It's like you haven't been paying attention to anything in the history of ever.
Sportball's inevitable consequences
What I don't understand is all you people who are acting shocked, shocked at the discovery that sports fans will use any excuse to destroy things.
Tags: doomed, firstperson, sf
12 Responses:
See, for example, the Nika Riots.
Apparently, it needs to be said: if $sport_team inspires you to light things on fire in the street, I would like to humbly suggest that You Are Doing It Wrong.
And yes, I was that buzz kill with the fire extinguisher. Go to fucking Burning Man or something.
Grump.
It's not even new to the bay area. Oakland in Flames as Raiders fans run riot
Assholes will take any excuse to be assholes, whether or not they're sports fans. Ask the jerk I saw on my way back from Civic Center last night who was calling his friends in the East Bay to "get over the bridge, man, come and fuckin party, there's gonna be a riot". It's why Halloween in the Castro doesn't happen any more either.
If I say "it seems like this didn't used to happen on a routine basis" am I being one of those "nostalgic for the way it never was" people?
Yes.
[sigh]
I remember when I didn't used to be like this.
Are we sure it was related to sports, and not just someone finally setting fire to the 22?
One thing that's starting to change about these (not just sportsball-related) riots is ubiquitous crowd-sourced surveillance. People are posting photos of specific acts of vandalism, hoping to get the perp identified and charged.
Or as happened here recently, posting them to a social networking site to show their mates how cool they are, apparently unaware that the local law enforcement can also use said networks.
Made /me/ laugh, I can tell you.
Indeed, a number of convictions for the Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver last year are based on cell phone pictures of people in flagrante delicto. The criminals seem to be mostly middle class suburban boys, which should really be no surprise at all.
I bet there's never been a riot after a game of Crown Green Bowling.