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So. Sixteen arrests, 16 Montreal police cruisers torched and the usual delerium about why the cops weren’t better prepared.
Another Montreal riot.
I was too young for ‘56, the Great Maurice Richard Hockey Riot, but I’ve become a student of Montreal riots. Did you know the 1849 Montreal riot was started by anglos infuriated at the passage of the Rebellion Losses Bill restituting the 1837 rebels and their supporters? An English mob torched the Montreal parliament buildings and they had to call in the troops.
I was on Ste. Catherine for the 1968 Murray Hill Riot. The Montreal cops were on a work to rule, so the mob enjoyed a two-hour looting spree before the premier ordered in the SQ. My friend Peter and I got recruited by an Italian shoe store owner to keep the crowds away from his place.
The Montreal cops got their own back at the 1969 McGill français Riot. They rode their Harleys onto the sidewalks with the cops in the sidecars whaling away with their matraques at the crowds, many of whom were innocent bystanders caught in the crowd. The cops clubbed the demonstrators into successively smaller groups at each intersection with sheer brutality. Even there, a nameless anarchist had the foresight to bring tire spikes in the form of two sharpened headless nails welded together.
The 1973 La Presse Riot was huge and ugly. At one point, demonstrators rolled a stolen truck down the hill and into the line of cops. Paving stones filled the air. I got one on the back of the hand and had to go to the Royal Vic for X-rays. The ER was full of injured cops.
The 1993 Stanley Cup Riot I remember well. A few merchants on Ste. Catherine had put plywood over their windows, but the cops kept insisting they had it under control. They didn’t. The debrief found there were too few cops and no game plan. Merchants were furious, but what could they do but collect their insurance?
The 1995 Referendum Night Riot and the Medley Punk Rock Riot targeted more storefronts. Merchants howled, but what could they do? The Medley Riot aftermath found the tactical squad took an hour to get there because nobody had seen it coming.
So when I see pix of kids looting Foot Locker outlets, I wonder what’s changed. I’m sure their daddies, mommies and uncles were looting those same stores when I was a police reporter. The cops are still being faulted for not being fast, numerous or aggressive enough. I can’t blame them for not wanting to be targeted by a crowd that includes dangerous people for whom riots are a social action. Hockey fans don’t burn police cars, but Montreal’s vicious activists’ cells do.
I’ve always liked the old East German Stazi water cannon. Armoured trucks with armed outriders, equipped with turret nozzles capable of blasting someone off his feet from 100 metres. There’s nothing that cools a riot faster than being soaking wet. If I was feeling particularly dictatorial, I’d add some hog slurry or fish fertilizer to the brew. Then let ‘em riot. |
Comments
About the hockey riots down town after game 7 of the Bruins series. You're morning team got on air defending these people saying things like this: These people are not habs fans!!!"
Well in a lot of the videos I've witnessed there are clearly people carrying habs flags and wearing Habs jerseys SO ARE THEY Bruins fans?
I'm tired of the media in this town sticking up for people like this when it is very gd clear THAT IT IS HABS FANS!!!
But then again it is the same type mentality that when a Canadien player stole a womans purse they ALSO STOOD UP FOR HIM!! Oh no he is not guilty oh no not a Canadiens player!!!
Time you people took the gd blinders off and faced the truth. This is a hick town with hicks running wild!
Even your sister station mentioned about the riot: "Well isn't this the norm for Montreal?!
YES IT IS and it goes all the way back to the Richard riots!!!
FACE THE FACTS!!! Have they rioted IN ANY OTHER N.H.L. CITY where the team has won and advanced?
New York,San Jose,Denver,Philly,Dallas or Pittsburg???
ANSWER NO!!! Only Montreal has the fans with the lets riot mentality! And who ends up paying for this damage? The innocent tax payers! And how much does a fully equiped cop car cost complete with computers and all? And they torched how many 5?
And the media is saying it's not habs fans????
Ya Homer those damn Boston fans again eh?
GET REAL 940!
Posted by: Tom | April 23, 2008 8:17 AM
I`ve been listening to all the reports, commentaries etc. following last mondays riots on Ste. Catherine. Everyone has something to say on the subject but what amazes me more than anything is where some people, in certain cases experts, lay the blame.
First the Police. Always a popular target when things go awry. They didn`t do enough, they weren`t ready, they were too tough, blah, blah, blah.I will never be one to say that the police are a perfect group, nor am I one to overlook REAL abuses of power by officers, but come on, what were they supposed to do. Yes it`s true they probably do need to re-think their approach in a situation like this, but Blame them, I don`t think so.
One newscast the other night featured a McGill professor of Athletics, and his comments on the situation. Now I know we are all eager for comments from the Hallowed Halls of McGill University, because everything that comes out of that institution must by virtue of it`s history be the truth. Keeping this in mind when Professor Push-ups, says that the Canadians themselves must accept part of the blame because they let the series get tied, therefore raising the fever-pitch in the city to a boiling point, so it must be the hockey clubs fault, I don`t think so.
On the same newscast a psychologist was interviewed, who explained that the individuals involved in the riot had some sort of deep seeded need to be famous, or commit what they deem to be outlandish acts to gain some sort of notoriety in a world where they feel inadequate or under appreciated. Of Course society once again is to blame, I don`t think so.
Let`s have a reality check here and lay the blame squarely where it belongs. On the THUGS themselves. These morons took it upon themselves to get out on the streets and wreak havoc. They took it upon themselves to stand in front of TV cameras and torch police cars, and dance around celebrating their deeds. One individual in particular caught my attention by the fact that he was wearing a scarf to cover his face and conceal his identity. Problem is the moron forgot to actually cover his face with it. Am I supposed to lose sleep worrying about the fate of plebians like these. I don`t think so.
Finally, here is where I really start to sound patrician, but I personally feel that most of these morons well and truly are products of a lifetime of their parents making excuses for them, it`s never their fault, someone else is always to blame. I wonder what would be the outcome if even half of them would have felt the sting of a good old fashioned spanking when they were children. What would have happened if some of them had been raised with a sense of shame when they did wrong. I don`t know, perhaps I`m really not in step with todays society, but I`ll say this, I really hope that the parents of each and everyone one of these idiots who paraded themselves in front of the cameras on monday night for all the world to see, are really well and truly proud of their accomplishments as parents, and the job they did raising their kids. I would love to take each and everyone one of these thugs and their parents and stand them at centre ice in the Bell Centre, in front of a sellout crowd and perhaps they will come to feel ashamed of what they did and the image they gave this great city.
Posted by: Paul McKenna | April 24, 2008 9:45 AM