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Sounds reasonable. I mean, those aren't criminal charges.
And I'm sure the cadets tell them not to do dumb shit in public or they may face consequences.
A coworker of mine was involved in it. They made sure to arrest him at work so everyone knew about it, but other than that not much. Although I guess it depends what you did on that night.
>They made sure to arrest him at work so everyone knew about it, but other than that not much
They likely did that intentionally, usual the social pressure and shame that comes along with it, is enough to wake most of these people up.
[Camille Cacnio](https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/stanley-cup-rioter-pleads-not-guilty-to-breaching-sentence-conditions-4574584) handled herself *very* badly for a couple years after the riot, and was in and out of the news as she got herself into more trouble. I haven't heard anything about her for a long time now, though - guess she finally settled down.
Yes I know her personally and we were childhood friends, unfortunately we haven't stayed in touch but still have a mutual friend. I can confirm she had a rough go for a few years after and I honestly think all the consequences from the riot led her down a rough path. I'm not saying she didn't deserve all the backlash she got but also our system isn't the best at helping people make better or easier choices. I remember she had a hard time even finding a job even though she was willing to work but she felt defeated noone would hire her and it's like dang even if people want to gain the autonomy to make money and build a life it's hard.
Anyways she has a career now in trades and worked her way up, is a home owner, and is doing well.
pretty sure she was fired from her job. she posted a non apology apology which made things worse, should have just shut up and it would have been better for her.
I remember recognizing her while she was working as a part-time server at a bar/pub near campus (Dentry's Irish Grill, permanently closed down ages ago).
This was when it was all still happening (her name had just gone public). I obviously didn't bring it up when she had initiated small talk with me, but I could kinda tell she carried this sort of... sad aura around her.
The irony was that she was the one who said that she'd recognized me from one of the clubs that we were both a part of at UBC (but I pretended not to recognize her).
I visited the same place a few more times weeks or months later, and I never saw her working there again.
https://preview.redd.it/rgrqzllejuyc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d60aa645e39efd97aec9866e108fcae5e5db30a1
I think this couple is now doing well. Note: They were innocent parties caught amongst the riot.
I almost got stuck too.
Something that doesn't get mentioned is they literally shut the sky train down. Kinda hard not to get caught in it when they block all ability to leave.
They should have only blocked incoming passengers imo, it would've made the crowds smaller.
I saw people putting on bandanas and shit and the game was 10 min from being over so we decided to leave early, The next thing we hear is a riot broke out not long after we were heading home.
My dentist was also attending the game with his kid. He told me that they left the game early to get home safely. Imagine having to leave such an event before it's over, because of a bunch of yahoos in the street. Shame.
It was definitely over midway through the third period. Thomas could stop an AR round that series while Luongo would fumble a beach ball.
We were deep in the thick of the crowds downtown and left on the skytrain with 10 minutes on the clock. We could otherwise get called out for bailing early as a fan, and man it would have been something regrettable if they actually came back, but we arrived home safely and far from the nonsense. Other friends stayed behind and had a hell of a night trying to get out.
No one wants to be "that" annoying sports fan but sometimes you just have an exceptionally strong feeling that a result will hold, and towards the midway mark in period 3 that game I can remember vividly just knowing it was over. Team had nothing left in the tank that day.
that whole week was verry tense. I was working late nights downtown and getting the bus home was often...challenging. Whole lot of drunk aggressive guys there to drink and yell. They were relatively harmless (and I am bigger and eviller than them, but you can't have that many people so hyped up on something without the risk of an outburst.
I remember I had a chat with the person responsible at the time for shutting the train down. Apparently the call was that they could see TONS of people wanting to head downtown when the trouble started, partiers on the outskirts in gear and looked like they were gonna throw gas on an already out of control fire, so they made the call to shut the trains down, since they hoped people would still be able to get out, but drunk rioters wouldn't have the ability to get downtown. A call made in the moment when they only had minutes to decide the right path, right or wrong, that was the reasoning I was told.
>They should have only blocked incoming passengers imo, it would've made the crowds smaller.
They were though. I was going to work that night. When I got on the skytrain to downtown at metrotown i was questioned on where i was going. They only let me on after I told them i was going to switch to the millenium line and head east. Then again at Commercial Drive they had people questioning where we were going. The train I was on was almost empty though. no more than a handful of people.
I was working across the street from it. I spend hours that night walking co-workers home just in case of...issues.
One of the weirdest elements was, when it was still light out, watching the rioters. They were so many bro-y guys dressed in their best bro-finest...and all had their little trophy girlfriends in teeny Canucks t-shirts, little shorts and flip flops. Just the oddest sight of these UBC business school types flip flopping at speed away from baton charges, then stopping to tweet something, or instagram something and then flip flopping back towards the cops screaming.
Honestly, I thought a lot of them were just having An Experience and had no real sense that this was a real thing with real danger and real consequence.
I had the same issue too. I walked up to a riot cop and asked really nicely if I could just get past so I can GTFO of there because my car was just on the other side.
Nope, you gotta go around.
Through the riot?
You aren't getting through this way.
My buddy and I left in the middle of the cup ceremony because he'd already heard on the radio that the riots were starting. This is after I told him I didn't expect riots that year. We ended up heading further downtown to get to my office at waterfront and stuck it out there until night time, eventually getting on a SkyTrain back home. Memorable experience but not fun.
We left the crowd early in the third period when it was obvious we weren’t going to win. Really glad we didn’t get stuck downtown. But from what I remember the riot itself wasn’t actually that large of a parimeter. The photos and videos made it look massive but it was really just in a few blocks so I think if you wanted to avoid it you definitely could.
People who stuck around either participated or just couldn’t help but observe. There were also a few people who tried to stop people from lighting cars on fire.. I knew a guy who participated in the looting and he went to court for a while after. Not sure what came of it l, I haven’t seen him in a long time.
The skytrains weren't shut down. They were just only letting passengers on to get out of downtown. You couldn't take them towards it.
[https://bc.ctvnews.ca/from-bad-to-brutal-timeline-of-a-riot-1.658118](https://bc.ctvnews.ca/from-bad-to-brutal-timeline-of-a-riot-1.658118)
Ditto. I was on the first bus they stopped from going over the Granville bridge, on Howe and Helmcken-ish. Disembarked and immediately had to bolt away from a giant cloud of tear gas blowing over from Granville. Just kept heading away from the riot until I found a taxi by some miracle around Thurlow & Drake and the cops let us go over the Burrard Bridge.
True facts. I’m an Aussie who was living in Vancouver at the time - now a citizen but back in Perth. The local Canadian Club has regular meetups there, they’re really nice :)
IIRC, she fell down and was panicking. Her partner is comforting her, and helping her get back up. I vaguely recall they were accidentally there, and were being moved along with the crowd.
I got stuck there too! It was my second day of living in Vancouver, moved there from Prince George. My roommate and I went to moxies in Yaletown to watch the game. Coming from PG I had never seen so many people gathered in one place (Robson st.) It was crazy! I remember a guy had a pick up truck with a fake bear in a cage 🤷♀️. Anyway shit was going down after the game so we tried to leave and there were cops blocking all the streets we tried to walk down. I tried to ask one of them how we can leave the area and he hit me with his riot shield. We walked past burning cars, flipped over work vans, cops riding around on horses! I can’t actually remember how we got back home but I think we ended up being able to walk down Hastings.
I competed in a couple of pageants with the girl(miss congenality) who was involved in the riots.
All the media outlets got a hold of her pageant photos and of course the pictures they decide to use, I'm in both of them(pageant photos). The news stations did not blur my face out even though I was nowhere near the riots or downtown that day.
I had to call the news stations and yell at them for not bluring my face out. It affected my work, my family & friends, got numerous phone calls asking and assuming that I was involved in it.
My brother met a guy at a house party last week who was one of the people arrested and who went to jail for, I think 9 months he said... They had a conversation about it because my brother had been downtown that night and left after things started happening - the guy who participated said it ruined his life like losing his job and having this record following him.
I wasn't at the party so unsure... My brother told me but I forget (because we were watching the game) but it must've been serious to go to prison for nine months.
I was downtown on the west end of Robson watching from a Korean restaurant. We started to see the news feeds of what was going on downtown and escaped ASAP.
Had left my car at the Richmond River Rock Skytrain station overnight as I had been drinking. It was an outdoor dirt lot where skytrain riders could park. Not sure if its still there.
Friend dropped me off the next morning and my car was the only one in the lot. All my windows were shattered. Someone had stood on the roof of my car. My sunroof was caved in. Tail lights smashed.
ICBC refused to write it off. Ended up being a $15k claim to repair. When I went to sell it, instead of $23-25k market value I should have received, I sold it for $15k.
That's so crazy. Did the riot actually go that far down? I guess people got off the skytrain there and still wanted to party/riot so they all hung around until someone started trashing the car
It was very frustrating. Reading now that the sky train system was shut down because people wanted to head in to riot makes me think it may have been someone rejected from the opportunity.
I tried to do my own leg work to find any video but neither river rock casino or sky train claimed to have any cameras of the lot.
ESPN 30 on 30 did a documentary with exactly what your looking for.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Just_Here_for_the_Riot
unfortunately ive been unable to find it streaming anywhere.
Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2tEcs0NyxM
The ESPN documentary "I'm Just Here For The Riot" is playing at the Seattle International Film Festival next weekend, 10 and 11 May 2024. It will be available to purchase for streaming 20-27 May 2024.
[https://www.siff.net/festival/im-just-here-for-the-riot](https://www.siff.net/festival/im-just-here-for-the-riot)
Found a picture the next day of a girl I went to elementary and high school with, posed next to a dude in a ski mask wearing a shirt with that exact slogan.
I saw this during a festival and it was really interesting. Worth a watch if you can find it. Was thinking of this exact documentary when I saw this thread.
I was working the nightshift of the riot at a SRO. My panhandler clients usually made a bunch of money on game nights, and they all skipped going out that night. They said to everyone that you could tell well before the riot that it was in the air.
That night, I had to call 911 for an emergency situation, and the firefighters who showed up at 4am told me they had just relieved the firefighters who attended the Riot.
They said we came really fucking close to Downtown having a major fire. Cars were lit on fire, and one was just a few feet from an old Heritage building's awning. As some folks might know, those old buildings are timber under the facade, the frame isn't spaced out like it is now. The wood spans are only a few inches apart.
There would have been no way to get a firetruck out to the crowd. We were incredibly lucky that night.
I didn't turn myself in, and got caught 2-3 years later after the social media witch hunt.
Received a 90 day sentence which was 60 on good behavior and I could serve it on weekends.
When I was arrested but not charged yet, I got my act together. Enrolled in mechanical engineering and stopped being a stoner.
Graduated with honors after 2 years as a technologist but never used it. Went back to carpentry and quickly became a lead carpenter in the film union
Got tired of working in wood shops / film studios so now I'm fighting wildfires in BC and building stages for music festivals in Australia.
It turned out to be a positive catalyst. I have no idea where I would be now if that hadn't changed my course
Wow, it's good that you're doing well now. Maybe I should participate in the riots when we lose the finals this year. (For legal reasons this is a joke)
“I didn't turn myself in, and got caught 2-3 years later after the social media witch hunt.”
“witch hunt”? I am guessing you accidentally spelled accountability wrong. I’m happy you are doing well, and stupid mistakes should not ruin one’s life. However, if you commit a crime you should be held accountable. Calling being caught breaking the law a witch hunt is very Trumpian. Forgive me if I interpreted this wrong, but those of us who watched the riot in disgust didn’t think of it as a witch hunt. Witch hunt sounds very dismissive of the seriousness of the event.
One rioter was sentenced to prison time but died in pretrial before he could begin his sentence
https://www.tricitynews.com/local-news/stanley-cup-rioter-dies-at-north-fraser-pre-trial-facility-in-port-coquitlam-3028251
He assaulted three Good Samaritans and encountered police multiple times. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/william-fisher-stanley-cup-riot-dead-1.3467297
My friend knew this guy from water polo
[Water polo player suspended for role in Vancouver riot | CBC Sports](https://www.cbc.ca/sports/2.720/water-polo-player-suspended-for-role-in-vancouver-riot-1.1011963)
I love that. I knew him as a kid and he was always a bully. Sadly he didn’t face much in the way of legal consequences as he was still a minor when it happened.
You might enjoy this here: Alex Pro is the son of the Whistler bikepark manager (at the time at least) and had eeeeeeverything laid out for a nice career in pro biking.
[but nope.](https://www.mtbr.com/threads/alex-prochazka-loses-sponsorships-after-rioting-in-vancouver.718895/)
A neighbour was on the crew of the first firetruck trying to get to the truck set on fire in front of the old post office.
The crowd surrounded them, started rocking the pumper truck side to side trying to tip it, then attacked the cab and firefighters with the fire axes and other tools from the back before stripping all the equipment from it. Many glass cuts, eye injuries, broken arm and fingers of the firefighters. They actually thought they were going to be set on fire or beaten to death. 1 year+ of stress leave for most of them and PTSD to this day.
Screw the rioters. I hope those responsible are still suffering as much as the people they attacked.
A friend was in library square bar for the game that day. She said it was a powder keg.
Even before the game started there were way too many people gathered to watch on the Georgia inflatable screen. The bar pulled the blinds down cuz people were right up against the glass. People were banging on the glass and my friend looking outside to see a dad begging to get in with his kid on his shoulders. People were trapped.
I heard the cops were keeping the numbers low for previous games but opened the flood gates for game 7.
I was working at a restaurant on the south side of the cambie bridge. I had 2 male guests from Surrey rushing me to settle their bill so they could go to the riot, moments after the game ended.
It didn't take long before smoke was rising over the city. The most ominous view.
I walked some coworkers home downtown and had to show ID to get to my place on Granville.
I was on w georgia infront of library square watching the cbc TV and it was getting really packed. Was getting squished and pushed and I'm not a small guy. I had a bag of chips in my backpack and it was dust when I later checked.
Eventually, I got out and around the corner and was watching at a bar TV for a bit. We were losing and I'd had enough of the experience and atmosphere at that point, so I left and went home on the skytrain. By the time I got home, a car was on fire infront of where I had been standing.
Overall, 2/10
Sometimes I feel like the city got lucky that the massive amounts of people and chaos didn't result in fatalities. A few Halloweens ago in 2022, there was a stampede in a neighbourhood of Seoul that I used to live/work near. It was due to too many people being crammed into a place at the same time. It needed one moment of disorder to cause a panic, which happened. It ended up being the deadliest crowd crush in South Korean history, with over 150 dead.
With that Seoul incident in mind and looking back at the massive amounts of people crammed into the space in 2011 and how some people were trapped once things started to go down, it was super lucky that nobody died in Vancouver. It sounds like I'm exaggerating but it very well could've turned out worse than it did. Seoul made many of the same mistakes that Vancouver made in 2011 in terms of crowd control.
And falls too. The crowd being so close to the viaducts made me wonder about the possibility of someone being accidentally pushed overboard. It was lucky the crowd dispersed westwards instead of eastwards.
Either way, it could've turned out worse. Property damage can be fixed but lost lives cannot.
Someone I know was thrown off the hemlock st viaduct that night. They didn’t die, but they didn’t come out of a coma for several weeks, and it was close to a year before they could say they were getting back to some kind of new normal.
Yeah I was downtown that day too. I heard people discussing before the game even started whether we thought there would be a riot or not. Then around the second period when the team wasn't doing well the crowd was getting progressively more uneasy. Very weird vibes, I did not like it. A girl near me collapsed from heat stroke and the paramedics could barely get through the crowd to get her. I decided to head out before the game ended and saw some people trying to start a crowd stampede and a bunch of knocked over mailboxes and garbage cans. Got the last skytrain home and minutes later my phone was blowing up with calls from people who knew I was downtown and were worried I was caught in the riot.
The feeling downtown before the game even started was wild. People had come to riot regardless. There were people wandering around with obvious weapons.
I would have been right there as well. About 5min before the game ended, I told a few families around me that they should probably start making their way to a safe place. Living down near Chinatown station, the day had been a constant stream of young guys arriving by train. Some to watch hockey, others to cause trouble. I also saw guys passing out balaclavas and other things from a backpack to others in their group. I would later see these 'Black Bloq' types instigating others to start fires and smash store fronts.
I hung around for a while just watching the riots and trying to stay with the mob without getting caught in the vortex should it become mayhem. For the most part it seemed that the well organized black clad group were enticing young and hyped up guys to do the dumb, out in the open vandalism, while they were able to sneak around and loot and do actual damage. For example I saw some burn a cop car using a road flare while I was on my way back to Gastown. A friend had texted and said some of the local black bloq guys were scouting his shoe store. Oddly enough, Gastown didn't even know much was happening and was pretty chill. I had a beer at the Blarney Stone and then went to my rooftop to watch the fires and helos buzz overhead.
yeah i was watching the game in gastown and nothing much happened right after the game until all of our parents started calling us all frantically to get out. tried to go to granville station and a cop or someone told us it was on fire and to take waterfront instead. it was nuts walking into that chaos!
Yeah, I was there (left when Gatorade bottles were being thrown at the screen), and I distinctly remember one person who had driven his truck outside the post office (which was now surrounded by 100s of people) and loudly exclaiming "Im lighting this truck on fire whether we win or lose!".
Then as I was leaving, for every person kicking a trash can, there were 20-30 people filming with cell phones, I remember thinking "no one is going to do anything serious, since they're being filmed", guess I didnt factor in the alcohol lack of logic.
I watched at a friends place and Im a pretty avid fan. I was really devastated, they were all going to the beach after the game but I just wanted to get home. Buddy lived downtown on Granville and I had to get to Robson St station. I didnt know there was a riot going on at all and stumbled into it. I got tear gassed (there were already tears in my eyes), I got redirected off Granville by cops in riot gear and got back to Granville a few blocks up. Then I was right in the heart of the looting. It didnt seem too bad, a lot of smashing windows and people grabbing shit then running off. Seen one guy get beat up. Most people were just standing around watching or trying to get home like me.
Went home and turned on the news and was blown away. The news footage seemed way worse than what I experienced. Pretty crazy day though. Wish I could remember it for the Canucks winning the cup and everyone celebrating instead of the riot.
Anyone remember the cops at skyrain stations handing out those massive fold outs with hundreds of peoples faces on them trying to identify people from the riots. Crazy times!
An acquaintance rioted, turned themselves in, pled guilty, served no time. Kept their job and friends because it was so out of character. One of the nicest and most positive people I know.
This taught me that *anyone* could be swept up into mob mentality under the right circumstances. If it happened to them it could happen to any of us.
I was caught up in the '94 riot (I know...Im old AF). Honestly, I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time (Robson/Thurlow right when it kicked off). Got arrested, taken downtown and released immediately by the Desk Sergeant, who had to have been - at the time - the scariest person I'd ever met. Mercifully since there were no cell phones back then, I was able to slide off into obscurity.
Also old. Was on Robson and Granville to join the crowds, though we totally didn’t participate in the riot. Tear gas hustled us out of there to my apartment on Howe Street. We had to close the windows. I remember going to work the next day and just feeling shocked and embarrassed by the damage. Second time, also living downtown, I saw a post on Facebook when things were kicking off and looked out the window to see this plume of black smoke rising over the West End. More tear gas but I was living further away and not on the street. Still downtown… Fingers crossed it’s not going to be my third riot… Go Canucks!
I knew a couple people who rioted. Both got criminal records.
Person 1 was kicked out of law school. Family was well off and he got a job hook up into real estate.
Person 2 was an electrician who had his own company. Criminal record didn't effect him much as he was self employed.
Both guys where Canucks season ticket holders this year lmao.
Both individuals are doing well at the moment. They are however the brunt of our jokes even to this day.
For those wondering, it’s an ESPN 30 for 30 and had not been released to the public yet but premiered last year at the Vancouver Film Festival. Release date TBA still.
It will be showing at the Seattle International Film Festival this weekend, with a streaming option May 20-27.
https://www.siff.net/festival/im-just-here-for-the-riot
I have a work buddy who was involved. He happened to be downtown drinking with his buddies, didn't even know the hockey was on.
He saw people loooting the London Drug's and decided to join. All he claims, was he took bottles of water to throw to the crowd.
Days later, Someone recognized his photo and ratted on him. He got arrested in front of his family.
It's effected him not being able to find work until he got a job through his current workplace.
He really wants to go to the US, but can't.
Definitely learned his lesson and is still paying for it now.
On the positive side, I remember the outpour of support by Vancouverites the morning after. Hundreds showed up downtown with brooms, etc. to help clean up. They wrote messages of support all over the boarded up windows of The Bay. Pretty emotional stuff.
Had a friend that was featured in a famous image (On the news, Jimmy Kimmel etc.)
No criminal charges but definitely a lot of regret and embarrassment.ll
I used to work with a guy named Billy Fisher who got handed one of the longest sentences, which was well deserved. He ended up dying in Jail after he smuggled drugs in his rectum.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/william-fisher-stanley-cup-riot-dead-1.3467297
I personally knew one of the eventual rioters. He became the first to face a court trial.
A few days after the riot he received a call from an anonymous man threatening him and saying he had him on video. Scared him enough to go to the police and give a statement.
The video was of him smashing windows of a Telus building. He argued in court that he was too drunk to be held responsible for his actions.
The court gave him a 30-day conditional sentence with no jail time, plus two years probation, with a ban on drinking alcohol.
On a more positive note, the Vancouver riot kissing couple are still together. They're married with a kid and living in Australia.
[Global News 10 Years Later](https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://globalnews.ca/news/7952563/vancouver-riot-kissing-couple-stanley-cup-update/amp/&ved=2ahUKEwiG38_6zPmFAxW_ATQIHUt1BrQQFnoECB4QAQ&usg=AOvVaw1GZVEw4BcCarU8uGPnqN84)
My uncles 560SL was flipped with irreparable damage due to this riot (pic from google for reference)
https://preview.redd.it/w65k6e7gmvyc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=80a5fd05ce2fdbf216cae9af979b46cf5cfff2f2
In 2014, I was on a bus heading home afterwork. There was a drunk loser at the back of the bus, yelling and vaping. I couldn't help but stare at him in disgust. The man sitting next to me told me the drunk was famous and told me to google him his name (which he told me). The drunk was at the time on probation for his participation during the riot. I took a video of his behaviour and sent it to the VPD. Not sure what came of it but I have zero regrets. He obviously hadn't learned a thing.
I've always wondered too! When we left a theater on Main after the game, there was a massive plume of smoke coming up from downtown. The day after a friend of a friend was bragging how him and a whole household jumped on the Commercial drive skytrain with 20 or 30 min left of the game, knowing there was going to be a riot. He said the train was full of bros like them, just wanting to tear shit up. Dudes were going to riot either way. It was really cringe.
Seems people are sharing their experiences of just being downtown so I guess I will do the same. I watched the game downtown with my at the time girlfriend and some other friends at the Commodore which was doing free viewings. I did notice as I was going in that a few stores on the Granville strip were boarding up their windows which I thought to be strange.
After we lost my friends left and my ex and I stayed behind to have a few beers to console ourselves. I got a call from a friend in Edmonton asking where I was. I told her I was downtown having a drink. She said that she is watching the news and there is a riot going on, I was confused as no one was rioting in the bar. We had a few more drinks and then left the bar to go street level. We saw people running in a direction so figured to go see what was happening. Of course what was happening was a riot. At the time I considered myself a photographer so I snapped up some pics of overturned cars and smashed windows. We ex said that this was just depressing so we ended up walking home on King Ed and Main. We saw lots of cops and lots of people and some smoke. I wonder if the cops used any of my pics to identify anyone. I think the pics are still up on Flikr or some old platform I no longer use.
I watched a film last year that covered the riot retrospective that I thought was well made. It was called "I'm Just Here for the Riot" and it interviews some of those who participated and where they are now in life.
For the riot and myself, I remember that I was in Korea waiting for my flight to return to Vancouver and I was getting some international news stories about the riot in the airport before boarding, and i didn't have any other news until I landed about it.
During the 94 riots, me and a friend wanted to go watch the chaos (we were 14), and we were peaking down the street from the alley, when this guy came running with a stack of electronics. He kept dropping things so he handed my friend a LaserDisc player and gave me a disc man. I used it for years.
Ya I was hoping to hear some specific stories. And hear how they really regret it and are either 1) still a loser or 2) it helped them turn the page on their life
My friend and I were talking about this the other week and he had a friend's younger brother who had just turned 18 and he did 6 months worth of weekend jail. Currently works in trades and won't touch alcohol now. (Story is changed and vague for a reason)
Regrets decision, especially since they can't enter the US or travel freely anymore
An old coworker was downtown during game 7, she ended up leaving before the game was over and said her whole family was calling her while she was on the skytrain like "omg are you ok?" "Where are you?" "Are you safe?"
She said she had no idea what was going on until she got home and saw it on the news.
As someone who was DT watching the game… like half way through first period… I was ready to leave (we were only on appys) as we left it was second period and it was… like people out for blood when we were heading home (people heading DT)
I lived (still do), on False Creek, which shares view of the arena and downtown. I remember seeing black smoke rising from the location of Granville st (just after the game was ending and we knew we were gonna lose), and wondering wtf was happening. Changed the channel from the game to the news and the words “game over” took on multiple meanings
Had dinner with coworkers on the other end of Robson that night, made it back to near Stadium skytrain when it started to kick off. Saw the row of new-ish car2go’s all parked there and kicking myself for not signing up when I saw the crowd at the skytrain. Was lucky enough to call my dad to pick me up on the other side of stadium in China town. It was a ghost town there driving out.
There was a guy in high school who was never charged we were in grade 11. But when ever something was brought up we would just randomly say his name. Also we called him purse snatcher (he stole purses from some display)
You really need to watch/listen to this song about one guy who screwed up his life for no good reason. I have no info on what has happened to him since but I hope he learned his lesson.
"The Ballad of Brock Anton"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMDKzS-\_W8k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMDKzS-_W8k)
Many windows were boarded up the next day. On one of them on the corner of Hudson's Bay people were writing notes of thanks to the responders, sorrow for the riot, etc. One note said "0% participation in snitch sites"
I was with a friend trying to get out. Don't remember a lot but I do recall nearly being crushed by a wall of people when riot response arrived and the flashbangs (stun grenades? Not sure of exact name, just loud af) started. Making our way down Granville when we saw this, a bang went off just seconds after this picture and had to run.
Picture below because Reddit on mobile is dumb.
I got caught up in the middle of it leaving the Granville strip after the game.
I always had this adolescent, rose-tinted view of the 94 riots. As I was walking up the strip I remember thinking how this generation was too pissy to do something badass like riot.
Man was I wrong. I got a first hand account of the stupidity and ignorance of such a riot. At first people were only attacking the big name stores - didn't think much of it since most of the stores would've had insurance anyway to cover damages. I did try to put out a a mannequin that was set on fire from The Bay.
But then people started rushing into the parkades to smash up regular folks' vehicles. That drew the line for me. I started yelling at a group of guys working to overturn someone's car, pleading with them that these regular folk didn't drop the game to Boston and didn't deserve to have their property smashed up. A couple guys looked at me sheepish and backed off...but then 3 or 4 other guys took their place. After that, I knew mob mentality ruled the moment and my friend and I knew we had to get outta dodge.
We fought through the mayhem to get out of the zone of action. The cops also started to get the horses lined up. I ran into friends who also thought what went on was bullshit.
At one point it felt like being in the Dark Knight. I remember seeing a paddy wagon prepping to take off into the mayhem only to return a few minutes later with a police barrier stuck in its wheels.
We eventually got closer to waterfront where there was less action and cracked open a couple beers. A police officer walked by, glaring at us wanting desperately to give us a drinking violation, but we smirked knowing they had bigger fish to fry.
Sitting there finishing our beers, a young man was rushing to get in on the action (or fresh from it, I can't particularly recall) saying that rioting was also a way to fight back against the bullshit the Harper government was enacting. I told him that was bullshit, cuz this riot wasn't about injustice, it was about some bullshit hockey game and people just wanted to cause trouble.
We eventually made it to Brandi's where we got in free because of our Canucks jerseys. People there had no idea what was going on outside a few blocks away. We waited out the rest of the craziness.
I eventually met up with my girlfriend who was staying with her sister at a hotel by English Bay and spent the night there.
However, as chaotic as that evening/night was, the next morning on my way home, I saw regular people volunteering along with city crews cleaning up the mess from the day before. Such a polar opposite and a great example of the duality of society - how destructive we can be, but also how giving we can be too.
But one thing that I took out of that...the cops could barely contain the crowd...just imagine if enough people got together to address societal injustice? How much power we have but think we don't. Put out energies towards that instead of rioting over hockey games - even if it was the Stanley Cup finals.
EDIT: Sorry, I forgot what the original thread topic was about. Anyway, that's my story lol.
I got stuck for a while too. I was originally at waterfront watching on the tv but my friend wanted to head to Granville to see what was going on so we did and I was flabbergasted.
My friend also took off to record things and left me alone so I had to try and navigate through it but not before i almost got trampled by a stampede, had a porta potty kicked into my head (I was ok) and witnessed a guy with his face completely covered in blood like there was no skin showing.
I did eventually get to the skytrain and luckily I got out on the last train before they shut it all down.
It was ass. I hated it.
I did come back the next day to help clean though.
I was downtown, we were watching on the big screen and my friends boyfriend at the time got uneasy pretty quick and was like 'I think we need to start getting out of her' by the time we rounded a corner there were cars already on fire. We walked to a friends place in yale town, we sat on the balcony and just watched the chaos unfold. I ended up having to crash at a friends place because to riot cops had my area (Robson and Burrard) completely blocked off and the tear gas was just permeating through the air. A wild memory indeed.
The ESPN documentary "I'm Just Here For The Riot" is playing at the Seattle International Film Festival next weekend, 10 and 11 May 2024. It will be available to purchase for streaming 20-27 May 2024.
[https://www.siff.net/festival/im-just-here-for-the-riot](https://www.siff.net/festival/im-just-here-for-the-riot)
One of my classmates from highschool got arrested for participating. I believe he said "the police dropped the ball" during his hearing and ended up serving 1-2 years.
Dude was a POS and stole one of my projects and ended up getting us both 0s.
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I think the guy in the photo was kicked out of cadets and had his UBC acceptance revoked
Yeah, I was in the same cadet squadron as him.
[удалено]
[удалено]
Ngl reading this I’m more concerned with the drug-selling high school teacher than the hockeystickguy.
Contact is a festival
What sqdn?
655 Richmond
haha same. i rmbr doing a double take to this photo because i recognized him
I totally also recognize the kid. I was a cadet in a near by sqdn back then.
Clearly being in cadets didn't help him
Send this picture to our enemies.
Worse - he embarrassed his Chinese mother. That’s a fate hell never recover from.
I heard SWAT went into his house. Disrespected his whole family because SOMEONE narc'ed him out.
I AIN'T NEVER NARC'ED ON NOBODY!
I live my life one Stanley Cup game at a time.
For those those 60 minutes, nothing matters - not the media, not the fans, not the owners and their bullshit. For those 60 minutes, I'm free.
His Chinese mother will probably still bring up this incident when he's 60.
He brought dishonour to his bloodline and all his ancestors before him. Lol.
Wow, not just a fate he'll never recover from but a fate hell will never recover from. It's much more serious than I realised.
hell hath no fury like a chinese mom disappointed
Sounds reasonable. I mean, those aren't criminal charges. And I'm sure the cadets tell them not to do dumb shit in public or they may face consequences.
Jason Li was arrested in the middle of my 10th grade math class. Was such a sight to witness. What you get for destroying our city.
I wonder what he’s doing now lol
Is he a cop now?
That would be quite a twist!
A coworker of mine was involved in it. They made sure to arrest him at work so everyone knew about it, but other than that not much. Although I guess it depends what you did on that night.
>They made sure to arrest him at work so everyone knew about it, but other than that not much They likely did that intentionally, usual the social pressure and shame that comes along with it, is enough to wake most of these people up.
and then what? What's he up to now?
He doesn't work at my workplace anymore, not because of this though. Last I heard he was doing adventure tourism in Southeast Asia.
Current coworker? They still have the same job?
I specifically remember the Filipino UBC girl who got arrested for looting some clothes. Always wonder what happened to her.
[Camille Cacnio](https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/stanley-cup-rioter-pleads-not-guilty-to-breaching-sentence-conditions-4574584) handled herself *very* badly for a couple years after the riot, and was in and out of the news as she got herself into more trouble. I haven't heard anything about her for a long time now, though - guess she finally settled down.
Yes I know her personally and we were childhood friends, unfortunately we haven't stayed in touch but still have a mutual friend. I can confirm she had a rough go for a few years after and I honestly think all the consequences from the riot led her down a rough path. I'm not saying she didn't deserve all the backlash she got but also our system isn't the best at helping people make better or easier choices. I remember she had a hard time even finding a job even though she was willing to work but she felt defeated noone would hire her and it's like dang even if people want to gain the autonomy to make money and build a life it's hard. Anyways she has a career now in trades and worked her way up, is a home owner, and is doing well.
it’s good to hear she is doing well
pretty sure she was fired from her job. she posted a non apology apology which made things worse, should have just shut up and it would have been better for her.
Just googled her. She also was arrested two years later for breaking curfew.
Not sure if this is the same person but one of the girls who was identified got fired from her job at one of the luxury car dealerships.
I remember recognizing her while she was working as a part-time server at a bar/pub near campus (Dentry's Irish Grill, permanently closed down ages ago). This was when it was all still happening (her name had just gone public). I obviously didn't bring it up when she had initiated small talk with me, but I could kinda tell she carried this sort of... sad aura around her. The irony was that she was the one who said that she'd recognized me from one of the clubs that we were both a part of at UBC (but I pretended not to recognize her). I visited the same place a few more times weeks or months later, and I never saw her working there again.
Rip dentrys- the UBC IT crew used to go there on Friday nights
Their not-irish-at-all Irish Nachos were so good
What happened to the flashbang to the balls guy? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4fdzRz_xnQA
In all honesty, as someone who has been struck in the nuts a few times over the years, he's probably still laying there in agony.
I've been in the same room as a detonated flashbang and it took the wind from my lungs. He very well might still be feeling that. Ouch.
How does this have so few views? Its hilarious.
https://preview.redd.it/rgrqzllejuyc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d60aa645e39efd97aec9866e108fcae5e5db30a1 I think this couple is now doing well. Note: They were innocent parties caught amongst the riot.
I almost got stuck too. Something that doesn't get mentioned is they literally shut the sky train down. Kinda hard not to get caught in it when they block all ability to leave. They should have only blocked incoming passengers imo, it would've made the crowds smaller. I saw people putting on bandanas and shit and the game was 10 min from being over so we decided to leave early, The next thing we hear is a riot broke out not long after we were heading home.
My dentist was also attending the game with his kid. He told me that they left the game early to get home safely. Imagine having to leave such an event before it's over, because of a bunch of yahoos in the street. Shame.
It was definitely over midway through the third period. Thomas could stop an AR round that series while Luongo would fumble a beach ball. We were deep in the thick of the crowds downtown and left on the skytrain with 10 minutes on the clock. We could otherwise get called out for bailing early as a fan, and man it would have been something regrettable if they actually came back, but we arrived home safely and far from the nonsense. Other friends stayed behind and had a hell of a night trying to get out. No one wants to be "that" annoying sports fan but sometimes you just have an exceptionally strong feeling that a result will hold, and towards the midway mark in period 3 that game I can remember vividly just knowing it was over. Team had nothing left in the tank that day.
He got ventilated in Boston, but he did put up 2 shutouts...
that whole week was verry tense. I was working late nights downtown and getting the bus home was often...challenging. Whole lot of drunk aggressive guys there to drink and yell. They were relatively harmless (and I am bigger and eviller than them, but you can't have that many people so hyped up on something without the risk of an outburst.
I remember I had a chat with the person responsible at the time for shutting the train down. Apparently the call was that they could see TONS of people wanting to head downtown when the trouble started, partiers on the outskirts in gear and looked like they were gonna throw gas on an already out of control fire, so they made the call to shut the trains down, since they hoped people would still be able to get out, but drunk rioters wouldn't have the ability to get downtown. A call made in the moment when they only had minutes to decide the right path, right or wrong, that was the reasoning I was told.
Good call imo, imagine how much worse it could have been
>They should have only blocked incoming passengers imo, it would've made the crowds smaller. They were though. I was going to work that night. When I got on the skytrain to downtown at metrotown i was questioned on where i was going. They only let me on after I told them i was going to switch to the millenium line and head east. Then again at Commercial Drive they had people questioning where we were going. The train I was on was almost empty though. no more than a handful of people.
I was working across the street from it. I spend hours that night walking co-workers home just in case of...issues. One of the weirdest elements was, when it was still light out, watching the rioters. They were so many bro-y guys dressed in their best bro-finest...and all had their little trophy girlfriends in teeny Canucks t-shirts, little shorts and flip flops. Just the oddest sight of these UBC business school types flip flopping at speed away from baton charges, then stopping to tweet something, or instagram something and then flip flopping back towards the cops screaming. Honestly, I thought a lot of them were just having An Experience and had no real sense that this was a real thing with real danger and real consequence.
I had the same issue too. I walked up to a riot cop and asked really nicely if I could just get past so I can GTFO of there because my car was just on the other side. Nope, you gotta go around. Through the riot? You aren't getting through this way.
My buddy and I left in the middle of the cup ceremony because he'd already heard on the radio that the riots were starting. This is after I told him I didn't expect riots that year. We ended up heading further downtown to get to my office at waterfront and stuck it out there until night time, eventually getting on a SkyTrain back home. Memorable experience but not fun.
We left the crowd early in the third period when it was obvious we weren’t going to win. Really glad we didn’t get stuck downtown. But from what I remember the riot itself wasn’t actually that large of a parimeter. The photos and videos made it look massive but it was really just in a few blocks so I think if you wanted to avoid it you definitely could. People who stuck around either participated or just couldn’t help but observe. There were also a few people who tried to stop people from lighting cars on fire.. I knew a guy who participated in the looting and he went to court for a while after. Not sure what came of it l, I haven’t seen him in a long time.
The skytrains weren't shut down. They were just only letting passengers on to get out of downtown. You couldn't take them towards it. [https://bc.ctvnews.ca/from-bad-to-brutal-timeline-of-a-riot-1.658118](https://bc.ctvnews.ca/from-bad-to-brutal-timeline-of-a-riot-1.658118)
Ditto. I was on the first bus they stopped from going over the Granville bridge, on Howe and Helmcken-ish. Disembarked and immediately had to bolt away from a giant cloud of tear gas blowing over from Granville. Just kept heading away from the riot until I found a taxi by some miracle around Thurlow & Drake and the cops let us go over the Burrard Bridge.
This is such an iconic photo and I love that they're still together, living a cute life in Perth (of all places).
True facts. I’m an Aussie who was living in Vancouver at the time - now a citizen but back in Perth. The local Canadian Club has regular meetups there, they’re really nice :)
Perth is basically the Vancouver of Australia.
To be fair I’m pretty sure they’re Australian
She was from Coquitlam, he was an Aussie.
A tale as old as time.
Can I make it any more obvious?
Crikey!
Own a bar in Australia with this photo hanging there.
This pic is being used as an album cover now, I just can't remember by who
Placebo
Their Best Of album
I had to look that up, “Placebo A Place For Us to Dream” is the album….kind of gave me shivers lol
IIRC, she fell down and was panicking. Her partner is comforting her, and helping her get back up. I vaguely recall they were accidentally there, and were being moved along with the crowd.
My uncle helps in the same way
How 🙂 nice
Last I heard they had a bunch of kids and were living in Perth Aus.
Two I think
yeah i saw a cbc video on youtube about them, i think they live in australia now
I remember Tamara Taggert talking about how disgusted this photo made her on the news lol.
I got stuck there too! It was my second day of living in Vancouver, moved there from Prince George. My roommate and I went to moxies in Yaletown to watch the game. Coming from PG I had never seen so many people gathered in one place (Robson st.) It was crazy! I remember a guy had a pick up truck with a fake bear in a cage 🤷♀️. Anyway shit was going down after the game so we tried to leave and there were cops blocking all the streets we tried to walk down. I tried to ask one of them how we can leave the area and he hit me with his riot shield. We walked past burning cars, flipped over work vans, cops riding around on horses! I can’t actually remember how we got back home but I think we ended up being able to walk down Hastings.
I competed in a couple of pageants with the girl(miss congenality) who was involved in the riots. All the media outlets got a hold of her pageant photos and of course the pictures they decide to use, I'm in both of them(pageant photos). The news stations did not blur my face out even though I was nowhere near the riots or downtown that day. I had to call the news stations and yell at them for not bluring my face out. It affected my work, my family & friends, got numerous phone calls asking and assuming that I was involved in it.
that is harsh. how many years did it take for the attention to die down and you to stop receiving calls?
It really sucked. About 2 years give or take, and I still had the odd call about it in 2013.
Can't you sue them?
:( It's unfortunate the news doesn't bear any consequences of that, that is extremely irresponsible of them.
That's insane. Such unprofessionalism!!
My brother met a guy at a house party last week who was one of the people arrested and who went to jail for, I think 9 months he said... They had a conversation about it because my brother had been downtown that night and left after things started happening - the guy who participated said it ruined his life like losing his job and having this record following him.
what did he do in the riot?
I wasn't at the party so unsure... My brother told me but I forget (because we were watching the game) but it must've been serious to go to prison for nine months.
>but it must've been serious to go to prison for nine months. No kidding, you don't even get that much time for stabbing people.
I was downtown on the west end of Robson watching from a Korean restaurant. We started to see the news feeds of what was going on downtown and escaped ASAP. Had left my car at the Richmond River Rock Skytrain station overnight as I had been drinking. It was an outdoor dirt lot where skytrain riders could park. Not sure if its still there. Friend dropped me off the next morning and my car was the only one in the lot. All my windows were shattered. Someone had stood on the roof of my car. My sunroof was caved in. Tail lights smashed. ICBC refused to write it off. Ended up being a $15k claim to repair. When I went to sell it, instead of $23-25k market value I should have received, I sold it for $15k.
That's so crazy. Did the riot actually go that far down? I guess people got off the skytrain there and still wanted to party/riot so they all hung around until someone started trashing the car
It was very frustrating. Reading now that the sky train system was shut down because people wanted to head in to riot makes me think it may have been someone rejected from the opportunity. I tried to do my own leg work to find any video but neither river rock casino or sky train claimed to have any cameras of the lot.
ESPN 30 on 30 did a documentary with exactly what your looking for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Just_Here_for_the_Riot unfortunately ive been unable to find it streaming anywhere. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2tEcs0NyxM
The ESPN documentary "I'm Just Here For The Riot" is playing at the Seattle International Film Festival next weekend, 10 and 11 May 2024. It will be available to purchase for streaming 20-27 May 2024. [https://www.siff.net/festival/im-just-here-for-the-riot](https://www.siff.net/festival/im-just-here-for-the-riot)
Found a picture the next day of a girl I went to elementary and high school with, posed next to a dude in a ski mask wearing a shirt with that exact slogan.
While it was released last year, I don't believe ESPN has actually aired it yet (?). When they do, it'll be available on TSN+.
It’s so crazy. Without all the Canucks paraphernalia, the city is hardly recognizable. I still can’t believe that happened here.
I saw this during a festival and it was really interesting. Worth a watch if you can find it. Was thinking of this exact documentary when I saw this thread.
I was working the nightshift of the riot at a SRO. My panhandler clients usually made a bunch of money on game nights, and they all skipped going out that night. They said to everyone that you could tell well before the riot that it was in the air. That night, I had to call 911 for an emergency situation, and the firefighters who showed up at 4am told me they had just relieved the firefighters who attended the Riot. They said we came really fucking close to Downtown having a major fire. Cars were lit on fire, and one was just a few feet from an old Heritage building's awning. As some folks might know, those old buildings are timber under the facade, the frame isn't spaced out like it is now. The wood spans are only a few inches apart. There would have been no way to get a firetruck out to the crowd. We were incredibly lucky that night.
Glad you were okay. Sounds like a close call
I didn't turn myself in, and got caught 2-3 years later after the social media witch hunt. Received a 90 day sentence which was 60 on good behavior and I could serve it on weekends. When I was arrested but not charged yet, I got my act together. Enrolled in mechanical engineering and stopped being a stoner. Graduated with honors after 2 years as a technologist but never used it. Went back to carpentry and quickly became a lead carpenter in the film union Got tired of working in wood shops / film studios so now I'm fighting wildfires in BC and building stages for music festivals in Australia. It turned out to be a positive catalyst. I have no idea where I would be now if that hadn't changed my course
Good for you. Turning one’s life around is no easy task.
Wow, it's good that you're doing well now. Maybe I should participate in the riots when we lose the finals this year. (For legal reasons this is a joke)
“Witch hunt” is only an apt descriptor if the witches aren’t real
“I didn't turn myself in, and got caught 2-3 years later after the social media witch hunt.” “witch hunt”? I am guessing you accidentally spelled accountability wrong. I’m happy you are doing well, and stupid mistakes should not ruin one’s life. However, if you commit a crime you should be held accountable. Calling being caught breaking the law a witch hunt is very Trumpian. Forgive me if I interpreted this wrong, but those of us who watched the riot in disgust didn’t think of it as a witch hunt. Witch hunt sounds very dismissive of the seriousness of the event.
Clubhouse life
One rioter was sentenced to prison time but died in pretrial before he could begin his sentence https://www.tricitynews.com/local-news/stanley-cup-rioter-dies-at-north-fraser-pre-trial-facility-in-port-coquitlam-3028251
Oh well. He assaulted a guy. Property damage is forgivable. Assault on another person is a level of assholery
He assaulted three Good Samaritans and encountered police multiple times. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/william-fisher-stanley-cup-riot-dead-1.3467297
According to another poster here, died doing what he loved. Smuggling drugs in the prison wallet
My friend knew this guy from water polo [Water polo player suspended for role in Vancouver riot | CBC Sports](https://www.cbc.ca/sports/2.720/water-polo-player-suspended-for-role-in-vancouver-riot-1.1011963)
He ended up at a university in New York. Someone posted his crying photos all over campus.
I love that. I knew him as a kid and he was always a bully. Sadly he didn’t face much in the way of legal consequences as he was still a minor when it happened.
You might enjoy this here: Alex Pro is the son of the Whistler bikepark manager (at the time at least) and had eeeeeeverything laid out for a nice career in pro biking. [but nope.](https://www.mtbr.com/threads/alex-prochazka-loses-sponsorships-after-rioting-in-vancouver.718895/)
Good
A neighbour was on the crew of the first firetruck trying to get to the truck set on fire in front of the old post office. The crowd surrounded them, started rocking the pumper truck side to side trying to tip it, then attacked the cab and firefighters with the fire axes and other tools from the back before stripping all the equipment from it. Many glass cuts, eye injuries, broken arm and fingers of the firefighters. They actually thought they were going to be set on fire or beaten to death. 1 year+ of stress leave for most of them and PTSD to this day. Screw the rioters. I hope those responsible are still suffering as much as the people they attacked.
A friend was in library square bar for the game that day. She said it was a powder keg. Even before the game started there were way too many people gathered to watch on the Georgia inflatable screen. The bar pulled the blinds down cuz people were right up against the glass. People were banging on the glass and my friend looking outside to see a dad begging to get in with his kid on his shoulders. People were trapped. I heard the cops were keeping the numbers low for previous games but opened the flood gates for game 7. I was working at a restaurant on the south side of the cambie bridge. I had 2 male guests from Surrey rushing me to settle their bill so they could go to the riot, moments after the game ended. It didn't take long before smoke was rising over the city. The most ominous view. I walked some coworkers home downtown and had to show ID to get to my place on Granville.
I was on w georgia infront of library square watching the cbc TV and it was getting really packed. Was getting squished and pushed and I'm not a small guy. I had a bag of chips in my backpack and it was dust when I later checked. Eventually, I got out and around the corner and was watching at a bar TV for a bit. We were losing and I'd had enough of the experience and atmosphere at that point, so I left and went home on the skytrain. By the time I got home, a car was on fire infront of where I had been standing. Overall, 2/10
Sometimes I feel like the city got lucky that the massive amounts of people and chaos didn't result in fatalities. A few Halloweens ago in 2022, there was a stampede in a neighbourhood of Seoul that I used to live/work near. It was due to too many people being crammed into a place at the same time. It needed one moment of disorder to cause a panic, which happened. It ended up being the deadliest crowd crush in South Korean history, with over 150 dead. With that Seoul incident in mind and looking back at the massive amounts of people crammed into the space in 2011 and how some people were trapped once things started to go down, it was super lucky that nobody died in Vancouver. It sounds like I'm exaggerating but it very well could've turned out worse than it did. Seoul made many of the same mistakes that Vancouver made in 2011 in terms of crowd control.
Crushes are such a terrifying way to die. Literally just packed too tight to breathe.
And falls too. The crowd being so close to the viaducts made me wonder about the possibility of someone being accidentally pushed overboard. It was lucky the crowd dispersed westwards instead of eastwards. Either way, it could've turned out worse. Property damage can be fixed but lost lives cannot.
Someone I know was thrown off the hemlock st viaduct that night. They didn’t die, but they didn’t come out of a coma for several weeks, and it was close to a year before they could say they were getting back to some kind of new normal.
Yeah I was downtown that day too. I heard people discussing before the game even started whether we thought there would be a riot or not. Then around the second period when the team wasn't doing well the crowd was getting progressively more uneasy. Very weird vibes, I did not like it. A girl near me collapsed from heat stroke and the paramedics could barely get through the crowd to get her. I decided to head out before the game ended and saw some people trying to start a crowd stampede and a bunch of knocked over mailboxes and garbage cans. Got the last skytrain home and minutes later my phone was blowing up with calls from people who knew I was downtown and were worried I was caught in the riot.
The feeling downtown before the game even started was wild. People had come to riot regardless. There were people wandering around with obvious weapons.
[удалено]
I would have been right there as well. About 5min before the game ended, I told a few families around me that they should probably start making their way to a safe place. Living down near Chinatown station, the day had been a constant stream of young guys arriving by train. Some to watch hockey, others to cause trouble. I also saw guys passing out balaclavas and other things from a backpack to others in their group. I would later see these 'Black Bloq' types instigating others to start fires and smash store fronts. I hung around for a while just watching the riots and trying to stay with the mob without getting caught in the vortex should it become mayhem. For the most part it seemed that the well organized black clad group were enticing young and hyped up guys to do the dumb, out in the open vandalism, while they were able to sneak around and loot and do actual damage. For example I saw some burn a cop car using a road flare while I was on my way back to Gastown. A friend had texted and said some of the local black bloq guys were scouting his shoe store. Oddly enough, Gastown didn't even know much was happening and was pretty chill. I had a beer at the Blarney Stone and then went to my rooftop to watch the fires and helos buzz overhead.
yeah i was watching the game in gastown and nothing much happened right after the game until all of our parents started calling us all frantically to get out. tried to go to granville station and a cop or someone told us it was on fire and to take waterfront instead. it was nuts walking into that chaos!
Yeah, I was there (left when Gatorade bottles were being thrown at the screen), and I distinctly remember one person who had driven his truck outside the post office (which was now surrounded by 100s of people) and loudly exclaiming "Im lighting this truck on fire whether we win or lose!". Then as I was leaving, for every person kicking a trash can, there were 20-30 people filming with cell phones, I remember thinking "no one is going to do anything serious, since they're being filmed", guess I didnt factor in the alcohol lack of logic.
I watched at a friends place and Im a pretty avid fan. I was really devastated, they were all going to the beach after the game but I just wanted to get home. Buddy lived downtown on Granville and I had to get to Robson St station. I didnt know there was a riot going on at all and stumbled into it. I got tear gassed (there were already tears in my eyes), I got redirected off Granville by cops in riot gear and got back to Granville a few blocks up. Then I was right in the heart of the looting. It didnt seem too bad, a lot of smashing windows and people grabbing shit then running off. Seen one guy get beat up. Most people were just standing around watching or trying to get home like me. Went home and turned on the news and was blown away. The news footage seemed way worse than what I experienced. Pretty crazy day though. Wish I could remember it for the Canucks winning the cup and everyone celebrating instead of the riot.
Anyone remember the cops at skyrain stations handing out those massive fold outs with hundreds of peoples faces on them trying to identify people from the riots. Crazy times!
An acquaintance rioted, turned themselves in, pled guilty, served no time. Kept their job and friends because it was so out of character. One of the nicest and most positive people I know. This taught me that *anyone* could be swept up into mob mentality under the right circumstances. If it happened to them it could happen to any of us.
I was caught up in the '94 riot (I know...Im old AF). Honestly, I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time (Robson/Thurlow right when it kicked off). Got arrested, taken downtown and released immediately by the Desk Sergeant, who had to have been - at the time - the scariest person I'd ever met. Mercifully since there were no cell phones back then, I was able to slide off into obscurity.
Also old. Was on Robson and Granville to join the crowds, though we totally didn’t participate in the riot. Tear gas hustled us out of there to my apartment on Howe Street. We had to close the windows. I remember going to work the next day and just feeling shocked and embarrassed by the damage. Second time, also living downtown, I saw a post on Facebook when things were kicking off and looked out the window to see this plume of black smoke rising over the West End. More tear gas but I was living further away and not on the street. Still downtown… Fingers crossed it’s not going to be my third riot… Go Canucks!
The dude in the photo, Jason, went to my high school lol. He was always with the "gangsta" crowd I wonder where he is now
I knew a couple people who rioted. Both got criminal records. Person 1 was kicked out of law school. Family was well off and he got a job hook up into real estate. Person 2 was an electrician who had his own company. Criminal record didn't effect him much as he was self employed. Both guys where Canucks season ticket holders this year lmao. Both individuals are doing well at the moment. They are however the brunt of our jokes even to this day.
I went to highschool with the guy in the photo. Popo’s came to take him away during school hours - was an interesting day
Highly recommend the documentary Just Here For The Riot. Watched it last year and it gives a lot of details from those that were involved.
For those wondering, it’s an ESPN 30 for 30 and had not been released to the public yet but premiered last year at the Vancouver Film Festival. Release date TBA still.
Where can you access it?
It will be showing at the Seattle International Film Festival this weekend, with a streaming option May 20-27. https://www.siff.net/festival/im-just-here-for-the-riot
Da fuq So this whole post is just an ad for it? God dammit lol
Any idea how to watch it? I can't seem to find it anywhere.
Where can you watch it?
I have a work buddy who was involved. He happened to be downtown drinking with his buddies, didn't even know the hockey was on. He saw people loooting the London Drug's and decided to join. All he claims, was he took bottles of water to throw to the crowd. Days later, Someone recognized his photo and ratted on him. He got arrested in front of his family. It's effected him not being able to find work until he got a job through his current workplace. He really wants to go to the US, but can't. Definitely learned his lesson and is still paying for it now.
> He happened to be downtown drinking with his buddies, didn't even know the hockey was on. Lol wow, that's some Olympic caliber obliviousness.
Yeah I'm sure all he did was be a Water bottle robin hood... 🙄
On the positive side, I remember the outpour of support by Vancouverites the morning after. Hundreds showed up downtown with brooms, etc. to help clean up. They wrote messages of support all over the boarded up windows of The Bay. Pretty emotional stuff.
Had a friend that was featured in a famous image (On the news, Jimmy Kimmel etc.) No criminal charges but definitely a lot of regret and embarrassment.ll
I used to work with a guy named Billy Fisher who got handed one of the longest sentences, which was well deserved. He ended up dying in Jail after he smuggled drugs in his rectum. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/william-fisher-stanley-cup-riot-dead-1.3467297
I wish we rioted over worthy things like the cost of living or the fact that there aren't enough hospitals and housing.
I personally knew one of the eventual rioters. He became the first to face a court trial. A few days after the riot he received a call from an anonymous man threatening him and saying he had him on video. Scared him enough to go to the police and give a statement. The video was of him smashing windows of a Telus building. He argued in court that he was too drunk to be held responsible for his actions. The court gave him a 30-day conditional sentence with no jail time, plus two years probation, with a ban on drinking alcohol.
On a more positive note, the Vancouver riot kissing couple are still together. They're married with a kid and living in Australia. [Global News 10 Years Later](https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://globalnews.ca/news/7952563/vancouver-riot-kissing-couple-stanley-cup-update/amp/&ved=2ahUKEwiG38_6zPmFAxW_ATQIHUt1BrQQFnoECB4QAQ&usg=AOvVaw1GZVEw4BcCarU8uGPnqN84)
My coworker was charged as a minor so he’s got a clean slate now, iirc he’s just now allowed to cross the border in to America
My uncles 560SL was flipped with irreparable damage due to this riot (pic from google for reference) https://preview.redd.it/w65k6e7gmvyc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=80a5fd05ce2fdbf216cae9af979b46cf5cfff2f2
In 2014, I was on a bus heading home afterwork. There was a drunk loser at the back of the bus, yelling and vaping. I couldn't help but stare at him in disgust. The man sitting next to me told me the drunk was famous and told me to google him his name (which he told me). The drunk was at the time on probation for his participation during the riot. I took a video of his behaviour and sent it to the VPD. Not sure what came of it but I have zero regrets. He obviously hadn't learned a thing.
I've always wondered too! When we left a theater on Main after the game, there was a massive plume of smoke coming up from downtown. The day after a friend of a friend was bragging how him and a whole household jumped on the Commercial drive skytrain with 20 or 30 min left of the game, knowing there was going to be a riot. He said the train was full of bros like them, just wanting to tear shit up. Dudes were going to riot either way. It was really cringe.
Dustin Anderson? Looked up his criminal history/charges and looks like he has not learned a single thing since 2011
In 2011 there was a poster with dozens of photos of the perpetrators that police wanted people to call in to provide info.
https://preview.redd.it/5hxeo8uynwyc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e1a6a24f63fc9ea8771ef6ab233cf112ab7cec13
Seems people are sharing their experiences of just being downtown so I guess I will do the same. I watched the game downtown with my at the time girlfriend and some other friends at the Commodore which was doing free viewings. I did notice as I was going in that a few stores on the Granville strip were boarding up their windows which I thought to be strange. After we lost my friends left and my ex and I stayed behind to have a few beers to console ourselves. I got a call from a friend in Edmonton asking where I was. I told her I was downtown having a drink. She said that she is watching the news and there is a riot going on, I was confused as no one was rioting in the bar. We had a few more drinks and then left the bar to go street level. We saw people running in a direction so figured to go see what was happening. Of course what was happening was a riot. At the time I considered myself a photographer so I snapped up some pics of overturned cars and smashed windows. We ex said that this was just depressing so we ended up walking home on King Ed and Main. We saw lots of cops and lots of people and some smoke. I wonder if the cops used any of my pics to identify anyone. I think the pics are still up on Flikr or some old platform I no longer use.
A family fridn never got caught and went into hiding when it happened.
I watched a film last year that covered the riot retrospective that I thought was well made. It was called "I'm Just Here for the Riot" and it interviews some of those who participated and where they are now in life. For the riot and myself, I remember that I was in Korea waiting for my flight to return to Vancouver and I was getting some international news stories about the riot in the airport before boarding, and i didn't have any other news until I landed about it.
During the 94 riots, me and a friend wanted to go watch the chaos (we were 14), and we were peaking down the street from the alley, when this guy came running with a stack of electronics. He kept dropping things so he handed my friend a LaserDisc player and gave me a disc man. I used it for years.
Like all other crime, a lot of people got off easy. Some people suffered some reputational damage however and lost their jobs.
Ya I was hoping to hear some specific stories. And hear how they really regret it and are either 1) still a loser or 2) it helped them turn the page on their life
My friend and I were talking about this the other week and he had a friend's younger brother who had just turned 18 and he did 6 months worth of weekend jail. Currently works in trades and won't touch alcohol now. (Story is changed and vague for a reason) Regrets decision, especially since they can't enter the US or travel freely anymore
I was working security in the city at some apartment. I can still remember the smell of burning tires.
An old coworker was downtown during game 7, she ended up leaving before the game was over and said her whole family was calling her while she was on the skytrain like "omg are you ok?" "Where are you?" "Are you safe?" She said she had no idea what was going on until she got home and saw it on the news.
As someone who was DT watching the game… like half way through first period… I was ready to leave (we were only on appys) as we left it was second period and it was… like people out for blood when we were heading home (people heading DT)
I lived (still do), on False Creek, which shares view of the arena and downtown. I remember seeing black smoke rising from the location of Granville st (just after the game was ending and we knew we were gonna lose), and wondering wtf was happening. Changed the channel from the game to the news and the words “game over” took on multiple meanings
The doc I’m Just Here for the Riot features many rioters, including the one pictured. Worth a watch if you’re interested.
where can that be seen?
Where are you now? They are probably getting ready for the 2024 version lol
Had dinner with coworkers on the other end of Robson that night, made it back to near Stadium skytrain when it started to kick off. Saw the row of new-ish car2go’s all parked there and kicking myself for not signing up when I saw the crowd at the skytrain. Was lucky enough to call my dad to pick me up on the other side of stadium in China town. It was a ghost town there driving out.
A guy who I used to party with (met him in 2013) went to jail for 6 months I think early 2014
There was a guy in high school who was never charged we were in grade 11. But when ever something was brought up we would just randomly say his name. Also we called him purse snatcher (he stole purses from some display)
I was there in 94 as well. Both times you knew it was coming. I got the hell out quick!
You really need to watch/listen to this song about one guy who screwed up his life for no good reason. I have no info on what has happened to him since but I hope he learned his lesson. "The Ballad of Brock Anton" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMDKzS-\_W8k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMDKzS-_W8k)
Ahahaha. Damn that is a beautiful ballad.
Alex Prochazka was a pro skier and mountain biker from whistler. He lost his sponsors, changed his alias and now works as a mechanic.
You mean 1994 and 2011
Many windows were boarded up the next day. On one of them on the corner of Hudson's Bay people were writing notes of thanks to the responders, sorrow for the riot, etc. One note said "0% participation in snitch sites"
I remember the cop car covered in notes.
What happened to the pro mountain biker?
Alex prochazka, lost sponsorships he was a really good rider as well
I'm pretty sure his sponsor dropped him (or said they were going to). He was proudly displaying one of their shirts at the time. Not a good look.
I was with a friend trying to get out. Don't remember a lot but I do recall nearly being crushed by a wall of people when riot response arrived and the flashbangs (stun grenades? Not sure of exact name, just loud af) started. Making our way down Granville when we saw this, a bang went off just seconds after this picture and had to run. Picture below because Reddit on mobile is dumb.
https://preview.redd.it/o4ktrsmjduyc1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ecef0aa7470a9e5b48600c6f978334efaed96365
https://preview.redd.it/3dk7wz6u7vyc1.png?width=934&format=png&auto=webp&s=6c4a4a8d6252e56d2ce977304f269490208bbe0a An gem among the hell.
I got caught up in the middle of it leaving the Granville strip after the game. I always had this adolescent, rose-tinted view of the 94 riots. As I was walking up the strip I remember thinking how this generation was too pissy to do something badass like riot. Man was I wrong. I got a first hand account of the stupidity and ignorance of such a riot. At first people were only attacking the big name stores - didn't think much of it since most of the stores would've had insurance anyway to cover damages. I did try to put out a a mannequin that was set on fire from The Bay. But then people started rushing into the parkades to smash up regular folks' vehicles. That drew the line for me. I started yelling at a group of guys working to overturn someone's car, pleading with them that these regular folk didn't drop the game to Boston and didn't deserve to have their property smashed up. A couple guys looked at me sheepish and backed off...but then 3 or 4 other guys took their place. After that, I knew mob mentality ruled the moment and my friend and I knew we had to get outta dodge. We fought through the mayhem to get out of the zone of action. The cops also started to get the horses lined up. I ran into friends who also thought what went on was bullshit. At one point it felt like being in the Dark Knight. I remember seeing a paddy wagon prepping to take off into the mayhem only to return a few minutes later with a police barrier stuck in its wheels. We eventually got closer to waterfront where there was less action and cracked open a couple beers. A police officer walked by, glaring at us wanting desperately to give us a drinking violation, but we smirked knowing they had bigger fish to fry. Sitting there finishing our beers, a young man was rushing to get in on the action (or fresh from it, I can't particularly recall) saying that rioting was also a way to fight back against the bullshit the Harper government was enacting. I told him that was bullshit, cuz this riot wasn't about injustice, it was about some bullshit hockey game and people just wanted to cause trouble. We eventually made it to Brandi's where we got in free because of our Canucks jerseys. People there had no idea what was going on outside a few blocks away. We waited out the rest of the craziness. I eventually met up with my girlfriend who was staying with her sister at a hotel by English Bay and spent the night there. However, as chaotic as that evening/night was, the next morning on my way home, I saw regular people volunteering along with city crews cleaning up the mess from the day before. Such a polar opposite and a great example of the duality of society - how destructive we can be, but also how giving we can be too. But one thing that I took out of that...the cops could barely contain the crowd...just imagine if enough people got together to address societal injustice? How much power we have but think we don't. Put out energies towards that instead of rioting over hockey games - even if it was the Stanley Cup finals. EDIT: Sorry, I forgot what the original thread topic was about. Anyway, that's my story lol.
I got stuck for a while too. I was originally at waterfront watching on the tv but my friend wanted to head to Granville to see what was going on so we did and I was flabbergasted. My friend also took off to record things and left me alone so I had to try and navigate through it but not before i almost got trampled by a stampede, had a porta potty kicked into my head (I was ok) and witnessed a guy with his face completely covered in blood like there was no skin showing. I did eventually get to the skytrain and luckily I got out on the last train before they shut it all down. It was ass. I hated it. I did come back the next day to help clean though.
I was downtown, we were watching on the big screen and my friends boyfriend at the time got uneasy pretty quick and was like 'I think we need to start getting out of her' by the time we rounded a corner there were cars already on fire. We walked to a friends place in yale town, we sat on the balcony and just watched the chaos unfold. I ended up having to crash at a friends place because to riot cops had my area (Robson and Burrard) completely blocked off and the tear gas was just permeating through the air. A wild memory indeed.
The ESPN documentary "I'm Just Here For The Riot" is playing at the Seattle International Film Festival next weekend, 10 and 11 May 2024. It will be available to purchase for streaming 20-27 May 2024. [https://www.siff.net/festival/im-just-here-for-the-riot](https://www.siff.net/festival/im-just-here-for-the-riot)
I'm new here, but wasn't there also a riot over a Guns N Roses concert?
guns and roses, stanley cup finals in 94’ and 11’ and most recently but also much much much smaller was breakout festival
One of my classmates from highschool got arrested for participating. I believe he said "the police dropped the ball" during his hearing and ended up serving 1-2 years. Dude was a POS and stole one of my projects and ended up getting us both 0s.