Celebrations in Wrigleyville started out calm enough with barricades on either side of the street and police patrolling down the main drag, but it was only a matter of time (approximately 15 minutes after that winning goal) before someone shouted,” Fuck it, let’s do this!” and the barricades came down as a mob flooded the street.
Even once the crowds flooded the streets the celebrations were still friendly: High-fives were plentiful, beers were passed around, cigars were smoked, fake Stanley cups were hoisted in the air. Chants ranged from “U-S-A, U-S-A” to “Deee-troit sucks” and the ever-classy, “Show us your tits.”
But as the night dragged on, things started to get messy as bottles were shattered haphazardly on the street, empty beer cans were tossed in the air and hoards of people hoisted the barricades in the air for their friends to ride down the street in their own mini-parade.
Shockingly, there was no tear gas, or bellyaching in the conservative press about a culture of violence that leads these people to act like animals.
A.
I have been using sports fans as my analogy every time someone implies that because a few people looted or were violent, the whole group deserved to be tear gassed. I just ask them if they’ve ever gone to a Cubs/Badgers/Bears/insert-their-team game, and seen a fight in the stands or someone peeing or puking on a lawn nearby on the way to their car. Yet they don’t condemn all fans of the team just because a few people were idiotic louts.