I blogged a few days ago in French about the recent riots in Vancouver, caused by stupid, over excited hockey fanatics because their team had lost the Stanley Cup (in the seventh game!). I was both baffled because I love Vancouver as a city, but almost relieved to see that the citizens of a great city can be just as thick as us Montrealers. The Habs partisans did smash things down and behaved like hooligans too, but in our case it was when the team had won. Try to understand this for a minute. You can't? Neither can I. That is why I don't care about hockey too much anymore, and never got into football here: team sports just make people thick. It is one thing to love a team and want them to win, it is another to think they are any good or think they deserve to win against a better team.
And there was this picture released, about this young couple lying down in the street, kissing, seemingly oblivious to the rioters and police around them. I first saw them on Stéphane Laporte's blog, who made this stupid comment "probably they were Boston partisans". Laporte can be clever, but when it comes to hockey his brain shuts down, just like many of my compatriots (and myself too, when I was a teenager). He shows it here with such an idiotic comment. Of course, there is a lot of speculation about the kissing couple: was she wounded, who are they (this is a mystery that now appears to be solved), was it staged, etc. From what I read it appears that it was a genuine moment of tenderness. And for some reason, this picture gives me a bit more hope in mankind.
La fille a des belles jambes... Anyway, dans le cas des émeutes, à partir du moment qu'il y a un précédent, il semble qu'il y ait toujours des gens dont l'intention est de faire de la casse au départ, pour profiter de grands atroupements de fêtards en ébriété et déclencher le grabuge. Un coup parti, la mentalité de groupe prend le dessus. Dans le cas de Vancouver, c'est une répétition, à plus grande échelle, de 1994, où l'équipe avait perdu le septième match de la coupe Stanley contre New York. Je ne pense pas qu'il y aurait eu d'émeute si Vancouver avait gagné la coupe. Ça n'excuse rien du comportement des gens, mais il y avait une certaine attente en cas de défaite.
ReplyDeleteÀ Montréal, la coupe n'étant pas revenue depuis 1993, on a vu des émeutes pour avoir éliminé Boston en première ronde! Mais on n'en voit pas quand le Canadien perd. On n'en voit pas quand le Canadien affronte les Penguins ou Washington.
Ça arrive à Boston comme à Los Angeles, pour le baseball, le basketball et n'importe quel autre sport d'équipe, du moment qu'il y a un précédent, ça revient périodiquement selon le contexte.