# Lame-ass losers looking for an excuse to smash stuff **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 21, 2004, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491 "2004-10-21T21:19:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/1 "2004-10-21T21:19:02Z")
A 21-year-old college student is dead in Boston. Why? > [@](#): > > Police said between 60,000 and 80,000 people – most of them students from nearby universities – flooded the streets around Fenway Park and Kenmore Square after the Sox’s 10-3 win over the New York Yankees. To quote [this](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=383&e=2&u=/ibsys/20041021/lo_WCVB/2421776) article further: > [@](#): > > The celebrations turned serious when fans torched a car, lit trashcans on fire and vandalized store signs. A disgusted fast-food store manager found the burned-out shell of a car on Boylston Street when she reported for work Thursday morning. > > “I come in this morning and this is what I found. I’m disappointed, I really am. If they were true fans they never would have done this,” she said. You all suck for taking an amazing event of beauty and teamwork and using it as an excuse to act out your basest animal aggressions. I never want to hear you bitch and moan about the Yankees ever again. And just so you know, I was there in 1986, when the majority of you were probably still in diapers. I am a _real_ Red Sox fan. You are thugs. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/2 "2004-10-21T21:29:14Z")
All fans born after 1986 aren’t real fans? Thats a pretty retarded thing to say. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/3 "2004-10-21T21:36:10Z")
It would have been, but I think the OP was saying “you” to the particular post-1986ers who made destructive vandals of themselves. ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/4 "2004-10-21T21:36:50Z")
Dammit that’s not what I meant. Gah. My little cousins born in the 1990s are bigger fans than me, for the record. I mean these schmucks are not real fans. I was just mentioning 1986 to say why it pains me so to have to write a pit thread after an amazing event. ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/5 "2004-10-21T21:39:11Z")
Argh…post delay. Yes, what **Kimstu** said. Thank you. I didn’t mean what **tries** said. I clearly should have got more sleep last night. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/6 "2004-10-21T21:45:30Z")
It has nothing at all to do with the Sox: this country has a long and proud history of utterly pointless post-win riots after sporting events. I recall being in Pittsburgh after one of the Steeler’s Super Bowl thumpings of Dallas in the '70s. Every personin the area between the ages of 15 and 25 flooded into downtown; after standing around for a while, a few of them decided that was too boring and started throwing bottles at the police, at which point the cops let loose a horde of dogs and baton-swinging riot squads, and all hell broke loose. Cars turned over, trash bins set ablaze, the usual. Some friends and I who had gone downtown basically only because everyone else had, ended up running down a street with police dogs nipping at our heels and wondering, “What the fuck are we doing here, anyway?” When the weekend was over, I went home to Johnstown to find that my beloved, mint-condition '68 Lincoln Continental, which I had left parked at my place, had been totaled by some drunken yahoo who ran into it late on the night of the game. Poetic justice, I guess. Sorry; you were saying? ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/7 "2004-10-21T21:48:41Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > It has nothing at all to do with the Sox: this country has a long and proud history of utterly pointless post-win riots after sporting events. This is what gets me curious. Why does it happen again and again? Now I may be a dull person (_may be_, hah!), but this never held any appeal for me. Anyone want to clue me in? ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/8 "2004-10-21T21:51:15Z")
This is exactly why I always cheer for whoever’s playing against the Raiders. Because if the Raiders make it to the playoffs, there’s gonna be a riot. I don’t like riots, especially in my neighborhood, therefore the Raiders must lose. Luckily, the voodoo spell I cast this year seems to be working. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/9 "2004-10-21T21:57:17Z")
I do not, however, recall any rioting or car-burning in \*\*New York \*\* after any sports team victories. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/10 "2004-10-21T22:00:14Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > I do not, however, recall any rioting or car-burning in \*\*New York \*\* after any sports team victories. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong. Probably because we’re so jaded towards winning. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/11 "2004-10-21T22:08:12Z")
> [@LilyoftheValley](#): > > You all suck for taking an amazing event of beauty and teamwork and using it as an excuse to act out your basest animal aggressions. I think the authorities may be partly to blame for allowing this to happen. I recall hearing about a university town that had riots every year after midterms. One year, the police got wize and removed everything from downtown that could be set on fire, broken, or overturned. Then they kept a low profile - all plainclothes, no uniforms. The result: no riot. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/12 "2004-10-21T22:10:07Z")
> [@](#): > > This is what gets me curious. Why does it happen again and again? I know this probably is an unsatisfactory answer, but it’s just something large, drunken crowds tend to do. I think part of has to do with being both anonymous and highly visible at the same time, part of it has to do with the assumption that there are too many people around to make it likely to get caught for carryiong out a destructive act, and part of it is the presence of authority figures (riot cops) who often are attired in a way that makes them look more like robots than humans. Much of it, I think is that many people, as Nick Lowe once sang, “love the sound of breaking glass”. I’ll cut out the amateur psychology now. ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/13 "2004-10-21T22:17:13Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > Probably because we’re so jaded towards winning. 😃 Or possibly because it would take a _really_ huge sports riot to be noticed above the background levels of assault, arson and murder. Just kidding. New York _does_ seem to avoid these things better than other cities. It may be because fans are more jaded, but that doesn’t explain the ones in the stadium. It may be the police force–other cities have good, professional cops too, but they may not live with the everyday expectation of things suddenly turning bad. It may simply be that the city is big and diverse and crowded enough that no matter how big your mob is, you don’t have the expectation that everybody you can see is on your side. Or people may simply be a little lazy. Why destroy the city when there are plenty of other people around who are apt to do it for you? I tell you, this “I’m not going to get involved” mentality might just have an upside. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/14 "2004-10-21T22:25:49Z")
Student killed during postgame celebration [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/baseball/mlb/specials/postseason/2004/10/21/student.hurt.ap/index.html?cnn=yes](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/baseball/mlb/specials/postseason/2004/10/21/student.hurt.ap/index.html?cnn=yes) Sad. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/15 "2004-10-21T22:31:10Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I know this probably is an unsatisfactory answer, but it’s just something large, drunken crowds tend to do. > > I think part of has to do with being both anonymous and highly visible at the same time, part of it has to do with the assumption that there are too many people around to make it likely to get caught for carryiong out a destructive act, and part of it is the presence of authority figures (riot cops) who often are attired in a way that makes them look more like robots than humans. > > Much of it, I think is that many people, as Nick Lowe once sang, “love the sound of breaking glass”. > > I’ll cut out the amateur psychology now. You pretty muched nailed it. The fairly self explanitory name for the process is _deindividuation_. People in big crowds lose their idenities, and often their inhibitions. I think it’s a pretty implicit process. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/16 "2004-10-21T22:33:49Z")
Pardon typing and grammar, I’m all broken up over the Boston winning. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/17 "2004-10-21T23:12:21Z")
I remember some riots after the 86 Mets. There were some localized ones after the Rangers Stanley Cup win, too, weren’t there? (Though that may just be faulty memory.) ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/18 "2004-10-21T23:24:08Z")
> [@paperbackwriter](#): > > I remember some riots after the 86 Mets. There were some localized ones after the Rangers Stanley Cup win, too, weren’t there? (Though that may just be faulty memory.) Nothing I can recall. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/19 "2004-10-21T23:34:55Z")
When the Phillies won the series back in 1980, there wasn’t any craziness that I remember, but the same can’t be said for the early Flyers victories in the mid 70s. Mebbe I’m weird, but I never thought ‘O Boy! My team won. I’m soo happy, I could just go break up a bunch of shit, start fires and be an asshole.’ :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491/20 "2004-10-21T23:51:31Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > Probably because we’re so jaded towards winning. 😃 Or 'cause that’s par for the course in Queens and the Bronx. Stuff like that would never, ever happen in my beloved Brooklyn 😃 , (I reserve the right to change my stance after the new basketball stadium is built near Flatbush…). Ava [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lame-ass-losers-looking-for-an-excuse-to-smash-stuff/270491.md?page=2)