Waldemar Ingdahl wrote:
>
> I personally live in one of the most dangerous cities in Europe: Stockholm.
>
> You think it is strange? Well, Stockholm has in all its recorded history
> been a violent city. For instance, today Los Angeles has a murder rate of
> about 10.8 murders on every 100 000 inhabitants, Stockholm has 10.2!
> Stockholm is the only metropolitan area in Sweden though, so the average
> crime rate is comparatively low. The violence in Swedish society is also
> very much concentrated on specific segments of society. Most often those
> segments that don't receive much media coverage. "Bum A and Bum B met at Bum
> A's ratty apartement and started drinking, then Bum B killed Bum A in
> drunken stupor", is the average Swedish murder, nothing sassy to write
> about. But the violence is very much present in Stockholm, and its expanding
> outside the usual segments of society.
LA is a media city, so when Americans tell those of you elsewhere that America
is most definitly NOT what you see on TV, we also mean that America is also NOT
what you typically see in LA.
Here's a story that shows that LA is becoming more of a 'european' or
'international' city every day, its had its own post-sports riot after the
Lakers won the NBA championship:
Riot Erupts in L.A. After Lakers Win NBA Title
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Scores of people set fire to at least one police
car, smashed other vehicles with baseball bats and flung bottles and rocks at
firemen following the Los Angeles Lakers' victory over the Indiana Pacers on
Monday night for the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship.
Witnesses said they saw police, on foot and on horseback, use rubber
bullets and billy clubs to break up crowds as rioters pelted them with bottles
and set trash cans ablaze. Firemen trying to extinguish a burning police car
were struck with flying debris, witnesses said.
Police kept fans, reporters and players inside the new Staples Center arena
in downtown Los Angeles long after the game ended as they waited for
disturbances and bonfires outside the facility to subside.
Lakers forward A.C. Green, one of those remaining at the Staples Center,
said, ``This is crazy. It's no way to celebrate.''
The Lakers' 116-111 victory gave the team its first NBA championship in a
dozen years and was watched by many celebrities, including the city's No. 1
basketball fan, actor Jack Nicholson.
Los Angeles police said hundreds of officers in riot gear were able to disperse
hundreds of unruly people by midnight PDT with reports of only minor injuries.
In one incident, officers fired rubber bullets to disperse a crowd that had
gathered around a burning and vandalized patrol car, witnesses said.
A police spokesman said he could not immediately confirm that police had
used rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
``I don't have the official report yet,'' he said, adding, ''We do use rubber
bullets for crowd control.''
Shortly after the game, thousands of people who had gathered outside the
arena began lighting bonfires, burning barricades and traffic cones, and
dancing around the fires. One man burned an American flag.
There were reports that eight vehicles were badly damaged or destroyed and
worried police escorted the players out of the Staples Center in police cars.
Fans reportedly surrounded and rocked Lakers star Shaquille O'Neal's
sport-utility vehicle as he was leaving the area.
Hours after the game, some members of the news media, along with some
Lakers and Pacers players, fans and others, had not been allowed to leave
the Staples Center.
Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey described the
disturbance as ``very localized,'' and said there had not been any widespread
trouble either downtown or in other areas of the city.
``The city is relatively calm,'' said Humphrey.
He said at least two people suffered burn injuries, but it was not clear how
the injuries came about.
Among the celebrities who attended the game were film director Steven
Spielberg, Nicholson, actor Dustin Hoffman, and actresses Salma Hayek and
Whoopi Goldberg.
>>
What I don't get is why people are rioting for WINNING? Are they that scared by
success? I could understand if they rioted for LOSING...
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:13:54 MDT