Canucks Central

[jlousa]

I feel most people (imo) agree that we don't want everyone's entire life ruined for partaking in this riot. Personally I'd be content with a heavy fine (to help towards the damage), a few days in jail (to show them where they'll end up if they act up again), followed by at least a couple hundred hours of community service (to teach them civic pride). If they complete everything and stay out of trouble then they can apply for a pardon in say 5yrs. Enough time for them to suffer a bit, but not enough to ruin their life.

[MrOilers]

Originally Posted by Sprawl

• Video Link
Absolutely no sympathy, that's what happens when you try and torch a police car.

What a moron.

His pathetic blubbering and tears makes me want to see a judge put a boot in his ass even harder.

[Spikester]

Originally Posted by jlousa

I feel most people (imo) agree that we don't want everyone's entire life ruined for partaking in this riot. Personally I'd be content with a heavy fine (to help towards the damage), a few days in jail (to show them where they'll end up if they act up again), followed by at least a couple hundred hours of community service (to teach them civic pride). If they complete everything and stay out of trouble then they can apply for a pardon in say 5yrs. Enough time for them to suffer a bit, but not enough to ruin their life.

QFT isn't quite long enough by itself, so I'll spell it out: Quoted For Truth.

[invisibleairwaves]

I'd hate to see anyone's life ruined over this, but at the same time...a one-time mistake? That cop car was destroyed well after the end of the game. He made the conscious decision to stay in the middle of the riot, and kept making that decision. He could have left at any point up until then. Caught up in the mob mentality? Maybe, but he chose to stay in that mob when he had ample opportunity to leave. I have even less sympathy for this guy than I do for the folks who got violent right at the start of the riot.

[EastVanMark]

Originally Posted by invisibleairwaves

There's been a couple of articles now in the Vancouver Sun and (of course) the Georgia Straight saying the riots were the outcome of a capitalist, consumerist society.

I give up on this city.

...just to add on to what you stated; CKNW had a Sociology prof. from SFU who claims the rioters were actually making a political statement and that we should have made every effort to hear what they were "protesting" about. And this fool teaches at university!! No wonder this region is filled with so many loonies!

[trofirhen]

Even without SSP VANCOUVER, this incident of last Wednesday's hockey riot riot has made it to the mainstream media in Europe. People are mentioning it to me.

Vancouver has made a name for itself with all the fairs, summits, and games it has held over the years .... now this (OMG)

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by EastVanMark

...just to add on to what you stated; CKNW had a Sociology prof. from SFU who claims the rioters were actually making a political statement and that we should have made every effort to hear what they were "protesting" about. And this fool teaches at university!! No wonder this region is filled with so many loonies!

Ugh, i am willing to make a small bet i know exactly which prof this is. I had him for one class and if it is who I think it is he was a self proclaimed protester for hire. Everything in his class was bad white people this (unless it was about Asia, then it was bad Japanese), bad government that, bad company this, poor native that, poor protestor this, and super bad evil police. The best part of the class was when one girl in the class, who was training on becoming an RCMP, completely called him out on his twisted figures, facts, etc...

Now, did a learn a few things from him, yes, but was he a completely biased ultimate PC looney, yes. just the same way i dislike anyone who is completely biased to one side.

that being said, I do appreciate that he still gave me a good mark even though all my essays were in complete contrast to what he was saying, so at least his marking wasn't as biased.

[IanS]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Ugh, i am willing to make a small bet i know exactly which prof this is. I had him for one class and if it is who I think it is he was a self proclaimed protester for hire. Everything in his class was bad white people this (unless it was about Asia, then it was bad Japanese), bad government that, bad company this, poor native that, poor protestor this, and super bad evil police. The best part of the class was when one girl in the class, who was training on becoming an RCMP, completely called him out on his twisted figures, facts, etc...

Now, did a learn a few things from him, yes, but was he a completely biased ultimate PC looney, yes. just the same way i dislike anyone who is completely biased to one side.

Soooo.. you're saying he was a university professor?

[IanS]

Originally Posted by jlousa

I feel most people (imo) agree that we don't want everyone's entire life ruined for partaking in this riot. Personally I'd be content with a heavy fine (to help towards the damage), a few days in jail (to show them where they'll end up if they act up again), followed by at least a couple hundred hours of community service (to teach them civic pride). If they complete everything and stay out of trouble then they can apply for a pardon in say 5yrs. Enough time for them to suffer a bit, but not enough to ruin their life.

I agree completely, at least for those who didn't cause too much damage or assault anyone.

[IanS]

Originally Posted by MrOilers

What a moron.

His pathetic blubbering and tears makes me want to see a judge put a boot in his ass even harder.

I suspect he's more upset he got caught than anything else.

[delboy]

Originally Posted by IanS

I agree completely, at least for those who didn't cause too much damage or assault anyone.

While I tend to agree, at least in principle, that one deserves a second chance, I think we are all down playing the seriousness of these charges. We are not talking about losing one's temper and hitting someone, or partaking in a shop lifting, we are talking about wiful damage to property that endangered bystanders and the emergency services workers.

These are serious civil disorder offences, and the notion of punishment in our system are (a) rehabilition; and (b) general detterence. It is essentially not what is best for the individual to heal, but for the public interest - that is, it's not about him, it's about us. I suspect that the public will demand serious consequences for what happended. Arson offences are generally not hybrid offences and are straight indictable. No fine (summary offences can be dealt with by $2000 fine or max 6 months in jail - but not straight indictable offences).

Arson offences under the criminal code are serious. Mischief by arson is a 14 year max sentence (unless one is a youth convicted under the Youth Criminal Justice Act).

Arson -- damage to property
434. Every person who intentionally or recklessly causes damage by fire or explosion to property that is not wholly owned by that person is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years.

R.S., 1985, c. C-46, s. 434; 1990, c. 15, s. 1.

Lukily for anyone a youth at the time, they will, by default, get a second chance. As for adults, i don't believe that they deserve one.

[whatnext]

It doesn't excuse what he did. But at least he had the stones to come forward and waive his rights under the Young Offenders Act to make the apology. Young guys do stupid and aggressive things without thinking, that's why countries send them out to war. But its going to take more than an apology. I suspect he knows that, but you can't undo what's done. Realistically, this kid doesn't need the scholarship and I doubt he's going to be blackballed from every university in Canada but he could have lost the chance to ever compete for Canada internationally in water polo.

[MrOilers]

Originally Posted by invisibleairwaves

I'd hate to see anyone's life ruined over this

I wouldn't.

Arson, theft, assault, vandalism... these are all criminal offenses. And these people KNOW they are crimes. These aren't "mistakes". People knew full well what they were doing, even if it was a lapse in judgement. The law shouldn't discern between good or bad decisions.

And if these people are ignorant of the law it still isn't an excuse for doing it.

[dreambrother808]

Lives shouldn't be forever ruined but some community service and a fine for a rich kid doesn't seem like much of a punishment to me.

Thankfully, in the future people will now know that you cannot commit such acts anonymously. They must also know that there are truly serious consequences if they do. That is how we will prevent most of the masses from joining in.

[WarrenC12]

There was a professional mountain biker who had his picture posing in front of a burning car. I believe his sponsorship will be pulled and his name will go through the mud. Sounds ok so far, but I would begin to feel a little bad for him if things escalated further.

However, when you are the one lighting a rag in a police car's gas tank, I'm not sure how far would be "too far", but I have no sympathy for this little shit yet.

[vancityrox]

So we have been getting lots of people actually returning Coach bags to the Bay that they stole. People have turned themselves in and saying that they were caught in the moment when they saw the window was broken. Its good that they are bringing the bags back and that their parents are calling in apologizing and making some of their kids return the stolen goods.
Also a man was spotted by a woman trying to sell a whole box worth of coach bags on the street!!! She called us and we got them back and the man was arrested shortly after. Great news!!

[WarrenC12]

Great to hear.

[entheosfog]

Would these people have turned themselves in if they weren't caught on video and pictures while in the act? Sadly, I'm not so sure...I'm glad we live in such a digital age like this.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by jlousa

I feel most people (imo) agree that we don't want everyone's entire life ruined for partaking in this riot. Personally I'd be content with a heavy fine (to help towards the damage), a few days in jail (to show them where they'll end up if they act up again), followed by at least a couple hundred hours of community service (to teach them civic pride). If they complete everything and stay out of trouble then they can apply for a pardon in say 5yrs. Enough time for them to suffer a bit, but not enough to ruin their life.

That all sounds very reasonable to me. Don't destroy the rest of their lives over it, as you say (unless, for example they killed someone), but make them LEARN, above all else.

Hope that sort of paraphrases your idea.

[logan5]

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Opinion+Psychology+riot+They+found+exciting/4960894/story.html

Some of the comments I've seen coming from these different sites (Facebook, The Sun etc.) are being a little hard on these kids. I think some people are underestimating how powerful the influence of the mob is, especially for a young male. It's a safe bet that some of us at that young age would have got caught up in it as well. The two examples that I've seen here, the Chinese kid from Richmond and the water polo kid from Maple Ridge are good kids who were under the influence of something very powerful. And I'm sure there are many other examples that we haven't seen.

Some want to see them punished accordingly, which is reasonable, while a few others (one person in particular here) want to nail these kids to the wall. These ones that are on a witch hunt are the same ones, IMO, that would have been running wild through the streets of Vancouver if they were put in the same situation.