(Vancouver Courier, October 31, 2011)
Remember the anarchists? It was all their fault.
On Monday, four months after the Stanley Cup riot, during a press conference at VPD headquarters, police recommended charges for 60 alleged rioters for crimes including mischief, break-and-enter and arson. And there'll be more. According to VPD Chief Jim Chu, the recommendations represent the beginning of the beginning. "We still expect hundreds of charges to be laid."
Fair enough. But what about the anarchists?
On June 15, as dusk fell and cars burned on Georgia Street, Mayor Gregor Robertson, fresh from his seat at Rogers Arena, held a sidewalk press conference two blocks from the riot epicentre. While television cameras rolled, with his eye on job security, Robertson made a choice. "We had a small number of hooligans," he said, "on the streets of Vancouver causing problems."
Damage control. Not for the city, with its shattered glass and looted businesses, but for Robertson, architect of the fan zones, which swelled beyond their flimsy blue fencing, spilling thousands of drunks across the downtown core.
Faced with millions in damages and mounting criticism, Robertson sharpened his message at a press conference the following day. It was the "anarchists," he said. The perfect foils. Faceless, underground, reviled. Anarchists are arbitrary. You can't pin them down. They remain hidden from view. Robertson, by contrast, can't escape the public record. He, alongside city manager Penny Ballem, lowballed Stanley Cup policing costs. He ignored police calls for more security guards. He failed to plan for what everyone else feared. And when it blew up, he blamed an enemy familiar to most Vancouverites. White punks in black hoodies. They trashed storefronts during the Olympics. And according to Robertson, they did it again.
Meanwhile, during a separate press conference June 16, VPD Chief Jim Chu picked up the script. He blamed the "anarchists." Why not? Chu had nothing to lose. He ignored the 1994 Cup riot report and deployed too few officers. Most damning, his "hands off" approach to crowd control handcuffed police until it was too late.
For several days post-riot, despite no proof of anarchist involvement, Chu and Robertson beat the anarchist drum, deflecting blame and fuelling a media narrative ablaze with righteous public anger. In August, a worthless riot report virtually ignored the duo who walked scot-free, hand-in-hand, from a multi-million dollar disaster largely of their making.
Of course, they had help. Several hundred rioters damaged people and property. Their selfishness, captured by cellphone cameras and YouTube, should guarantee many convictions. And that's great. But seriously, what about the anarchists? Presumably, they're still out there, free to threaten future public events such as the upcoming Grey Cup or the Santa Claus parade. Or Occupy Vancouver.
Robertson's actions during and after last June's riot eerily resemble his handling of the protest outside the Vancouver Art Gallery. On Oct. 14, in the beginning, Robertson endorsed the protest-a fan zone for leftists and layabouts-and three days later, said protesters can remain camped outside the gallery forever, barring any violence or public health issues. On Oct. 22, hundreds of protesters stormed the TD Bank on Georgia Street. According to a TD staff member I talked to, protesters shouted obscenities, unplugged electronics and danced on counter tops. Police watched but made no arrests. (Sound familiar?) Trauma counsellors visited the bank the following day to comfort shaken employees. Robertson said nothing. But public sentiment slowly turned.
Now, as the "tent city" and its cost to taxpayers ($500,000 and counting) takes centre stage in the Nov. 19 election campaign, Robertson's solidarity with the protesters has evaporated. Again, he's made a choice. "We do want to see the tents moved off," he said late last week. "It can't go on forever."
When police move in sometime before election day and violence erupts, Robertson will face the same questions posed last June. What was the pre-protest plan? How'd he lose control? What was he thinking?
Back then, he scrambled for a scapegoat. It was his first instinct. Facts didn't matter. Now, on election eve, he's cornered again. And if history is any guide, a few Occupy Vancouver protesters are destined for demonization. Better ditch your hoodies, boys. They make good targets.
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