The Stanley Cup riot report was released to the public on Thursday, and VPD Chief Jim Chu spoke to Steve Darling about the contents of the report.
“I think it’s a good report,” he said, “I think it covers two things. There was way too many people downtown, and also alcohol fueled the riot.”
Darling questioned Chu about the number of officers that were in downtown Vancouver for game seven on June 15 Chu said the crowd was too big. “The report talked about the fact it wasn’t that there was not enough police officers, but there was way too many people. 155,000 and that’s a conservative estimate, showed up that day,” he added. “You know if we had an extra thousand or two thousand officers, it wouldn’t have made a difference with that size a crowd, with that level of public drinking that was going on.”
Mayor Gregor Robertson said on Thursday evening that Chu put forward a plan for the night of June 15, and that the budget attached to that was approved by City council and all the resources requested were respected.
Darling questioned Chu about why he didn’t ask for more officers for that night, even just to have some on standby.
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Chu replied that the budget provided was taxpayer money, and they had already policed 24 games very successfully, with some people commenting there was too many police on the streets for those events.
“The number of officers that could have plausibly been deployed that night wouldn’t have made a difference with a crowd of 155,000 of that demographic, young hooligans who were drinking all day,” said Chu.
“We had enough officers to deal with the instigators,” he added. “The true people that were bent on creating destruction, unfortunately several thousand people joined in. People that surprised us,” he said, “people that would normally be responsible citizens in our community.”
He also added that all the people standing around watching and not getting out of police officer’s way contributed to the problem.
Darling questioned Chu about the equipment that was not working that night, asking him if he was frustrated about that and if the force has the equipment they need to do their job.
“I think we do need some protective equipment for officers that get called in,” said Chu. “But remember that hundreds if not thousands of great decisions were made that night, lots of things worked well. If an officer rolls out and doesn’t check the radio, that’s a human mistake, and it sometimes means taking another radio off the shelf that works, so those things can happen,” he added. “It’s a fast and furious dynamic event, it chaotic, but remember the command structure does allow for contingencies and what-ifs, if things don’t go completely right, and that riot was suppressed in three hours. And I also want to say that it was done with restraint. We didn’t make the crowd angrier at us and there’s only been one complaint of misconduct of all the interactions that night, I think that one’s going to be resolved. Again a testament to the restraint and professionalism of our officers.”
Chu commented that since the riots, the City has already held big events, which have been successful, but with certain demographics they are going to have to be much more careful.
He stressed again that charges are still coming for those who took part in the rioting and looting that night.
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