I don’t give a rat’s ass about sports, so I just don’t get it. The Lakers won some sort of championship last night, so some of the L.A. fans took to the streets and started burning things, breaking things, and looting. What connection is there between winning a game, and breaking into stores to steal stuff?
Is this expected? Are people allowed to loot when something good happens? Have I been missing out on a bunch of free stuff, just because I don’t get it?
I have no idea what goes through these people’s minds. The same thing happened in Chicago when the bulls won.
I’m in St Louis and when the Rams won the Super Bowl, we held a parade for the team when they returned. It was the first championship football team St Louis has ever had, but we managed to control ourselves and fight the urge to run rampant through the streets setting local businesses on fire and looting the city. I thought you rioted when you were mad about something, not when you were happy.
I don’t get it either.
damn, ever see what happens in Brazil or Italy after a soccer game??? the lakers thing was nothing…
Two words, my friends. Woodstock '99. It’s a combination of booze, adreneline, and the knowledge that you have too many people for the police to control. At least they didn’t burn anything.
They vandalized or burned several news vans, burned at least three police units, vandalized busses, looted businesses, damaged cars at a Mercedes dealership, and I heard that two rifles were stolen from a business.
Pretty sickening, when crowds, booze and testosterone reach critical mass and trash a place. It was particularly sad watching the TV ads from the Lakers, asking fans to celebrate any victory with dignity.
The ones I really felt sorry for were the fans trapped inside and afraid to leave because of the violence. It won’t take much of this to deter average fans from attending games in person. Hell, who’d want to take a kid to something like that?
Veb
“Nest time, Ima git me a new TEEvee!”
At the end of the game they ran a commercial with a bunch of quotes from Laker players saying if we win tonight Celebrate Smart…or Safe" One of those. Anyway apparently they didn’t listen.
It was interesting too because when they ran the commercial the game was still very much in doubt. Until that Dale Davis loose ball phantom foul. That broke the Pacers back.
Anyway, here in Wisconsin we have a University that seems to have developed a tradition of rioting. UW Oshkosh. This is a bit of a guess but the Student population is around 8-10,000. When the Badgers won to get in the Final Four we were cracking jokes that now Oshkosh is going to riot. They did. Crazy…
I think the Laker commercial was a good idea but timed badly. That and the security guards stringing rope around the court with the game hanging in the balance was a slap in the face off the Pacers. Not very classy for what had been a classy organization in the past.
I was working near the University of Dayton when they won the Final Four. That night, the area looked like ‘Escape from New York’. A bunch of frat houses dragged their couches into the streets and set them on fire. Many arressts followed.
Basketball is an evil influence. Thank God it’s over and we can concentrate on whats important. Baseball!
I was so happy the Lakers one, I broke all of my dishes. Then I set my bed on fire and kicked in my TEEvee. Wooooooo! Wooooooo! Go Lakers! Wooooooo!
Idiots.
Well, I don’t pay any attention to sports, either, so I happen to have the PERFECT solution to victory-connected urban unrest.
Let’s take the teams out of the big cities and re-locate 'em to small towns! Those of us who live in Los Angeles or New York or Chicago can still root for our favorite teams…the Assboink, Idaho, Rams! The Caribou, Maine, Suns! The Leland, Mississippi, Yankees! The Bee Spring, Kentucky, Phillies! The Powell Butte, Oregon, Lakers!…but we’ll be free from any obligation to set fire to things if they win!
Let 'em riot in Moonachie.
Apparently, it is a right to loot, burn, and riot after victories. After MI State had one too many of these things, they decided to crack down and they prosecuted anyone they caught on film participating in burning, rioting, etc. You shoulda heard these people squeal. How could anyone prosecute them? They’re nice ambitious white college-going youth! They have futures! It was after a sporting event! Plus everybody else wuz doing it! All these things mean it’s OKAY to destroy property and behave lawlessly. Who knew?
It was pretty disgusting. The guilty people just didn’t get it.
I’m in Los Angeles, though in a 'burb where the only thing that burns is cherry wood on the backyard grill. (Note to self: what am I doing here? I should be downtown with my people!)
Let me bring up a few questions that go beyond the usual “why do the poor colored people riot?” thread.
Staples Center officials erected a huge jumbotron monitor for the express purpose of drawing crowds in the streets who couldn’t pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for tickets. Does this sound like a good idea? Bundles of newspapers were also conveniently left lying around.
The police “presence” alternated between present but nonchalant, and nonexistent. Who the hell abandons a squad car in a mass of drunken revelers? If the police had turned on their televisions, they would have seen where the turbulence was like the rest of us watching at home. Instead they just marched in formation and moved the crowd around the block several times. Very effective.
The Democratic National Convention is about to be held in the self-same Staples Center, and the city is asking for an additional $4 million in funds for hosting duties. Nothing like a dress rehearsal to fire up the audience. I’ve read that groups will be staging Seattle-style WTO protests in L.A. and Philadelphia (home of the Republican National Convention), which means L.A. will really need that extra cash to keep the peace.
Sorry to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but there you have one way of looking at it. At the end of the day only four people were hurt (two guys got burned by bonfires and two people fell inside the Staples Center). By the same token, the LAPD claims they don’t get all hot-n-bothered by random property damage/vandalism. They’ve got better things to do than protect a bunch of SUVs driven by Hollywood studio execs who can afford the $1300 for chanmpionship seats, I guess. On the plus side, people don’t get all that heated up over politics as they do over sports. So we’ll probably be okay for the convention.
Keep in mind that what you (and I) saw on TV was a few out-of-control gangbangers creating a lot of havoc, freely, with no threat of repercussion. I saw the same three or four guys in nearly every shot doing most of the damage. As for looting, who’s to say whether a store was purposefully broken into, or something heavy sailed through the air and made accidental contact with a store window, creating a foothold for opportunists? It was a mess in some areas and I saw lots of crap flying asround. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see we had so many trash cans in the downtown area.
P.S. We have a parade scheduled for Thursday.
I don’t think this has anything to do with “why do those poor colored people riot”. This is about a bunch of drunken assholes who seem to feel that rioting is an appropriate form of “celebration”, and that they are righteously entitled to steal or destroy the property of others…just because. The OP pretty much asked the same question I always ask. How does celebrating a sports victory translate into looting, setting fires, attacking people, and destroying everything in sight? That’s got nothing to do with the “victory”, it’s just an excuse for people, apparently, to feel justified in acting like rabid animals. We go through this same thing here (college town) on a regular basis, and it never ceases to amaze me. What makes people think this is okay? I’m sorry, but I just can’t get on board with, “Well, there were lots of newspapers around, so of course people were obliged to set fire to them,” or “People just happened to be throwing bricks and trash cans and store windows just happened to get broken so everyone needed pitch in and get those tv’s out of there.” And since when does being drunk mean that you get rewarded with a blank check to do anything you want without being accountable? What a crock. I don’t care what color, nationality, or income bracket you are, this is just plain wrong. I don’t know or care about the details of this specific riot, since there will be another riot just like it somewhere else today, or tomorrow, or next weekend. That’s the sad part, that some people do seem to think this kind of behavior is one of their “rights” now. Bet they wouldn’t think so if it was their car burning, or their struggling business getting robbed and trashed.
Sometimes a fair portion of the species just disgusts me beyond words.
Let me see if I understand you correctly,Juniper. Are you saying the riots were planned by “the man”? That Lakers or government official left stacks of newspapers around because they KNEW they would be burned?!
Where did you get this statement from, and then put 'why do the poor colored people riot" in quotes as if that was said by someone in the thread? I went back and re-read the entire thread and the only race and income mentioned was CrankyAsAnOldMan’s “white college-going youth” and the white college-going youth’s action were described as disgusting.
Just cuz you saw a few of the same people doesn’t mean they were a part of a small band of looters. That means that’s the footage the news crew was able to film. And I don’t care how many people there were or what income or race they are, there’s no reason for damaging other people’s property because you’re celebrating. Next time LA wins a championship, maybe they’ll decide to loot and damage your property, how will you justify it then?
Well, between what happened in L.A., and what happened a couple weeks ago in Central Park—I say we take 'em and castrate 'em.
Let’s see how much they wanna riot when their supply of testosterone is, ummm, “cut off.” Besides, that’ll keep the jerks from reproducing.
FWIW, I haven’t seen any of the footage. I turn on the news while I’m on the computer and I have my back to the TV. I had no idea what “race” or financial strata the hooligans belonged to.
snicker Having been to Leland, that’d take all of what, 30 seconds?
“Duh… Gee, now what?”
“Dunno… always looks more fun on TV.”
“Where did you get this statement from, and then put 'why do the poor colored people riot” in quotes as if that was said by someone in the thread?"
Just because no one said it outright in the thread doesn’t mean that’s what people aren’t thinking every time they see L.A. burning on TV. From Watts in '65 to King in '92, L.A. riots have to live up to a certain reputation.
Eve makes a good point in correlating the Laker victory party to the Central Park gauntlet. In both cases, you saw a sheer lack of action or concern on the part of the police. These are the same police forces that a) kill and beat the crap out of people routinely, including Rodney King and b) killed the dangerous Amadou Diallo, who was armed with a deadly wallet. Yet then they don’t do a thing when the whole country is looking at them and expecting them to keep the peace.
As for accidentally happening to break a few store windows, or leaving piles of newspapers around, hey, I can do benefit of the doubt as well as anybody. Work with me here. Staples Center president Tim Leiweke defended the decision to erect the jumbotron and denied that had anything to do with the incidents of violence. He’s entitled to that opinion, though I think it’s a cheesy cop-out.
The Man, as Rich says, works in mysterious ways. I’ve even heard people blame the new MetroRail system for allowing all kinds of unsavory gangbangers to get downtown for free and start trouble. Were there not a brand-new public transit system in place, these guys would have stayed in their own neighborhoods, it is being said. City Councilman Alex Padilla’s sound bite last night was to the effect of we must have all this extra money to protect against the same disturbances during the August convention. Mayor Richard Riordan told the L.A. Times that we must “learn the lessons of last night so we will have an outstanding and safe” convention. There’s a downtown power structure in place here dating back to the 1880s. I put nothing past them. I guess that makes me a paranoiac prone to stockpiling canned goods and declaring myself a militia. Then, BratMan, if your threat comes to fruition and the angry mobs come for me and my property, I’ll be ready.
Got some sports fan stats that may be of interest: 11 arrests, vehicles damaged and scattered looting in L.A. In Chicago in '92, there were 1,000 arrests and 2 officers shot, 61 police cars damaged. In S.F. in '85, there were 184 arrests, bonfires, and rock-throwing. In Chicago in '93, there were 683 arrests and 3 killed. In Montreal in '93, there were 115 arrests, 168 hurt, including 49 police officers. Going on my theory that this event was staged, it seems like The Man can’t even organize a decent riot. Sort of like, in the O.J. Simpson case, the LAPD can’t even frame a guilty man.