Vancouver residents place messages of support on a police cruiser on Granville St following the riot after the Canucks Stanley defeat by thye Boston Bruins, in Vancouver, BC., on June 17, 2011.
Photograph by: NICK PROCAYLO, PNG
VANCOUVER — With a repaired downtown drugstore as her backdrop, British Columbia Premier Christy Clark pledged Friday her government would provide funding to catch and prosecute those responsible for the riot Wednesday night that left sections of the city in shambles following the Vancouver Canucks Stanley Cup final loss to the Boston Bruins.
Without offering full details, the premier said the government will ensure police agencies have the adequate resources to conduct their investigations and that the courts have the proper support as the cases make their way through the system.
She said the provincial Crown-owned Insurance Corp. of British Columbia has made its face-recognition software available to the investigation process, which she noted will be cross-jurisdictional.
"Those people who were involved in this, we will catch you," the premier said to thunderous applause. "This investigation needs to happen quickly, it needs to be decisive, it needs to be well done and the provincial resources will be there to make sure it happens."
The promises come as questions are being asked as to whether or not policing numbers for Game 7 had been adequate — given the expected crowd turnout — and if the city had been properly prepared.
Vancouver's chief of police, Jim Chu, admitted Friday he would have handled Wednesday's riot differently, had he known then what he knows now.
"When you review the riot, even among my own officers, there's lots of could-haves, should-haves," he said.
"Knowing what I know now, there's many things I would've done differently," Chu said when asked whether cars should been banned from streets in the downtown core during the game — something that was suggested in an analysis commissioned by the B.C. government in the wake of the 1994 riot that followed another Canucks loss in a Stanley Cup final.
While Chu did not explicitly say he would have kept cars away, he did say he would have put more officers on duty in the outdoor area where a crowd of about 100,000 people watched the game on big-screen TVs.
Police struggling to control Wednesday's crowd with a fraction of the officers available during the 2010 Games faced an impossible task, the head of the Vancouver Police Union said.
"If you want to manage a crowd like that effectively without having it turn into a riot, then we need probably 5,000 police officers, not the five or six or 700 police officers we had out there (Wednesday) night," Tom Stamatakis said. "You need to really step up in terms of physical resources throughout the crowd and keep a lid on things."
During the Olympics, there was a security team of 15,300, which included 6,000 police officers from across Canada and 4,500 members of the Canadian military. The Vancouver police department would not say how many officers were downtown Wednesday night when the violence broke out.
The mayhem and riots left more than 150 people injured, more than 50 businesses damaged, 15 cars destroyed and at least 14 officers nursing cuts, bites and in one case, a concussion.
Chu also apologized Friday to the brave people who — at great personal risk — faced down howling mobs trashing cars and storefronts during Wednesday's post-game riot.
"We are sorry that we couldn't back you up," he said at a news conference.
Chu praised the "truly heroic" citizens who protected people and buildings without police assistance. "I know we have training and protective gear and all of you didn't."
Bob Whitelaw, who made more than 100 recommendations for British Columbia's attorney general and the British Columbia Police Commission after the 1994 Stanley Cup riot, said police in Vancouver were lulled into a sense of security because things went well during the earlier playoff games and during the Olympics.
"The first six games set the police up in a complacency mode: 'Everything is going well, everybody's having a good time, let's back off.' Apathy then came into the play: 'Let's just let them have fun.' And then denial that anything was going to happen, and boy, it sure unravelled (Wednesday) night," Whitelaw said.
He said police were too slow to intervene, and there may not have been enough of a police presence downtown.
"I saw more police standing around waiting for instruction," Whitelaw said. "What they could've done was to be more proactive."
Reporters questioned Chu repeatedly on why it appeared that police waited or held back while rioters took to the streets. Several reporters who were in the melee said they watched as police stood by while thugs set vehicles on fire and looted stores.
But Chu said his officers were following a plan of redeploying into crowd-control equipment and weren't supposed to put either themselves or innocent bystanders into unpredictable situations.
"The goal of our crowd control unit officers and the overall plan was to suppress the riot. The longer that riot went on the higher the chance somebody could get hurt or stores looted," he said.
Stamatakis said the VPD was given information that trouble was brewing.
"There was information available, and that's the kind of information that leads to early closure of premises selling liquor, and that leads to deploying police officers at SkyTrain or along arterial routes to head off people intent on creating problems."
But Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson insisted there was no advance warning that troublemakers were planning to disrupt the celebrations.
"I had no prior knowledge of the potential chaos and organizing by troublemakers. The Police Board and council had no advance information that this was possible."
If they had, the police would have acted differently, Robertson insisted.
Meanwhile, Clark said she wants those who participated in the rioting and looting to face jail time, not just a slap on the wrist, so that the message is clear: Vancouver isn't the kind of place where you can get away with this kind of thing.
She also said the government will cover the costs of an independent review into the riot.
As of Friday, six rioters had turned themselves in to the police, one man faced criminal charges and police expected to recommend many more charges as the investigation into the post-game riot deepens, Chu said.
He said the "hockey riot" investigation team of about 30 city police, RCMP and other municipal police officers is expected to grow as police collect more evidence on the crowd that looted stores, vandalized buildings and torched cars in the downtown core.
The Vancouver Police Department web server crashed Thursday after being overwhelmed with nearly 2,000 videos, photos and other tips related to the post-game destruction — and police expect to receive hundreds of thousands more tips in coming weeks, Const. Jana McGuinness said.
A 17-year-old Burnaby, B.C. teen — who cannot be identified because of his age — turned himself in to police after images of him looting a Vancouver store during the Stanley Cup riot were splashed across the Internet.
According to police, the teen was arrested Thursday night after being brought to the Burnaby RCMP detachment by a family member.
The teen is scheduled to appear in court in August on charges of break and enter and theft, and mischief to property over $5,000.
McGuinness called on others involved in the post-game riots to turn themselves in to police because "above and beyond anything else, it's the right thing to do.
"(Or) you can wait until we come and find you. Because we will find you."
Chu thanked community members for the outpouring of support directed at Vancouver's emergency services staff involved in the riot, noting that many of his officers have been offered hugs and cups of coffee in the street. He also said the department's dog squad got a "nice treat" as well — several bags of organic dog food left at their station Friday morning.
Officers also found one of their cruisers Friday covered from roof to fenders in sticky notes by citizens expressing gratitude for their efforts.
"You did protect us," reads a message from Port Coquitlam, B.C.'s Janice Staryk. "It's humbling and overwhelming that the awful deeds of a few . . . are not going to outweigh all the good of the people here in this city."
Well-wisher Ronnie Sidhu couldn't quite put her feelings into words, so she sealed her note with a kiss.
"(The support) really says a lot about Vancouver," said Sidhu. "For the most part, people are truly proud of the spirit that's showing through."
Acting Sgt. Chad Machuik said he appreciates the kind words, and so do his colleagues.
"I've spoken to many officers and they're really grateful. They thank everyone for their support and it's nice to see," he said.
With files Jeff Lee and Tracy Sherlock, Vancouver Sun
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