“Vancouver Riots!” “A blemish on Vancouver’s international reputation.” “A tragic event.” The headlines scream and shout.
Oh, the city has gone mad. And I’m not referring to the riots that took place last week. That was last week’s madness. This is this week.
Forget the fact that we have endemic poverty and rampant drug use mere blocks from our central business district, that we have the world’s original
skid row, that the city is becoming increasingly unaffordable to all but the wealthy, or that we are bulldozing over the history and soul of the city so that we might build more condominiums. No. The tragic event is a relatively small, five hour riot. Huh.
What’s most interesting about Vancouver’s latest riot, beyond the now-overlooked fact that the Canucks played mediocre hockey – and that’s being kind – in an exceptional situation, is the reaction and fallout from the evening’s riot on the streets of downtown. Before I go any further however, I do want to point out that the media coverage of the happenings are so incredibly out of proportion with the events themselves, that one might be forgiven for believing that the entire downtown core had been set ablaze and looted! If you’d strolled along most any downtown street the next morning, you’d probably not have noticed that anything in particular had actually happened.
I’m not intending to downplay the very real fact that a riot did in fact occur, but beyond the few windows that were smashed and ten or so cars burned, nothing really happened. There was nobody killed and I found the crowd to be a relatively friendly bunch by and large.
Okay, but back to the point. Actually, that was the point. What was in truth a pretty minor event in terms of a history of a city (how many riots do you think have taken place in the city of London? Paris? New York? Hell, Belfast is rioting as we speak and do we hear them harping on about it 
and apologising for it to anyone who will listen?) has been elevated to the status of civic calamity. We’ve reacted with such vigour and eagerness and earnestness, and turned so hatefully on a bunch of drunk – and let’s be fair, disappointed – kids, that despite the ’coming together’ of the city in our response to the riot, I’m rather uncertain as to how this event will actually fit into the narrative of the city.
I discussed earlier the notion that with the city being so young, it is still in the process of writing its own story, of crafting a narrative from the wide and varied histories of the peoples and places that actually make up the city now. The reaction of the city and its residents to the riot of 2011 is rather telling is this respect. The almost unanimous and reflexive condemnation of the rioters and their actions as ‘not truly representing the city’ by people all over the region betrays a still adolescent mentality, an uncertainty, an insecurity. No, it's not the reaction per se, but vocality and saturation of it. We evidently still seem to care about what other people think. We’re still trying to justify ourselves.
But why? Everybody wants to live here.
Let’s just get on with life, can’t we?
