06 · 19

The Vancouver Riots & Social Media: When The Cart Gets Put Ahead Of The Horse

Christopher_fisher_photo_of_vancouver_riot_2011
By now the majority of people in British Columbia have felt plenty embarrassed and ashamed by what transpired in Vancouver after the Canucks fell to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup final on Wednesday night. We sat glued to the live CTV News coverage, appalled at the behaviour of the crowd as wave after wave of pseudo-war zone imagery flooded into the studio and onto our screens at home. I for one felt sick to my stomach; the kinda nausea I experienced as a youngster when two kids arranged to meet at the tennis courts to fight after school.

I've heard many people throughout the past week attempting to assuage the situation with shallow assurances that the sole responsibility for the violence and destruction that took place on those beloved city streets, the sight of so much positive celebration only a year ago with the Winter Olympics, was the work of a handful of crooks, thugs, punks, anarchists, yahoos, idiots, morons, hoodlums and goons bent on creating chaos and havoc regardless of the sporting outcome that night. All I see are labels being used to separate those who did the destroying from those who did the recording. All of whom share the responsibility in my opinion. One guilty of physical destruction and one guilty of passive digital and social encouragement that fanned the flames of the situation by celebrating the type of narcissism that Facebook Walls and You Tube fan pages live for.

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