the same had they won...

From a Bruins fan today

I saw those insane riots occur, too, while watching one of our local Boston channels report last night! So much for good sportsmanship with fans anymore. To be fair, I saw some Boston fans rocking one of the Boston police detention buses to where some minor damage was reported there too. Maybe the mayhem here, this time, was not to the extent of Vancouver, but I can't help but remember what happened when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. Boston fans (mostly nearby fenway college students) went nuts and a couple of innocent people actually died.

Is it just me?

My last two posts have been flagged with some kind of Spam alert and I am required to enter a code - so far it works but I'm wondering why, as a long term "member" I'm getting these messages.
Could be 'cause both were "cut and paste" from stuff I read elsewhere but some of the interest here for me is the connections provided

Well ...

I don't think the issue is alcohol (although, obviously, alcohol exacerbates an already volatile situation), or Vancouver, or some of the other scapegoats being bandied about. I think the issue is the culture of professional sport and the inherent violence that is to some degree endemic with that culture. I'm not saying all sports fans are violent lunatics; that would obviously be untrue. But professional sports, especially sports like football and hockey, are very much metaphors of war, metaphors of battling armies. And look at the kind of language sports broadcasters and journalists use. Man, talk about incendiary idiocy with a predisposition to rage and mayhem!

Or Were the Games Fixed All Along?

The more one reads about the corruption of organized sports, the worse it gets. Is hockey immune? Like world soccer, there are millions and millions of dollars involved. Which breeds corruption.

As Joe Pelletier writes:

"There is a pretty interesting book out there called The Fix: Soccer and Organized Crime. It looks at how organized crime, particularly Asian gangs, has corrupted the world of soccer at it's highest levels, including European Champions League, Olympic and World Cup matches and tournaments."

"Author Declan Hill explains the structure and mechanics of illegal gambling syndicates, what soccer players and referees do or not do to affect the outcome of their games, why relatively rich and high-status athletes would take money to fix games, and how they get referees on their side."

http://www.greatesthockeylegends.com/2009/01/is-hockey-fixed.html

Pelletier further states that:

"After reading this book your faith in the purity soccer at every level is completely shaken. You might as well extend that to all of sports...Could organized crime be trying to fix hockey matches too?

"Do not kid yourself. If organized crime is match-fixing rowing competitions, they are likely interested in a slice of hockey's big money pie...There has even been some suspicion about mobster involvement. If you are in Canada you may remember a investigative journalism piece about 9 years ago for CBC's The Fifth Estate that looked at how Russian players associating with known members of the Russian mafia, perhaps forced to do so because of mafia extortion attempts. That Fifth Estate documentary was done by, you guessed it, Declan Hill."

Declan Hill picks up the discussion:

http://www.cireport.ca/2010/06/hockey-and-russian-mafia.html

"[Hockey] is a religion in Canada. It is almost impossible to overstate the effect hockey has on the psyche of Canadian society. In most communities hockey players are regarded as "untouchables" and forgiven of almost any crime. In the last few years a slew of sexual abuse cases involving players or coaches has come to light. Most of these cases were known about but were deliberately not investigated because they involved hockey players."

"This factor of social prestige will become important in the story that I am going to tell you. For this is about how organised crime figures deliberately targeted some of the top hockey players in the league and were able to socialise with them, to extort them, and in some cases to actually go into business with them..."

Just wondering.

Conspiracy Theories Abound

Jeffrey J., I am neither agreeing nor disagreeing with your implicit hypothesis. I mean, I think it quite possible, perhaps even likely that there is corruption at all levels of all professional sports. Nonetheless, I cannot help but ask, how would it be kept secret when there are so many people involved?

Let's pause for a moment

and remind ourselves that it's am error to characterize a town or a generation by the acts of a busful of morons.
Unhappy as the whole scene is I took modest enjoyment from the outrage of the 'real' media who were so easily usurped by the teeming social mediators - better recording it than adding to the carnage.

Reflection and projection

Even as a serious hockey fan, I had hoped today to be free of the media obsessing over one thing ad nauseum. Boy I am sick of people over-analyzing and projecting their belief systems onto both hockey and (as one Tweet put it) "douche bag riots".

One CBC wag asked: "Do we really have an appetite for these large public gatherings?" Duh. Not everyone, no, but did he notice the crowd? Do we remember the Olympics? The wag also interviewed a US prof who studies sports riots. It wasn't "Vancouver", he said, it was a sports riot, of the same sort they have all over the world when the stakes are high, fans congregate and get drunk. It's a management challenge. We'll get better at managing the risk. Anything else?

The hockey game? The Canucks pressed and almost scored several times before Boston scored late in the first period. If the Canucks had scored first, all the bums (and the bums are often just the type of player you like least, the ones that don't reflect your own personality) would likely be heroes. Last year, Boston had the biggest meltdown in hockey playoff history. Bums. This year they mounted a couple of comebacks. Gods. Two or three pivotal events in a series with thousands of events, players on a hot streak, and some puck luck. Anything else?

Winning!

It is interesting to me to hear the media often referring to the rioters falsely as protesters...and to hear the police now referring to the mob as partly made up of anarchists. Where is the proof of this?

These kind of false characterizations tell us a lot about the times in which we now live. These sly attempts to smear and stereo-type define our times more than the unruly and juvenile mob ever could.

Christie Clark expressed anger about the riots saying: "This is my city, our city" and I'm paraphrasing the rest....but the idea was that the rioters had no right to wreck her city, our city....and she was going to make damn sure 'they' were held accountable.

Oh, suddenly we're interested in accountability......

Well, Ms. Clark, my province, my country has been wrecked by a coterie of rioters/idiots that have left this province broken - via their bullying assaults on our rivers, on BC Hydro, on BC Ferries, on public health care, on senior care, on the rights of the disabled, on Community Living, on our human and civil rights. Last but not least: The derailing of BC Rail - steered right off the tracks in broad daylight.

If only....if only....(when pigs fly, I know, I know) the real rioters and sh*t-disturbers, the real wrecking crew, were held accountable:

Outed on Facebook. Their own page of infamy.

And in the media. Page One. Big bold headlines.

And more importantly, held accountable in the courts.

Yes, wouldn't that be nice if the law of the land really upheld the idea that you just can't go around breaking things. Like public assets. Or human hearts.

You just can't go around tearing things apart - like workers' contracts. Long term care. Or our paramedic service.

No matter who you are.... or who you think you are.

But that would take a truly civilized, decent, caring and accountable society.

And even the puck-distracted hockey fans rioting in the streets know we're not even close on that score.

They know what rules the day.

Arrogance. Bullying. Greed. Self-interest.

So they, too, believing the constant hockey hype, and now left Stanley Cupless, feeling weak, sorrowful. Ouch! Worthless. So in a last ditch attempt at 'success', at the gold ring, they mimic the miserable and bullying attitude of the ruling class and their miserable, weak-of-character status quo - the running-on-empty definiton of success -

Where it's all about (in my best Charlie Sheen voice): 'Winning!'...at any cost.

They are really just behaving like the hooligans that rule the day.

Yay!

Yay lynn.

That's all I have to say.

great comments...

And a pleasure to read that people are struggling to understand this issue, in spite of the mainstream media, perhaps.

Lynn, I am with you: time to hold Christy Clark and all those other purveyors of the 'winning is all' mentality to account. Their relentless, greed-filled, and short-sighted mantra really is destroying our very souls.

Sigh

All of you have it wrong, again.

I'll tell you why the riots happened, and it is very simple.

Look at all the guys rioting. Just look at them. The vast majority of them are men. White men, black men, Asian men, Middle-eastern men, latin men, aboriginal men, all kinds of men. Look at their clothes... all kinds of clothes. So what was the defining characteristic of all of these men, who seem so diverse?

Just try and pick one out that is handsome or even possessing above average looks. Try it. I looked at hundreds of pictures: nothing. Compared against the regular population, this is an ugly group. Also, even excepting the Asians, this is a short group, and all ethnicities not very athletic, again compared to what you usually see, walking around town.

These guys are not the pick of the party. Now don't get me wrong, an ugly man can easily have a beautiful girlfriend, but that's with a bit of charm. However, in our superficial world of accessory friends and scaled values assigned to consumer goods and humans with equal dispassion, this is the crew that has already accepted their worth... the voluntary untouchables.

They riot for they will never be loved.

Well said Lynn

Those scary stupid kids have had a lot of influences. I'm not absolving them of blame by any means but it takes a community to raise a child or something like that eh.

Refreshing non-MSM analysis & comments

Mark, you make some very cogent points and I'm really encouraged to see an intelligent fleshing out of the social media angle in this story.

My own theory on all this, in a large nutshell: This riot is partially symbolic of, and a manifestation of 30 years of raising (or more aptly, coddling) our kids on a steady diet of narcissism cloaked in 'self-esteem' - self-empowerment without any sense of duty or responsibility. As Bill Maher says, this is the most self-assured, entitled young generation of all time, but also the most oblivious young generation of all time. All that post-60's, hierarchy of needs, self-actualization crap is finally coming to fruition and it's not unfolding the way it was supposed to.

What I saw in this riot was pure, unhindered narcissism, and social media is the perfect conduit/platform for that expression. The need for participants to document their 'self-heroism' and "I was there" mentality is a mob dynamic I've not seen before, at least not quite like I saw it Wednesday night. I was amazed at how free rioters were in their revelry and voyeurism, completely oblivious to the obvious irony and consequences of behaving this way on camera! I don't blame the kids so much as the society and culture that's raised them this way. This wasn't anarchy (anarchy is a good, healthy spirit); it was anomie with a new, disturbing Internet era twist.

One comment to Lynn. I share your contempt for the ruling and political classes, but it's too easy and simple a reduction to pin stuff like this on a particular government, whose policies you view as destructive. I appreciate the parallels and the hypocrisy at play, but to suggest a direct causal link between a government's flawed policies and what happened Weds night is misguided. You'll recall the original Stanley Cup riot of '94 happened well into the reign of an NDP regime. I don't blame that riot on Harcourt anymore than I blame this one on Campbell/Clark. The causes are much deeper and complex than a single shallow government.

Alan Abel

I don't disagree with much of what you're saying but I have to add that I sense a certain 'willingness' on the part of certain commentators (I'm thinking of the mayor and the premier) to get out the message that this mess was caused by little more than a small group of 'anarchists' acting out.

It's too easy to blame such phenomena upon the 'other' and to ignore the actual conditions which make them possible.

Riots Could Have Been Prevented

CBC radio has interviewed a number of scientists who study large sports crowds. It is clear that this is a well known and well studied phenomenon. They state unequivocally that 3% of 100,000 people will seek to create chaos. This minority go there specifically to fight. And in Europe they have adopted measures to ensure riots don't break out and when they are implemented, the riots don't occur.

Fast forward to 2011 in BC, supposedly one of the worlds most advanced countries with one of the world's most advanced police forces. And what do we see? Total incompetence or willful blindness (or worse).

What is clear is this hockey series was designed to pump millions of dollars into the already wealthy business sector, the wealthy restaurant sector, and of course the uber-wealthy NHL owners and TV sponsors. So like so many things in BC and Canada today, we have massive state influence in creating and ramping up a public event, carefully worked out behind closed doors. Millions of dollars are harvested from the public. This could only occur with the cooperation and authorization by the state (i.e. the Liberal provincial government and Conservative federal government; the City of Vancouver would have little choice in the matter except to go along, get along or face the wrath of the business class).

And when the huge crowd finally began rioting, which social scientists tell us was virtually predictable, we see the state either accidentally (negligently) failed to take the obvious steps to prevent a riot, (OR it was done deliberately, like we saw in the G8). We'll never know. But regardless...the result is the same.

Now, we will be treated to endless proclamations about self-responsibility (fans failed their "responsibility" to behave properly) and the horrors of blaming the victim (how can we blame government and merchants for hooligan conduct!) and praise for the police (they were brave, they tried hard, no-one expected 100,000 people to riot, how can you blame the police, etc etc).

The state and business interests will duck quietly out of the room, leaving someone else to try and explain this in the MSM. And the public will tsk-tsk and begin to see the wisdom of Harper's demand to build more prisons.

p.s. What Lyn said!

Agreed, G West

You are right, and your point is worth emphasizing. I guess I didn't make much of it in my original comment because it seems like an obvious truism: politicians will be politicians when dealing with crisis management. I don't expect cultural/social analysis from our political leaders and police chiefs, but spin, more spin and an attempt to manage the message to minimize political damage. This happens right across the political spectrum. It's up to us citizens to do the hard analysis and try and dictate democracy accordingly.

@Alan Abel

While I concur with your observation about the 'nature' of political discourse I would add a couple of additional points.
First, one 'might' have expected something a bit more nuanced from the Mayor but never from Ms Clark - given her background and the support of a professional and sophisticated messaging bureaucracy. Perhaps that was naive of me.

Second, I don't believe the average citizen DOES have the ability to do the necessary hard analysis without help and, for the most part (there have been exceptions) the media, apart from here at Tyee I hasten to add, has been singularly unhelpful in furthering this effort.

I'd bring to your attention particularly the facile and derivative 'coverage' of the riot by CTV's local version of Anderson Cooper as he mingled with the crowds on Wednesday evening.

The parallels between him and his American model were so deep they even included the repetition of Cooper's timeless phrase – 'Get your hands off me man!' more than once.

And CBC was nearly as bad.

Riots associated with sporting events are a commonplace and have been for decades - pretending that Vancouver's self-inflated image would make it immune from the effects of alcohol fueled mod mentality was silly.

However, I would like to hear what you think about the 'staged' or reality show related aspects of the riot if you have a moment. I think there was a high level of ‘performance’ in many of the actions I saw that evening. You’re probably familiar with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle whereby it is postulated that the activity of observing and recording actually changes the behavior of fundamental particles – I think there was some sense in which the presence of the media and the fact that the ‘activities’ of the mob were being observed and recorded (in many cases by mob members themselves) had an impact upon behavior which was not positive.

We know our politicians see themselves as ‘performers’. Do you think it is impossible that the participants and the many ‘uninvolved’ observers were also staging their own little dramas – finding in this way a chance to move out of the shadows of everyday existence into something more meaningful…?

Alan Abel is wrong

Try as you might to introduce your reactionary ideas ideas into this discussion, it doesn't work. For the simple reason the one group that most embraces the self-esteem building that you loath, was not present at the riot. These are the children of the counter culture. The youth who did the riot came from the suburbs, their parents the kind of people, your kind of people, I should add, who voted for the Conservatives.

@anarcho

I'm glad you addressed that point about 'self-esteem' because I'm not sure it has any currency in this discussion...I would, though, mention that we can hardly conclude the opposite.

I have no evidence that the perpetrators (in fact I'm not clear who they actually were) of this 'event' can be identified with any degree of certaintly at all.

We simply don't 'know' who they are, where they lived and whom their parents vote for.

Cool Hand (Luke) posted a comment here at Tyee on the Hook as the riot itself was taking place which concluded that the people responsible were in fact left-leaning NDPers.

This is what he posted:

Left-wing radical NDP loons
Cool Hand
1 day ago

Left-wing radical NDP loons causing havoc in downtown Vancouver.

The NDP will have to wear this politically!!!

...

I called him on that conclusion - I have to call you on yours.

The game being played behind closed doors

Quote:

"What is clear is this hockey series was designed to pump millions of dollars into the already wealthy business sector, the wealthy restaurant sector, and of course the uber-wealthy NHL owners and TV sponsors. So like so many things in BC and Canada today, we have massive state influence in creating and ramping up a public event, carefully worked out behind closed doors."

Bang on, Jeffrey J.

One only has to peruse the logos on the perimeter boards surrounding the ice rink where the Canucks play. All the usual suspects are there. Big BC Liberal donors. Even 'law firms' like Fasken Martineau - anyone familiar with the theatrical production The BC Rail Corruption Trial will note that some of the starring roles had both connections to this firm and to the BC Liberal government.

Another strange logo noted on those perimeter boards was a 'company' called "BC Ferries Vacations". One never knows what our once public assets will be dressed up as these days! In private or public drag - or in whatever apparently suits the whim, the wallet and the accounting department of corporate interests. Here's a link to the site - where, surprise, surprise, it's all about the delights of Whistler-Blackcomb. How did our ferry boats stray so far off course? Washed up ashore on a ski hill with a set of golf clubs as a life preserver.

http://www.bcferriesvacations.com/?gclid=CN62v43YvakCFQkCbAodBnylgw

(Not to mention as revealed by Sean Holman that the total amount contributed to the BC Liberals by various owners of the Canucks between 2005-2010 was $618,705.00.)

And that's just the tip of the iceberg submerged beneath the ice rink.

To Alan Abel: What we are witnessing is the machinations of the corporate state - distorting and perverting everything (even the simple love of sport) through high gear hype and obsessive marketing in the interest of both profit and power. Uber spectacle. Uber financial speculation. Both operate by the same principle. Massive inflation into meaninglessness - creating an addiction to hype. When it all bursts the coming down is explosive.

In the history of BC there has not been a political party more fond of the running-on-empty ideology of the corporate state trumping the interests of the public communal state than The BC Liberal Party.

And it's show time.

Aw Shucks G West!

It's the CIA, sure as shootin'! The riot was just a diversion so no one would notice that The Cup once again eluded Canada.

How about this Orwellian

How about this Orwellian facebook vigilante thing going on now? Wow- 94,000 plus people and counting. Posting photos and saying "The guy in the front of the burning car is ... yadi yadi..." It's a bit odd. I mean, last I checked being a stupid 17 yr old posing in front of a burning car is not a crime. Burning the car is, but if there isn't hard evidence of who did that... I mean, manslaughter in this country is punisable by about 5 hrs of jail time. People on facebook are screaming "Throw him/her in jail!!" Need to take a step back,take a deep breath. Community service, yes. A fine, yes. But I hope no drunk teens have their entire reputations ruined because they chose to dance for a minute in front of a broken window...

Various machinations

Lynn, I don't disagree with your latest comment. I merely disagree with previous suggestions that Wednesday's riot is a uniquely BC Liberal byproduct, or necessarily a result of a right-wing state. Sports riots happen under all sorts of ruling parties and states around the world, and as I said, they happened in '94 under our democratic socialist government. It's too convenient to always blame all the bad things that go down in our society on the government we despise and the state apparatus we mistrust. I agree these aspects are part of the puzzle, but by no means all of it. Machinations are always more complex and multi-layered than they seem.

G West, you said you "don't believe the average citizen DOES have the ability to do the necessary hard analysis without help." As much as I dislike Leninist vanguardism, I do agree with you that we citizens are not individual islands when it comes to tough problem solving, and that we sometimes need experts in the know who are on the good side of the fence to help us collectively find these solutions. I'm not sure my previous comment suggested otherwise. My previous point was that we can't rely on our mayors, premiers and police chiefs to guide us through, regardless of their political bent. We see an NDP mayor who looks like a deer caught in the headlights, a right-wing premier who is pandering to some of our worst instincts and a police chief who is too overwhelmed to tell it how it really is. Citizens need to fill in those gaps. And your point about the media's behaviour is well noted.

Anarcho, thanks for the morning laugh. Speaking of reactionary, tell me how you arrived at the deduction that I voted Conservative and am somehow part of the evil reactionary right. Whatever you're smoking, pass some along to me... on second thought, don't pass it along because it's likely spiked with something nasty that causes paranoia and delusion.

Fii, you make one of the most important observations of all, and it ties nicely back to the social media theme of the article. I think we are just beginning to see the darker, more odious aspects of life in the Internet age, where privacy is increasingly a thing of the past and where our real, critical, in-the-flesh social bonds are being replaced by fake electronic bonds. As noble the intentions as this vigilantism seems now, imagine any number of other scenarios where the aim is not so noble. Bring on the Internet star chamber.

If it walks like a duck, Alan Abel!

OK you didn't vote for the Cons, but your statement about self-esteem was reactionary, part of the far-right's incessant culture war. Left wing analysis are based not upon blaming, and moralizing but upon a structural analysis, one that exposes the underlying causes which relate to the political-economic structure. What really underlies the mob act is the incredible level of alienation that this system has produced. People who are satisfied with their lot in life do not do the things we have seen.

Co-opting the public for the cause

I agree Alan, that this is a complex issue. However, I'm not suggesting this is a 'uniquely' BC Liberal by-product, more that it is in large part due to the loss of the communal sense, 'the common good' that the corporate state regards as an obstacle in the way of its quest for more and more profit. And since the BC Liberals have been, and remain corporatism's best friend and facilitator, I hold them both deservedly and inescapably the most culpable. They have done more for this devastating running-on-empty cause, bar none, and we are witnessing the results - that they would now like to distance themselves from.

As Mark Leiren-Young writes in this thought-provoking article: "But this was not a repeat of '94. This was something weirder, uglier and more twisted." (And I realize Mark is writing here in regard to the influence of social media, which I agree, plays its part.)

But I would suggest that something much more dark and even more twisted is happening here which Jeffrey J. alludes to in his comment above, and which is proving to be almost prescient in regard to what is currently unfolding:

Quote: "Now, we will be treated to endless proclamations about self-responsibility (fans failed their "responsibility" to behave properly) and the horrors of blaming the victim (how can we blame government and merchants for hooligan conduct!) and praise for the police (they were brave, they tried hard, no-one expected 100,000 people to riot, how can you blame the police, etc etc).

The state and business interests will duck quietly out of the room, leaving someone else to try and explain this in the MSM. And the public will tsk-tsk and begin to see the wisdom of Harper's demand to build more prisons." End of quote

The above insight by Jeffery J. as well as what I agree is a very important observation by Fii leaves one wondering what chillingly strange road we have turned down.

Step carefully, folks....and remember the privateer's club now calling for the public outing and severe punishment of those involved..."we will find you and we will punish you" would never ever consider, let alone hold their own dear selves to the same level of accountability.

No, you first, Ms. Christie.

The FOI documents, please. Free of black markings.

Then we'll talk.

As I was saying....

Nathan Kotylak, 17, publicly apologized. This in today's news:
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"The family of one of the Vancouver rioters has been forced to leave their lower mainland home, over fears for their safety.

It comes a day after 17-year-old Nathan Kotylak tearfully apologized on television, for photos showing him trying to set a police car on fire during Wednesday night's riots.

The teen's lawyer, Bart Findlay, tells the Calgary Sun, the family is being threatened on the Internet.

Ahmed El-Awadi, the executive director of Water Polo Canada says the 17-year-old has been suspended from the Canadian Junior National Water Polo team.

"There's a lot of things that will need to happen before I can even speculate as to what might happen to the athlete," he says. "We have provisionally suspended [him] because of the severity of the accusations."

He says they were shocked to hear this happen.

"Like all sports, we have had issues over the years, there's no question, but this type of activity from an athlete--we haven't encountered it before," he says.

Water Polo Canada will investigate the matter. Kotylak turned himself in to police on Friday."
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Does this sort of thing happen to pedophiles? Did it happen to the bankers who "crashed the world"? Do they get hounded from their homes? Their lives threatened? This is what I'm talking about... and it really disturbs me.

this post

this post is the best on the riots i have read so far
and i've read a lot,too many probably

Where are the cops?

What strikes me most is eye witness descriptions of the complete absence of police, on the night when they were most obviously needed. Who told Chief Constable Chu to stand down, and more importantly, why? This may cause blowback to Mayor Robertson and the NDP. Jim Chu seems to be coated in teflon, but he is at risk too. Perhaps thats a fair trade to some. I say fire Chief Constable Chu over this fiasco because the responsibility lies with his choice to stand down at the most vulnerable moment.