Vancouver after the Riots

Our speaker this week was award winning Vancouver Sun columnist Daphne Bramham.  Like the rest of us, she watched in horror the Stanley Cup riots unfold asking what's next?  We saw live coverage of crowds moving, cars burning and people looting.  What was especially scary for her was watching people that didn't know each other work together to turn over a police car.  These were not anarchists or hooligans, but youth that had scholarships, jobs and even represented Canada in sports.  The rioters seemed to be having a good time and seemed proud of themselves.  "Riot Tourists" seemed detached from the violence, like they were on a movie set.  They jumped up on cars and took their pictures- this fueled the rioters.  Their refusal to leave made it more difficult for police and ambulance workers to do their jobs.  It is likely that a small organized group sparked the riot but they had no trouble finding accomplices.  Were there economic reasons behind those that took part - that is a possibility.  Some men and women tried to instill sanity by stopping the looting. We need to rebuild civic pride and the volunteers that came out the next morning to clean up proved that we haven't lost our pride.