I did not attend the riot. From where I was at downtown the riot was a wisp of smoke coming from the direction of the CBC building more than a mile away. But plenty of other people were in the center of it and took ream after ream of highly embarrassing footage of young people making the entire city foolish in front of national media. I was incensed, but you know, not willing to take part in the gawking. Hence you will see no photographs of the black mark on the city here.

If you want, you can look at the incomparable Lung Liu's slideshow on Photoshelter here of the madness. He said on Facebook that he escaped with bruises and I bet the tear gas wasn't very nice either. Good work, Lung. Also, my friend Andrew Ferguson was in the same place and also escaped unscathed. Here is his set. The Globe and Mail has a very good slideshow including some poetic images amidst the stupidity.

Needless to say, many of the people who's faces are fully visible in the photos and news footage of the riot will be expecting to meet with Crown Prosecutors in the future. It's amazing how many of them don't seem to care that they are being captured in evidence.

I can't say much more about the experience because as I was trying to walk out of downtown Vancouver (all the buses had fled), people were walking in to gawk at the nasty business. A group of people asked me for directions TO the riot and I finally said -- after trying to convince them not to go -- "can't you see the smoke?"

Many serious injuries and millions of dollars in damage later -- a huge shame to go on top of the loss in the Stanley Cup. I don't know how long it will take to live this down.