Auto da fe in Vancouver

 I'm in Vancouver, the Canucks have lost game 7 and the Stanley Cup, and my hotel is in the middle of a riot. I go out and there's a festival of 19-year-old idiocy. Cars being overturned and burned. Stupid punks breaking stuff. It gets very ugly. Inhaled my first tear gas since Montreal in 1969. I spend an hour in front of a bar with the owners, very nice guys, who are ashamed of what is happening in their city. Spoiled stupid drunks with no idea of real consequence.....then scrambling hordes in front of riot squad Mounties and a volley of rubber bullets, pepper spray....all a pretty disgraceful spectacle. The cops behaved very well, the exurban punks were loathsome, the crowds taking pictures with their cellphones were part of the problem....heedless people who have no idea of the real consequence, in most parts of the world, of this kind of Animal House behavior...Most people I spoke to were disgusted, and ashamed of the spectacle...a meaningless festival of stupidity.

I'm back in my room and I'm going to bed. The police are moving down the street and arresting anyone in their way. No fooling. Fine with me. Black eye for Vancouver. So stupid. So ridiculous. A population nursed on video games and celebratory violence. Boys committing indictable federal crimes in front of 1000 cameras. Way to go.