We’re going to have to cut Vancouver hockey fans some slack

Dave Ross Commentary – Listen: We’re going to have to cut Vancouver hockey fans some slack

We’re simply witnessing human nature.

You must remember — hockey, like all sports, is war by other means:

“Vancouver’s a world class city, and we put ourselves out like this, really, who are these kids running around?” said one witness.

They’re young male warriors. And in war there is collateral damage.

“I’ve been told by several people that the whole front of the post office has been completely smashed to smithereens,” said one news report.

Sometimes you lose a post office.

We would look at the same crowd very differently if Canada was run by a tyrant. If that was the case, we’d be calling this the Vancouver spring! And every burning car would be a blow for democracy.

It appears to be human nature that when authority breaks down, groups of young men will see what they can get away with.

“Hey — I threw a beer bottle, and no one stopped me — I wonder what happens if I trash the Post Office.”

Or, on another level — I tweeted myself above the belt — now let’s try below the belt!

And it’s not just sports: The Paris premiere of Wagner’s Tannhauser caused a riot inside the opera house. Wagner’s Lohengrin caused a riot outside the opera house. And Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in 1913 — they’re STILL debating whether that riot was cause by the music or the choreography.

[At least for the Canadians, the tear gas treatments are paid for by the health care system.]

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