Christoph
Jun 16th, 2011 @ 8:44 am
Oh, Vancouver
I would say that you guys will have egg on your face in the morning, but I know you idiots will still be sporting those shit-eating grins come sunrise.
I’m going to let the rest of you in on a little secret here, which might not be such a secret at the moment, but the youth of Vancouver are really fucking stupid. They always have been, and it seems likely that they always will be. Don’t let anyone excuse this whole thing and tell you that it’s a story about a few bad seeds, because it really is indicative of the mentality of the douchebros who roam the streets around here on a daily basis.
It certainly wasn’t about losing a hockey game. If the Canucks had won things would have been worse, with more people heading downtown after the second period to celebrate the win instead of heading home early because the team was getting blown out. It was about a shitload of drunk people downtown, trashing their own city because they knew the weeks-long street party was coming to an end. Some of them came equipped with gas masks and weapons, ready to make the local legend of the ‘94 riot into a tradition.
It shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Even in the less important games throughout the series there were 100,000 people watching the big screen at the corner of Georgia and Hamilton, the biggest of many large viewing parties, and there were sellout crowds packing Rogers Arena even for road games. It made for an amazing atmosphere in the city, and some great pictures.
Nobody will remember that, though. The lesson to be learned here seems to be this is why we can’t have nice things, because it will be a really hard sell to put on huge events like that in the future. If after seventeen years and an Olympic games this city hasn’t learned fuck all, it is apparent the people Vancouver are rather prone to party fouls.
I remember the riot in 1994, when I was eleven years old and thought it was all kind of cool. My friends and I in southeast Vancouver wanted to be tough guys, and we modeled ourselves after the older kids in the neighborhood, many of whom were downtown that night. It wasn’t surprising to us at all back then, because that’s the way they were in our neighborhood on any given day of the week. Some kids I knew once hijacked a city bus intent on driving it to Seattle. Some kids I didn’t know once took turns jumping on the back of my head for fifteen minutes when I walked past as they were trying to set a convenience store on fire. Those guys are everywhere here, and it hasn’t changed since I’ve been breathing. As an adult I just have to laugh at the guys I see who remind me of those days in my life, but I wouldn’t want to be a teenager again in this town.
This city seems to have a special breed of douchebag, and if I had to put my finger on why I’d say it’s because they don’t understand how good they have it. These guys are mostly middle or upper class, spoiled and full of entitlement. They’ll throw a fit over just about anything because they’ve never had a legitimate reason to riot in their lives.
Well aren’t you just the studliest.
