from Amazon
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Sports Riots
Montreal is infamous for its hockey riots. We had the one with Rocket(*) Richard being suspended and the league president was in the building the following game. We’d have one following a Cup victory. And, of all things, one happened last night after the first round (still 3 more rounds to go to the Cup). First time for that one. Almost always, it’s following the last game of the playoffs.
And the fans usually target cop cars. What makes Montreal such a target is that everything is downtown. The arena is right at the heart of downtown, there are tons of bars and restaurants downtown, the subway (Metro) has two lines that goes right through downtown, you can get from any part of the island to downtown in under an hour, and typically 20 minutes. Downtown is where the action is. And the people who start the riots are not the ones that go to the game! Just your standard hooligans who take advantage of the situation. And Montreal police is usually undermanned in these sport riot situations (until the next time). You’d think they’d learn their lesson. But, someone’s gotta pay I guess.
A true shame. You just need a few hundred idiots, and if you put them all in the same place, bad things will happen that is irrespective of the thousands of other law abiders. I’m sure Detroiters know what we’re talking about.
(*) There’s only one Rocket. I don’t like it that Clemens and Ismael got the same nick name.
Well, at least it’s nice to see Habs fans have come down to earth a bit in the last 15 years ... it used to be only Leaf fans would get rowdy after a first-round win. Now you guys are hungry too!