The Vancouver Riot Report

[Phil McAvity]

Originally Posted by vango

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/a...530/story.html

It sounds like Jim Chu is a useless pansy. In London, the rioters there were met with swift, and sometimes severe punishment.

Originally Posted by s211

Frankly, I don't think the police are really allowed to do their job, because if they did everyone on Commercial Drive would start shrieking "POLICE STATE", and this city finds it a lot easier to cozy to leftie-libertarians than permit effective policing.

So what if they do? Most of the people that actually pay their salaries would cheer them on for prosecuting the rioters. The longer this drags on the worse it will be for the VPD and the government.

[Conrad Yablonski]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

.....The longer this drags on the worse it will be for the VPD and the government.

Agreed-and this brings us to the inevitable Cui bono

Because someone somewhere benefits from all the delay-is it some Machiavellian politicians plotting or just lawyers with meters running?

[whatnext]

Wow. So now it appears that it was not all sunshine and Kumbaya during the games before the final! It makes Gregor's and Chief Chu's unpreparedness for the riot that much more inexcusable:

Vancouver police knew Stanley Cup nights were getting wild before Game 7

Following the big hockey game there was vomit and broken glass in the streets, drunken males climbing poles and bus shelters, people throwing bottles and groups of young men running around randomly punching people in the face.

And that wasn’t even the night of the riot.

Notes released by Deputy Chief Doug LePard on Thursday show Vancouver police knew early in the Stanley Cup finals that game nights were causing widespread, drunken disorder in Vancouver’s streets...

....The notes concerned a teleconference police had with officials from the British Columbia liquor branch and the B.C. Ambulance Service, a few days after Game 5 in Vancouver.

That night, according to liquor branch officials, there had been “an explosion of liquor sales” after the game.

Summarizing what liquor branch officials said, Deputy Chief LePard described a frenzied scene. “There were people swarming to the licensed premises. … Door staff were being pushed around at the liquor stores. … The crowds were overwhelming.”

Out on the streets there was “obvious widespread intoxication, including young people staggering drunk as well as the presence of vomit on the streets … young, drunk males climbing poles and on top of glass bus-stop shelters. Lots of broken glass, assaults, fights and people being hit with bottles … groups of young men running around randomly punching people in the face, including girls.”...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2193787/

[s211]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Wow. So now it appears that it was not all sunshine and Kumbaya during the games before the final! It makes Gregor's and Chief Chu's unpreparedness for the riot that much more inexcusable:

[I]Vancouver police knew Stanley Cup nights were getting wild before Game 7

It's about time that dirt like this finally gets aired. Anybody living or working downtown could see what a powderkeg it was, but instead we got the shiny happy group hug visionistas telling us that all is well. Why Gregor's teflon in this instance is nothing short of infuriating.

[sacrifice333]

Heard a great quote on News1130 this morning

"Rioting after the Stanley Cup final is like trashing your own house after a game of Risk."

[whatnext]

This is pretty damning, right before an election:

The lead police investigator for the 2011 Stanley Cup riots says the City of Vancouver’s decision to allow throngs of young people to congregate and drink in the downtown core was a “recipe for disaster.”

The Vancouver Police Department has previously said some of its recommendations in the lead-up to the June, 2011 Stanley Cup finals were ignored, but police have not criticized the city so directly before now...

...Sergeant Dale Weidman with the Vancouver Police Department, speaking to an Ottawa security and intelligence conference Wednesday, prefaced his statement by noting he has to “keep some of my comments to myself because I still have to bring home a paycheque.”

But, he said, it was bad planning to let a volatile mix of factors come together in the streets surrounding the Cup final at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena.

“Somebody in the city of Vancouver decided to, thought, it was a good idea to pack in 100,000-plus people in a confined area and allow them to have access to alcohol,” ...(bold mine)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2231485/

[johnjimbc]

“Somebody in the city of Vancouver decided to, thought, it was a good idea to pack in 100,000-plus people in a confined area and allow them to have access to alcohol,” ...(bold mine)[/I]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2231485/[/QUOTE]

And this more than anything is why this report sounds like the biggest hand washing I've read in a long time.

That describes every major sporting arena in the world, not to mention public concerts, festivals, even the Olympics.

I keep picturing Aunt Nanny boo-hooing on how those racy films they play at the picture show these days lead to mayhem and makes her girdle bind.

Please. Perhaps there could have been a bit more emphasis on, oh I don't know, the lack of sufficient numbers of police for the event, the painfully slow response of police officers to the first, drawn-out acts of destruction, the ineffectiveness once events began to unfold.

Mayor Robertson may or may not be responsible for lots of things - and he's not my favorite politician by far - but any mayor might have opted for a public celebration for such an event. A modern city ought to be able to handle such an event.

Not too mention, there are a lot of hooligan wannabe's who should have taken responsibility for their own actions.

[touraccuracy]

i'd rather the occasional riot over never having large public gatherings.

[invisibleairwaves]

Originally Posted by johnjimbc

Mayor Robertson may or may not be responsible for lots of things - and he's not my favorite politician by far - but any mayor might have opted for a public celebration for such an event. A modern city ought to be able to handle such an event.

Not too mention, there are a lot of hooligan wannabe's who should have taken responsibility for their own actions.

EXACTLY.

I'm definitely no fan of Robertson, but come on. There was no giant city-run outdoor gathering in 1994, and how did that turn out?

[Canadian Mind]

Originally Posted by touraccuracy

i'd rather the occasional riot over never having large public gatherings.

This.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by touraccuracy

i'd rather the occasional riot over never having large public gatherings.

Uh, yeah, right.

Maybe you should talk to some of the staff at the various businesses who were traumatized from having to barricade themselves in bathrooms and such. Hopefully you're under 25 and therefore have some excuse for making such a statement.

[Yume-sama]

Hm. I believe his point is that you can't outright ban public gatherings in hopes of never having another riot. You just can't. Sure, a riot is undesirable, but you can't just shut down everything forever. Much like how I'd rather have the infinitesimally minute chance of being caught up in a terrorist attack than sacrificing my rights and liberties by living in a total police state to prevent one.

In the end, you can't prevent either, if someone is determined enough! However, you can probably be a bit more prepared than we were...

[racc]

Good thing the city worked hard to avoid a riot at Occupy Vancouver in spite of the bad advice from Anton and the NPA.

From:
http://www.vancouversun.com/business...318/story.html

Robertson's version of the city's shift in strategy was partly backed up Thursday by Charles Gauthier, executive-director of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, who was an observer at the LEOC meeting on Oct. 11 when the committee was told the city wouldn't allow a tent city.

Gauthier said the city's lastminute change of tactics was probably the correct decision.

"I went down on that first day [Oct. 15]," said Gauthier. "I think it would have been very difficult to stay with that original plan. There were a lot of people down there, and a lot of media.

Gauthier said he has weekly conference calls with officials from other North American downtown business groups and that no other North American city, other than London, Ont., has been able to successfully dismantle a tent city. Gauthier said the encampment at the VAG is "problematic," but added that his group is pleased that there has been no property destruction and that downtown employees have not been traumatized by protesters.

"To us, what was paramount was to not have a mini-version of the June 15 riot, occurring on Oct. 15, three months after the fact."

[Yume-sama]

Better to let internal violence and disease wipe them out than police confrontation, as is beginning to happen in the USA.

Tuberculosis outbreak in Atlanta. An odd respiratory problem known as the Zucotti Lung in NYC~ Along with various STD's...
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local...669113.html?dr

[johnjimbc]

While there are still plenty of avenues by which this could go wrong, Washington, DC, which is somewhat accustomed to protest movements of many shapes, sizes and relevance , they've rather embraced the phenomenon. I actually walked through there, and was somewhat impressed by how cohesive and integrated it seemed.

Of course, DC has tons of little squares and public spaces so it's not like they're dominating the central gathering point downtown. If you were a block away, you might not even know anything was going on.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifest...a6M_story.html