Thuggish Opportunism

Celebrations turning into violent riots. We read about this kind of thing all the time. These are the fall-outs of sport events that take place say, in Europe, or undeveloped countries of the world. Not in laid-back, law-abiding Canada.

Unless we're speaking of Montreal, and that seems to be another thing altogether. It's not that other cities in Canada don't have their share of thugs. Just something about Montreal. It's become something of an anticipated event that post game, passions will flare and violence will erupt.

It used to be that everyone just shrugged it off to excited fans revelling in wins and losses. Excited, good-hearted fun that sometimes went a little hay-wire. But the thing of it is, it goes a whole lot hay-wire.

When people create distractions to enable themselves to freely begin looting, there is something else involved. We're talking sociopaths devoted to creating chaos for the purpose of enabling themselves to get away with criminal offences.

There may be some legitimate 'fans' who get a little too inebriated and in their high spirits become abusive. Crowds of people can sometimes turn ugly quite quickly, particularly when law enforcement officers are trying to persuade them to tone down the extent of their celebrations.

Upturning vehicles and setting them on fire isn't exactly equated with good citizenship. Nor is brawling, necessarily.

But here's where the local criminal element get involved, taking advantage of opportunities resulting from police distraction in trying to make some order out of chaos and prevent a large-scale riot. People whose intention is to smash store windows and grab whatever they can.

Aside from public drunkenness and high-jinks, there are those who come equipped with backpacks they can stuff with loot.

And even though Montreal police had increased their presence by 50% for 750 officers on duty at post-game festivities when the Habs beat the Penguins 5-2, they were no match in numbers for the cunning of the local thugs determined to have their own party, vandalizing and entitling themselves to new possessions.

There are some cultural events that become traditions that are simply out of this world.