- Photo: Demonstrators gather at Thornton Park on Saturday, the morning after the opening of the 2010 Olympics.
Anarchists in Vancouver, Canada have been promising “Riot 2010” for a few years now, and it happened Saturday. A crowd of roughly 200 people, mostly in their 20s, many dressed in full black regalia with their faces covered by cloth masks, assembled this morning at 8:30 at Thornton Park outside the city’s main train station in preparation for some post-corn flakes and orange juice state smashing.
Black flags fluttered in the wind and misty rain, and yellow jacketed cops on bicycles circled nervously as the crowd of demonstrators began a confused march within the park trying to find a way onto Main St., a major artery in the city leading to Hastings St., the main route to the central business district, past which the march was to end, at Denman St. in the city’s West End.
The marchers found their way to Main St. and onto the road itself, leaving behind at least three people in wheel-chairs, one of whom complained, “These young people move so fast.” The youths were in a hurry, indeed, at least to make their presence felt on opening day of Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympics. Blocking traffic with their bodies, the marchers also added orange pylons and trash to the scene as they passed, throwing anything they could find onto the street. The crowd surged toward Hastings St.
At the intersection of Main and Hastings, the rotten core of the old city business district, the marchers made their way through the worst of the city’s skid road. Seeing them come, the area’s street people, ranging from old alcoholics to young crack heads and professoinal povertarians drew back from the black-clad protestors, a few street people hurling insults, one particularly gnarled old drunk yelling, “Get a job.” The protest leaders, failing to make the turn, found themselves on a minor street and had to back themselves up to continue dow Hastings toward the City centre.
Turning left on Hastings they marched through the guts of skid road, angering those street people who scavenge from dumpsters to find goods enough to sell on the sidewalk by the bottle and can return depot, forcing the street people to gather their goods and huddle over them as the marchers swarmed through and brought a small army of police in tow. Crack-heads too shouted abuse at the anarchists, sputtering and inarticulate cries of anger and outrage at the sight of well-off kids wrecking a morning’s commerce.At the War Memorial at Cambie St. the marchers turned left again up three blocks south and moved right into the first section of the central business district, at which point the newspaper boxes on the sidewalks began to land with regularity on the street, pushed by two young men, neither of them being in shape to push it himself, one metal box going under the front wheels of a city bus. Added to the noise of chanting, drumming, shouting young people and the grating noise of metal scraping across the pavement, the nauseating smell of spray paint permeated the air as anarchist logos appeared on building fronts.
As the demonstrators penetrated further into the central business district there were some arrests for violence, someone reportedly using bear spray on a civilian, some windows being smashed by a man who had earlier found and stolen an aluminum chair. Having lost a few members, the march continued down Georgia St. to Granville, another major intersection in the city and then past Granville into the heart of the business district. Anarchist rioters and police together marched down the sloping street till they came to a halt short of the Denman destination. A confrontation broke out between police and some demonstrators, the police moving along after those who turned south onto Robson St., Vancouver’s high-end shopping street. At Robson the march came to an end, the police pinning the demonstrators against the wall of a pizza place, and at the opposite side of the street, police kept order as one irate bystander stripped off his leather jacket and sweatshirt and prepared to pound on a grinning and terrified protestor separated from his fellows, saved by a bicycle cop who jumped the curb and landed between the two men.Seven people were arrested, Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu would later announce.
-
- Though some buildings were vandalized, the Tax Department building somehow escaped damage, though nearby there was a scrum of policemen tackling and cuffing a demonstrator in the middle of the street, attracting reporters like… reporters. Others were held back, the police saying that some had been assaulted, one with a hammer.
- At that point, police sectioned off three groups of protestors, pinning two groups against walls, a third group moving down an alley to Denman St. as the police, unarmed because, “things could get out of hand and we don’t want anyone getting shot,” reconfigured their plans.
- Regular police in their bright yellow jackets form human barricades to channel the crowd, and behind the regular police, though clearly visible, stood the body-armored and shotgun toting riot squad, sausage-sized rubber bullets in their belts.
Across the street the anarchists chanted about captialism, and as drums banged and flags waved about saving the seals in Newfoundland, victory was declared; capitalism, if not actually destroyed, then at least given a damn good scare by anarchists on the march. The crowd dispersed.
In all, most people, other than those hit by hammers or those maced or whose property was vandalized, most people, and that includes numerous civilians who stood clapping while watching the police acting reasonably under duress, had a good time. Captitalism and world evil still exists, giving the anarchists a reason to continue living so they can continue fighting for … whatever.
Photo: a newspaper box has been thrown through a window in downtown Vancouver
16 users commented in " Riot Promised for Vancouver Olympics happened Saturday "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI’m nonviolent -and an anarchist, by the way- so on Saturday I was in front of the Sochi pavilion, peacefully protesting, namely on the still unrecognized genocide+diaspora of the Circassian people (we’re talking hundreds of thousands of people), 150 years ago, in the very site of the next Winter Olympics, Sochi 2014. Chants included: “Take your games and go away, genocide is not OK”, “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land”, “Sochi is land of genocide” and “Check your archives, these are not lies” (referring to the Russian population, as the crimes that were being denounced have been hidden from the public opinion but are registered in the czarist archives). That got zero media attention as far as I’ve seen, but hey, who cares about a genocide and a diaspora 150 years ago if we have live coverage of a smashed window today, right?
From what I understand, the property damage that happened on Saturday was almost predictable, and probably no actions that intense will happen for the remaining of the Games. There are plenty of other protests happening during the games, almost on a daily basis, and there are plenty of problems to bring up to public spotlight, though. Many of us hope the media, both corporate and citizen-powered, will be there to report.
I heard the riots were against the huge cost of putting on the Olympics and the way the Olympics made people homeless. About 3000 poor people were made homeless so athletes, workers, and spectators could stay, park their cars, etc.
To bad cops didn’t have real bullets. Ignorant punks.
Its time for the people of BC to take back the streets of our cities and drive scum like this out, maybe they would be happier in Iran or Iraq where they would have something genuine to complain about. Get off your ass’s and get a job and you wont be homeless you lazy leech’s
These protesters ranting against capitalism should be given one-way tickets to Pyongyang, North Korea. They can live happily ever after in a place where capitalism is dead.
GET OVER IT! Peace, love, happiness…..
Let go of the hate and free your hearts.
The Olympics are the only time when the entire world comes together as one.
Great reporting, chief! Heaven forbid you actually ask any of them what they were about or read any of their websites. That might have been work!
The damage to the windows saturday morning is probably about what Vancouver experiences every weekend or in any city for that matter. graffiti, probably amount to what normally gets sprayed, asnd with 10,000 cops everywhere vandalism in the way of spray painting and dmage would be way down so the it a push at the very least.
The bigger issue is the VPD wearing gear that hid their identities, topped by no discernable identification in the way of tag or badge so as to know who it is that is clubbing or booting you in the head. I bring up the kick in the head because a video exists which shows an officer soccer kicking a subdued protester in the head, and then the two unidentifiable officers continue to rough him up very violnetly. The assault starts at the very beggining of the clip. The officers are required by law to be indentifiable the civilian does not, know your rights. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDdj-zEZPm8
My understanding is that Vancouver is using eminent domain laws to transfer low-income individuals out of the city in order for them to “successfully” host the Olympics. This is a spectacle paid for with Canadian tax money to try and convince everyone that the countries of the world actually get along.
The Olympics is a big P.R. spectacle to make people think everything is fine in the world. The world should be boycotting the Olympics for tolerating the participation of U.S. athletes. I say this due to the fact that the U.S. has over 800 foreign bases in over 150 countries around the world (including the ongoing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan). The fact that criminal bankers on Wall St. caused a GLOBAL economic collapse and were rewarded with million dollar bonuses. If Israel is participating, we should be boycotting the Olympics. The occupation of Palestine is completely illegal and it encouraged the 9/11 hijackers to attack the U.S. We should be boycotting the Olympics for allowing China to participate, in spite of its occupation of Tibet. Seriously people. My recommendation is rather than complain about these protesters, fight the governments of the countries participating in the Olympics. Anyone criticizing these protesters is failing to see the big picture.
The Olympics is just an opportunity for corporations to advertise their products & services. Corporations are pretty much the most evil entities that exist within the cosmos. Unless civilization exists on other planets… Corporations are basically leeches that make profit at the expense of everyone (and everything) around them. Why should evil institutions be given an advertising venue at the Olympics?
**End Rant**
Just wondering but do you even know what anarchy means? I also feel that you protesters are wreaking the Olympics for people you fail to see how you wreak things just for your own whimsical beliefs. Did you see the little school girl cry when she didn’t get to see the touch cause your decided it was important to block off a street. All you do is make Vancouver look bad a as a whole. Grow up you think that you are going to change the world. Well i got news for you you will not at least not for such a idiotic reason well that’s just my opinion . Oh well what can you do i guess there will always be social misfits wanting to protest in our society. Also please don’t tell me about all this if we don’t stand up crap.Also don’t talk about how this is wrong because this is an event that people and nations wish could happen to them and we have been lucky enough to have it and it going on right now so why try to mess around with it. You are not showcasing anything but your own stupidity and futile efforts in these protests. Again just my idea but oh well.
Have a GREAT day
this reporting is so slanted it is ridiculous. this is the face of radical youth activism, get used to it. but being one from within their ranks per se, they would never attack pedestrians unless to defend themselves from bigots.
yes we know what anarchy means. it means libertarian socialism. free cooperation.
g and anticapitalista,
I probably should have labeled this an opinion piece.
Joel,
There is no evidence to my knowledge that the City of Vancouver has been “using eminent domain laws to transfer low-income individuals out of the city” while the Olympics are on.
The Vancouver Police were accused of excessive ticketing of low income people in the Downtown Eastside, and a lawyer told the media that some of this ticketing could ultimately lead to “no go” orders for the downtown Eastside, a result that was seen as a little too convenient for the City which was making the Downtown Eastside look more presentable for the Olympics. Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu has denied that people in the Downtown Eastside were being excessively targeted though.
John Richardson, a lawyer with Pivot Legal Society which works with Downtown Eastside residents, recently told the Georgia Strait newspaper that civil liberties abuses of the Downtown Eastside poor by police in the lead up to the Olympics were not occurring to the extent anticipated, that it had not proven to be a major problem at all, and he hoped that this respect for the rights of the poor continued throughout the Olympics.
As a father of a 6 year old heading downtown to enjoy the Olympics it would have been sad if we had accidentally got caught in this violence and was hurt or worse.
Who cares what they represent? I think the media should make a point of NOT stating there cause…similar to how you ignore a 3 year olds temper tantrum. Give the infants a time out in jail.
You’re so cute putting on your little ninja wanna be hoodies and dressing up like Halloween and representing your “cause”. You’re a very sad joke. Try contributing something valuable to the world or even yourself. What’s a matter did mommy not breast feed you long enough? Did your daddy take away your allowance? Your apart of nothing but a group of thugs that make you feel powerful by intimidating people…why hide behind the mask you coward?
So some small degree of character before I tell your mommy on you.
Two points.
#1-If you truly believe in your cause, why don’t you have the guts to show your face? Because you obviously don’t think something that happened 150 years ago is important enough to risk your safety. Too bad you don’t consider everyone else’s safety. And what do you think you are going to accomplish bringing attention to something that happened 150 yrs ago? What does that have to do with the here and now? I think you are just SH** disturbers that will use any excuse to cause trouble.
#2-If you truly care about the homeless people, take your fight against the drug dealers that are putting the majority of them there. Can you imagine how many people’s lives would be turned around if you concentrated on fighting the drug dealers. Oh wait, they wouldn’t put up with your antics. They wouldn’t do something as simple as kicking you in the head like you say the police did. You would just simply disappear forever.
Leave A Reply