My view of the 2011 Vancouver riot
What I saw and experienced while reporting for the Vancouver Sun. As soon as I left the office it was apparent most people on the streets were a few drinks deep, it just got worse from there...
@scoopercooper I agree, but all it takes is a hundred idiots. VPD seems much better prepared than '94. #noriottonight- This girl could barely walk on her own.
- I went to Rogers Arena in the first intermission to get a sense of the atmosphere inside. People inside seemed hopeful, and drunk.
I returned to the Georgia Street live site and soon found an angry dejected crowd of mostly young fans crowding the biggest screen at the front of the area.
After Marchand's empty-net goal young drunks began talking about the violence that was about to break out.
As the last minute dwindled down, pop bottles and bottle rockets rained down on the screen and people cheered when one hit the screen.
Almost five minutes after the game ended a small fire broke out in front of the Canada Post headquarters on Georgia Street.
Soon after people flipped a silver Nissan in front of the building.
That would be the first car of many to be set alight that night.- Rioters took the short fencing and used it to ram the Bank of Montreal on the corner of Georgia and Homer Streets.
Hooligans then grabbed whatever they could and tossed it at the police standing pat further north on Homer Street. - That was a pickup truck right beside the Nissan in front of Canada Post.
- Mounted Police about to charge down Homer Street onto Georgia. #Vancouver http://yfrog.com/gz83570769j
- Every bit of destruction that night was egged on by people crowding in to take pictures beside the wreckage.
- Someone keeps lobbing bear scares into the burning overturned pickup, people scream each time one blows up. #Vancouver
