There Were No Anarchists In The Vancouver Riots

Having lived for more than a decade in Vancouver, Canada, but having defected years ago, I watched with some interest the riots of the other night.

For those that missed it, the Vancouver Canucks hockey team lost game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals and soon after much of downtown Vancouver was on fire – cars flipped, shops burned, fights and
more.

I was there, living downtown, for the last hockey riot, in 1994.  I remember well the smell of tear gas and watching the battle below from my apartment.

Anarchists

As I watched the Twitter feeds and the “Vancouver Riot Pics” Facebook page I was waiting for the inevitable.

“This is anarchy!” they shouted.  Vancouver’s police chief even blamed the entire riot on anarchists in a Vancouver Province article.

As with most things, people were immediately searching for someone to blame.

Those to blame were obvious:  Roberto Luongo and the Sedins!

Just kidding.  (But, really, Luongo was terrible – he was pulled countless times in the playoffs – and the Sedins were -11 and -9 for the playoffs (compared to Bruin’s players Bergeron (+15) and Marchand (+12)) – the real question was how did Vancouver even come so close to winning?)

However, as bad as the Canuck’s star players were they were not to blame for the riot.

And, even less to blame, are “anarchists”.

The word anarchist has been skewed over time – mostly by the government and the media – to try to make those who do not like governments out to be people who bomb places and light cars on
fire.

The word anarchy comes from the Greek, anarchos, meaning “having no ruler,” an-, not, and archos, ruler.  And, all anarchism is, is a form of political organization that does not put one ruler, or ruling body, over everyone in a society.

When you understand that, then calling the people rioting in Vancouver “anarchists” makes no sense.

In fact, the people rioting are products of the state and are the opposite of anarchists.

How The Government Caused the Riots

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Almost every facet of what happened in Vancouver was caused by the government.

First, many of the rioters were young people – prisoners in the public education indoctrination camps for the first 18 years of their lives.  Is it any wonder that, after 18 years of not being allowed to do anything, that a few people might take advantage of a few moments where they overwhelm/overpower their oppressor’s force (the police) to kick over a garbage can or break a window?

Second, the Government has made almost all forms of intoxication illegal – EXCEPT one of the most dangerous ones: alcohol.

Is it not bizarre that your average older person is adamantly against marijuana legalization but does not want to ban alcohol after seeing 100,000 drunken individuals rampage through an entire city?  Imagine if those rioters were all “wild and crazy” because they were high on crack cocaine – the outcry against crack would be ear-splitting.

If people had free choice of substances there would, almost unquestionably, be much less alcohol use.  Marijuana would likely be used much more regularly – and there is one guarantee that can be made here: If that crowd of goons in Vancouver last night were all stoned on marijuana not one garbage bin would have been tipped over.  More likely is that a number of them would go to the park to hold hands and sing some hymns about love – and then eat some potato chips.

Third, Canada is a massive welfare state.  Vancouver, being one of the only livable cities in Canada (it rarely gets too cold or snows as opposed to most Canadian cities which regularly see -40C/F temperatures for six months of the year) attracts throngs of Canadian welfare recipients who find their monthly welfare checks can be enjoyed much more in the rain rather than in the freezing cold.

Because of this welfare state there are very large amounts of people in Vancouver who are basically homeless and live off the system.  In fact, of the thousands of cities I have visited in more than a hundred countries, I can’t remember any place as shady, squalid and dangerous as Vancouver’s “East Hasting” area – an area which is only a few blocks from the riots last night.  (The photo to the right is just an average day in that part of town – this is not a photo of the riots!)

Many Vancouverites stated that many of the people rioting looked like “poor people from places like East Hasting and Surrey”.  And, they are probably right.

But, the thing that they don’t understand is that the system which they support (socialism/welfare) has created all those people.

In most non-western countries there are no homeless people… for two main reasons.  1) Welfare creates poor people as people decide to forget or not learn any skills and live off the system and, 2) All of the rules, regulations and laws – such as building codes – and inflation have priced many people out of the market for a home.

Who Really Caused The Vancouver Riot?

So, it is clear who is to blame: the government and its policies.  Yet, the government police chief and the media which just parrots government propaganda blame the exact opposite… people who weren’t even there and who had nothing to do with the riots: Anarchists.

Yes, it must be the anarchists, bellow the people!  We wouldn’t ever want to actually look in the mirror and see the real cause is the government and its policies which the majority of people support.

And what will be the outcry?  You can already guess.  We need MORE government!  MORE police!

They never learn.

Regards,

Jeff Berwick
The Dollar Vigilante