STANLEY CUP RIOT, WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT

The Stanley Cup Riot. After the Vancouver Canucks lost game seven and the Stanley Cup to the New York Rangers, June 14th 1994, angry "fans" fought, broke windows and looted downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, fueled for the most part by alcohol.

Police estimated sixty thousand people were on the streets of
Vancouver that night. Over five hundred police were in the downtown
core that night as well, that's including the riot squad. Tear gas,
pepper spray and rubber bullets were used to clear the streets.
After every playoff game, larger crowds gathered at Robson an Thurlow
streets. As the crowds grew, a different type "fan" began to show
up. The kind bent on causing trouble. To say there was no sign a riot
was going to happen that evening would not be accurate. The trouble
makers were not invisible, and there was a different "feel" to the
crowd riot day. The street party was a little bit "meaner", people
were a little more "in your face".
The idea a riot could happen in Vancouver was unthinkable. I expected some trouble, not widescale looting and fighting.
I believe the police patroling Robson street were also surprised,
because of the way they were surrounded at Robson and Thurlow.
Once the riot began, most people tried to get out of the downtown core.A great number found they couldn't. Complaints about being trapped downtown were common. I don't know if city buses or the light rapid transit system known as skytrain were operating as normal, or if they
had been shut down by the police once the trouble started.
Police had isolated the downtown core to containing looters, at the same time trapping innocent partiers.
Police say hundreds of citizens were injured, dozens of rioters were arrested.