I'm angry.
I'm downright pissed right off.
And none of it is even about the game, I'm not even ready to try to talk about that.
I was hoping win or loss I would be able to come and just say something about the game, thank the team and move on. Instead I have spent the morning trying to defend myself to people who don't see the difference between real fans, and the 'fans' from last night and the people who didn't even go down there with the purpose of watching the game.
I don't know what's bugging me more, the idiots who rioted last night, or the people that are painting all Canucks fans, Vancourites and just hockey fans in general with one brush. I don't know how many facebook status's and tweets I've seen saying " stupid hockey fans", "embarassing Canucks fans". I guess I can see how un knowledgeable people would look at it. People who don't give the game of hockey, or their fans the time of day in the first place.
They see that the riot happened after a Canucks game, and see some people with jerseys on and automatically just lump us all together. I can tell you, putting on a jersey or a t-shirt does not make you a Canucks fan. I can almost guarantee you that most of the people you saw down there with Canucks jerseys or t-shirts on involved in the riot, had just bought them in the past few months. You know the "sweet! the team is doing well, its cool to wear Canucks gear!" type people.
Trouble makers in Vancouver saw an opportunity and they took full advantage of it. With the constant reminders from the Media and other fans around the league using it as chirps, it gave them something to think about. It gave them something to try to outdo and something they knew they would get attention for. When people head downtown with balaclavas and molotov cocktails, they were not going down with the intention to enjoy the game. Period. I don't care if they threw on a Canucks jersey or t-shirt to fit in. You can't pull the ' what about the people in Linden jerseys, they've obviously been fans a long time if they have that'. No, no they haven't. Linden jerseys are still available everywhere, and lots of people wear them so once again seen as the cool thing to wear.
That being said not all went down there for that purpose. There were also the young drunks, but once again I don't believe they were rioting because of the loss. They were doing it because they are young, drunk and just like to start stuff. I know the types, I think anybody who attended high school knows those types. Once again, not true Canucks fans.
True Canucks fans were to upset after the game, after the performance by the team to care.
True Canucks fans left the downtown core before the game was over because they knew that the people down there purely to get drunk and have a 'good time', were getting out of hand already. The game wasn't even out of reach at that point.
I'm angry that I now have to sit here and defend myself, and fellow fans against it all. Other teams fans chirped us because of the 1994 riots, I hoped and prayed that it wouldn't happen again but who was I kidding? Really, I think everyone saw it coming. Im angry that people will not see the point I'm making about true fans, trouble makers and drunk bandwagoners.
I'm angry that my beautiful city was put to shame. That once again people will not understand that it wasn't the true fans doing this. The world, for the most part, thought highly of Vancouver after the 2010 Olympics and now that is all gone. It sickened me watching the footage on CTV and Global last night, and to go on twitter and see that it was being broadcast as breaking news in places as far away as Australia. I lived in Vancouver for 19 years and wish I could live there again now, I know the true beauty and and love the city actually has. I really hope people are able to look past this, and that people see news coverage of the good citizens and real fans that were downtown bright and early this morning helping the city clean up.
Finally, I'm angry that I've sat here talking about this, instead of trying to piece together what happened these past 2 months with my hockey team. Why they had the ability to win the Cup, but seemed to not quite play to their ability. I'm angry, so it's probably not even the best time to try to figure it out. It will come in a future blog post though.
This picture was posted on twitter this morning, I guess it sums it all up. On the Bay building downtown.
The real true fans and citizens of Vancouver are taking the fall for this when it's not how it was, and we're still saying sorry. Those in Vancouver are downtown this morning helping to clean up the mess.
I hope that people who recognize people they know in the riot footage do the right thing and turn them in. If you have pictures of people directly doing the damage please get in contact with the Vancouver Police( 604-717-2541) or e-mail them to Robbery@vpd.ca.
No comments:
Post a Comment