Why go off like this? Why attack Shaq? Are Angelenos TRYING to live up to their reputation?
I’ve never understood the “Our team won! Let’s go set some fires!” mentality. Sure, honk your horns till midnight, let out some whoops and hollers… get really drunk, trip over your own shoes and fall flat on your face–all in the name of victory.
But destroy your local shopping areas, set fire to public property, or mob innocent people? I must have been raised wrong, since I certainly don’t get it.
Now, with that out of the way, let me tell you about my little experience with some of these revellers tonight. Part of the victory celebrations were happening on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, which is where my school happens to be. (For anyone not familiar with L.A. County, you may know Colorado Boulevard if you’ve ever watched the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day) My class doesn’t have a radio, so no one knew what had happened with the game. We came out of class around 10.10 pm, and we hear commotion going down the street–we just think it’s some HS kids, since the schools have let out this week. I get into my car, and out onto Colorado Boulevard–and right into the Snake Pit.
People are running up and down the sidewalk, waving flags and t-shirts; people are starting to jump into the street, to high-five strangers in their cars. It all seems more like a happy pandemonium, but it seems still contained to more the sidewalk. I get down to where I need to make my turn for the freeway, when I notice there is a great deal of people on the street corners–I’m guessing about a 100 or so on each corner of this intersection. The street light is out, and one little cop is trying his damnedest to direct traffic. From behind me, this couple on a moped rides into the center of the intersection, with Lakers shirts, and Lakers banners waving, and all hell breaks loose. A mass convergence of people flow into the intersection when I’m trying to make a right hand turn–all I wanted was to make a right hand turn and they wouldn’t let me! I had people surrounding my car, slapping the hood and the windows. Needless to say, I was scared sh*tless.
The cops came and broke it up, and I flew out of that like a bat outta hell.
I turned on a AM news station, to hear what else was happening, and it sounded like my experience in Pasadena was a cake walk.
What would have happened if it turned ugly for me at that intersection? I could have faced these rabid Lakers fans in the midst of tipping my car, and said, offering one of the pink boxes in the back seat, “would you like some pie?”