I came away from watching several hours of live TV coverage during this 
week's Vancouver "riot" with a feeling of admiration for the manner in which 
the Vancouver Police coped with the situation.   From the beginning, it was 
obvious that the thing was going to happen, no matter who won or lost the 
game, and the police stance seemed to be to stand patiently and closely at 
hand while the wild ones played out their personal wild games of window 
smashing and torching some cars.   The police lines maintained a distance 
but very slowly walked forward in a non-violent manner, gently herding the 
crowds away to dispense outside of the downtown core, moving ahead only when 
some particular violence was directed toward them from someone in the front 
line of the populace.   I never saw anything that could have been called 
police brutality.  Whoever got a baton to allow their arrest obviously 
deserved it, and few were treated in that manner.   The stores had high 
definition video cameras, so the not large numbers of looters are well 
photographed, and the government agency that issues driver's licences is 
making its face recognition software available to help identify anyone in 
their photo files.   A number of rioters have already volunteered themselves 
at police stations, knowing full well that they were well caught on camera. 
Thousands of citizens appeared downtown the next morning with personal 
garbage bags to just do something for the common good with no organization 
driving it, just picking up glass and being a visible presence of another 
sort as a way to protest the riotous civic display of a relatively small 
number.

What really impressed me was the great crowd of thousands standing passively 
by as mess was made, thousands of cell phone cameras raised to capture the 
action.   It was as though the citizens did not think of themselves as 
actually being there and being part of the riot.  Instead, they were living 
life through their camera screens, detached from the reality, watching it 
all as though at home watching something on TV.   Now, that was truly 
disturbing!

cp in (passive) bc

PS:  Don't know Omer Arbel.  Sounds interesting.  All my architect friends 
were active in the 1960s and '70s, some still alive.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Leland Torrence" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2011 11:36 AM
Subject: Re: [BP] Historic sticks and stone


> Yesh.  Sticks and stones is right! Hope you are unharmed.  On another 
> note:
> Do you know Omer Arbel, Vancouver architect, also is partner in a glass
> blowing, light fixture company?
> Best,
> Leland
.html> 

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