Stupid is as stupid does

Rico says that he was in a riot once, back in his youth in Palo Alto, California (hey, they called it that, just so they could arrest us; we called it a political demonstration), but nothing as violent (no stabbings, for instance) and dumb (no car burnings, either) as the apre-game stupidity in Vancouver (where the dumb Canucks lost the Stanley Cup); Jeff Klein and Bob Mackin have the story in The New York Times:

Rioting hockey fans clashed with police officers, set vehicles ablaze, smashed windows, and looted stores and set several fires in downtown areas here on Wednesday night moments after the Vancouver Canucks lost Game Seven of the Stanley Cup finals to the Boston Bruins.
Local hospitals reported eight people treated for stab wounds, according to Alyssa Polinsky, a spokeswoman for Vancouver Coastal Health, the regional hospital authority.
The disturbances started around 8:15 p.m. local time, soon after the game’s conclusion, and lasted about four hours.
During the rioting at least ten cars were overturned and set ablaze across the downtown area, and windows were broken and items looted from the Hudson’s Bay Company department store and several other stores in the area.
Officers used pepper spray, tear gas, and flash bombs to move thousands of people who had ignored directives to leave immediately. St. Paul’s Hospital in downtown Vancouver reported treating about sixty people in its emergency room in a two-hour span for pepper spray and tear gas exposure and other injuries. Ms. Polinsky said St. Paul’s had treated five people with stab wounds and Vancouver General Hospital had treated three for similar wounds. Dr. Eric Grafstein, head of emergency at St. Paul’s, said none of the injuries were life-threatening.
Thousands of Vancouver fans had gathered downtown to watch Game Seven on large video screens, as they had been doing throughout the playoffs. But the mood turned when the Canucks lost, 4-0, and fans started throwing bottles at the screens.
“It is extremely disappointing to see the situation in downtown Vancouver turn violent after tonight’s Stanley Cup game,” Mayor Gregor Robertson said in a statement released two hours after the game ended. “Vancouver is a world-class city, and it is embarrassing and shameful to see the type of violence and disorder we’ve seen tonight,” he added. “The Vancouver Police and Vancouver Fire Department are doing an exceptional job under challenging circumstances to maintain control of the situation and keep people safe, and emergency crews are working tirelessly to assist those who were injured.” In a news conference later in the evening outside Rogers Arena, Mr. Robertson blamed “a small group of people intent on breaking the law and smearing the reputation of the city” for the violence. Mr. Robertson said the Vancouver Police public safety unit was “fully deployed” and that there were hundreds of officers downtown trying to restore order.
Television images and witnesses indicated that the police used restraint rather than aggressive tactics to control the disorder. Police units from surrounding municipalities— some from as far away as Abbotsford, forty miles to the east— were called in.
CBC’s television coverage shifted quickly from the Bruins’ postgame celebrations at Rogers Arena to the disturbances outside. CBC showed images of young men leaping on police cruisers, trying to shatter their windshields, and hurling debris at police trucks. Bonfires were lit on street corners as groups of people, many wearing Canucks jerseys, threw temporary fencing at officers in riot gear. A mounted police squad attempted to regain control among a cluster of federal buildings, while unrest spread to the Granville Mall nightclub zone and the Robson Street shopping district.
Not far from the Sutton Place Hotel, the NHL’s headquarters in Vancouver during the cup finals, people were seen running with electronics and a reporter was offered a camera, with price tags still on it, for purchase.
Service on the SkyTrain, the city’s subway and elevated train service, was disrupted in the immediate aftermath of the game, but outbound was restored by midnight. Bridges leading into downtown were closed, and bus and commuter ferry service was suspended but restored for outbound service by midnight. Isolated fires were still burning three hours after the rioting started. Thick smoke obscured the scene at a civic parking lot where two police cars were burning. Fire crews eventually arrived to douse the flames.
The disturbances were similar to those that broke out in Vancouver in 1994, when the Canucks lost Game Seven of the finals to the Rangers in New York. One man was seriously injured and more than $1 million in damage was caused in what became known as the 1994 Stanley Cup Riot.
In contrast, the mood in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics was peaceful, even though thousands of people were in the streets to celebrate each victory for Team Canada on its path to the men’s hockey gold medal. The city earned worldwide praise for its good-natured hockey fans and for the restraint of its police force.
“We were just on the world stage during the Olympics, and people were speaking highly of Vancouver,” said Geoff Matthews, 34, who lives downtown. “It’s a great city and country to live in, and to see this, it’s heartbreaking.”
Sensing that unrest was possible Wednesday, the provincial government ordered all liquor stores in downtown Vancouver closed at 4 p.m. local time before Monday’s Game Six and Wednesday’s Game Seven.
B.C. Ambulance Service paramedics and police officials had reported an increase in binge drinking and street fights as the Canucks advanced through the playoffs. Members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and suburban municipal police forces were brought in as reinforcements before the decisive game, and more were called after the riot began. The City of Vancouver spent $1.3 million on extra policing and the free public viewing areas in a bid to prevent a repeat of the 1994 riot.
“It’s crazy, as soon as the game ended people just started going into the streets,” said Mr. Matthews. “Everybody kept talking about the riot of ‘94, and it just kept feeding the fire. Out on the street here, guys were jumping on top of cop cars and they rolled one cop car, they flipped it, rolled it down.”
Some shops had boarded their windows before the game, fearing trouble.
“It’s not the real hockey fans doing this, it’s just mob mentality,” said Tera Tully, another Vancouver resident.
At around 8:15 p.m. Pacific Time, fans on Nelson Street started kicking in newspaper bins, climbing atop cars and overturning cars. Around 8:45, the police fired tear gas to calm the rowdy crowd. Police officers were seen dragging out-of-control fans into vans.
Inside Rogers Arena, the mood briefly turned ugly during the postgame trophy presentations, although that anger was aimed mostly at NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, a man widely disliked in Canada for his perceived indifference to the concerns of the league’s Canadian teams. As Mr. Bettman walked onto the ice on a red carpet to present the Conn Smythe Trophy to Bruins goalie Tim Thomas and the Stanley Cup to Boston’s captain, Zdeno Chara, the commissioner’s voice was drowned out by booing from many of the roughly ten thousand fans who remained. Several drinks were hurled onto the ice near where Mr. Bettman was standing, but none struck him.
Dr. Grafstein, of St. Paul’s Hospital, said that the injuries being treated at his emergency room included fractured ankles and legs, a broken jaw, and a collapsed lung, all of which would require surgery. He said that several people were treated for pepper spray and tear gas exposure, and had to be decontaminated in the hospital courtyard before being admitted. Dr. Grafstein, a hockey fan who, like most people in this city, was riveted by the drama of the Canucks in Game Seven, came to the hospital when he saw the images of rioting on television. He also served in the emergency room during the 1994 riot and during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. “The kind of person who is attracted to the Stanley Cup final is slightly different from those attracted to the Olympic spirit,” Dr. Grafstein said. “I wandered around after the gold medal game, and there was such a happy feeling. The kind of people who were coming down here tonight, they were just looking for a different kind of fun,” he said.

Rico says the guy tried to sell a camera with price tags still on it? They don't call them dumb Canucks for nothing...