Toronto Raptors street celebrations bring back memories of riot-scarred Vancouver

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      There's something eerily familiar about those Toronto street parties every time the Raptors play.

      In past years in Vancouver, we've seen the euphoria of young adults who've gathered in the downtown core as the Canucks advanced through the NHL playoffs.

      Like the Raptors, the Canucks have never won the ultimate prize.

      So, when it has seemed within reach, the zeal of the fans reached a fever pitch.

      It was phenomenal for local bars, restaurants, and the mood of the city.

      People would festoon their vehicles with their team's insignia.

      The media celebrated each victory.

      Media outlets like TSN are gleeful about the street parties taking place in Toronto.

      But when the Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals in 1994 and 2011, the disappointment and frustration took fans' behaviour in an altogether different direction.

      Angry riots erupted in the downtown core.

      In a 1994 article called "Stupidville", the Georgia Straight reported that about 150 stores along Robson, Granville, Georgia, Seymour, Alberni, and Thurlow streets were either looted or had their windows smashed.

      In 2011, the mayhem was especially ugly because the Canucks blew 2-0 and 3-2 leads in the series—and the final loss came at home.

      Cars were set on fire. People cheered in the streets as others were being beaten up.

      The chaos lasted more than five hours, covering a three-square-kilometre zone in the downtown.

      Below, you can see the cover of the first Georgia Straight after the riot.

      A provincial report later concluded that there were 112 businesses damaged. In addition, 122 vehicles were damaged or destroyed, and 52 assaults were reported against civilians, police, and emergency personnel.

      As in riots in other cities, merchants and coffee shop owners feared for their lives as hooligans created havoc.

      I was in downtown Vancouver on both evenings in 1994 and 2011 and could feel the ugly mood before the trouble began.

      In 2011, I left the area before things really got out of hand.

      Given that this has occurred twice in Vancouver, it made me wonder what was going on in the minds of young people, who made up the bulk of those charged.

      In 2011, Vancouver riot police tried to push rioters toward rapid-transit stations so they would leave the downtown core.
      Stephen Thomson

      That led me to write an article entitled "Evolutionary biology, the prefrontal cortex, and the Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver".

      I was helped by a Vancouver psychiatrist, Dr. Elisabeth Zoffmann, and a former police inspector who used to be in charge of the downtown district, Dave Jones.

      Jones, an expert on crowd control, once told me that the secret of good policing is to get people to operate within the frontal lobe of their brains.

      By that, he meant ensuring that the prefrontal cortex is fully engaged.

      This is the brain's command centre that is responsible for planning, thinking, and curbing impulses.

      Stephen Thomson

      The problem in riots, Zoffmann told me, is that this part of the brain "may cease to function effectively when a large group of people are subjected to multilevel sensory bombardment".

      “Once you’ve had your frontal lobe taken out of the equation, you’re kind of driven by your impulses and emotions,” she said. 

      A more primitive part of the brain, the limbic system, reigns supreme.

      Sights, sounds, tastes, and smells are linked to emotional centres. Without fully functioning impulse control and logical thinking, people behave in unpredictable ways.

      The City of Vancouver welcomed people to come downtown in 2011 to watch the Stanley Cup finals on big screens.
      Charlie Smith

      Zoffmann and Jones noted that in riots, crowds can exhibit collective behaviour.

      They may resemble schools of fish or herds of animals, darting one way or another in response to sensory stimuli.

      Zoffmann hypothesized that a "highly emotional group brain" can even express itself under certain circumstances.

      She suggested that this can occur when there are large, densely populated groups focusing on an extremely emotional event as they're experiencing sensory and emotional overload.

      This can be accentuated by "depersonalization" from being in a large crowd, which can give a person a feeling of anonymity. This is the case even though their actions may be caught on surveillance cameras.

      Many of the rioters were fuelled with too much alcohol and not enough food.

      In fact, Jones believed in 2011 that only one percent of the people came downtown with any intention of creating damage. But others became "animalistic" after fires started breaking out.

      "It was like they had lost their minds," he said.

      Fires in the streets ignited the passions of rioters in Vancouver on June 15, 2011.
      Stephen Thomson

      Back in 2011, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at UBC, Dr. Stephen Kiraly, told me that flames elicit archetypal reactions because they're closely associated with warrior behaviour and fear.

      After the 2011 Stanley Cup riot, a massive and costly report was written but it paid zero attention to neuroscience.

      It was a squandered opportunity to provide insights into group behaviour for other cities that might face similar circumstances in the future. Like Toronto.

      For the sake of Canada's largest city, let's just hope that the Raptors don't lose Game 7 at home.

      One Vancouver resident expressed the feelings of the city on the morning after the 2011 riot.
      Charlie Smith

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