Dear LA Kings Fans:

[TurboT]

Dear LA Kings Fans,

While I appreciate your passion to cheer on your team at the rink, please have enough respect not to boo my national anthem before the game. You can boo Luongo during the game or anyone else you choose, but please leave my anthem alone.

Let me remind you that two of your top players you cheer so loudly from hail from our great country. One of them has been nicknaked "Captain Canada" for many years for his propesity and willingness to play for his country whenever called. The other was an important and proud member of our Olympic Gold Medal winning team this year. Wouldn't it be amazing if they chose to walk out on you because you don't respect where they come from and learnt to play the game you're paying to watch.

Please remember our soldiers are dying next to yours in Afghanistan and have died and bled at your side for many years and decades.

If you want an example of respect, please pay close attention when your wonderful countries anthem is played in our home city, we all stand and sing along. Perhaps with not as much fervour as we sing our own, but we do not boo, talk, chant 'Go Canucks Go' through your anthem you hold so dear. No, we sing along.

I know this may seem trivial to some, but it just rubbed me the wrong way tonight...

-TT

P.S. Dear Vancouver Canucks. I know you read this forum with great enthusiasm, so please learn how to kill penalties and block some shots. You might win another game then.

[SpudRider]

Booing another team's national anthem is extremely rude, and completely unacceptable! I am very disappointed, but not surprised the incident occurred in Los Angeles. :evil:

Spud

[AZ200cc]

Would piss me off also.

[TurboT]

It seems to happen every year, and it's usually in cities where their team hasn't made the playoffs in a long time. The LA Kings have not made the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 8 years and while I appreciate playoff starved fans anxious to cheer on their team, I just hate it when people boo anthems. The popular excuse is "I'm just booing because they're the bad guys this series, and I'm booing the team not the country" but the fact is we're honouring our two great countries before the game starts.

For whatever reason, watching the game the other night it just really irritated me, so I needed to vent and used this forum as the outlet. I just hope we continue to sing along to the Star Spangled Banner and not boo in retaliation, as that's not right.

[AZ200cc]

Sadly all countries are guilty of this, We need to learn to respect and appreciate who we are playing against instead of acting like a bunch of drunk jerks. It's about being a good sport while watching one, But Not everyone gets that.

[TurboT]

Originally Posted by AZ200cc

Sadly all countries are guilty of this, We need to learn to respect and appreciate who we are playing against instead of acting like a bunch of drunk jerks. It's about being a good sport while watching one, But Not everyone gets that.

No you're quite right. I would say it is more than likely 1% of the crowd who were being idiots, enough that you could clearly hear them on TV though.. but the majority of people applauded respectfully at the end of the anthem.

[Jim]

Booing an anthem isn't good... Though, I don't think this was a good example either... During the Olympics in Vancouver, VPD threatened to arrest someone for wearing an American flag... At a global event, where Vancouver is supposed to be welcoming the world, it didn't seem right...

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/l...shColumbiaHome

[SpudRider]

Originally Posted by Jim

Booing an anthem isn't good... Though, I don't think this was a good example either... During the Olympics in Vancouver, VPD threatened to arrest someone for wearing an American flag... At a global event, where Vancouver is supposed to be welcoming the world, it didn't seem right...

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/l...shColumbiaHome

I got the dreaded, "Canada Only" message when I tried to view this video. :( However, I must say I was surprised to hear your report, Jim. 8O

Spud

[TurboT]

Originally Posted by SpudRider

I got the dreaded, "Canada Only" message when I tried to view this video. :( However, I must say I was surprised to hear your report, Jim. 8O

Spud

Since I was in Canada I avoided the dreaded message to watch the video. I was a bit shocked to read your post Jim, but upon watching the news clip, kind of got it.

For those of you who can't watch the video, the police were merely concerned for the individual's safety, wandering downtown amongst a bunch of drunk Canadian hockey fans waving his stars and stripes, very shortly after the US hockey team lucked out and beat us in the round robin (wink). So it wasn't a general attack on a US citizen for wearing his countries colours, but more of a we don't want some fools to try to tune you up so best you take it off. There are probably more subtle ways to do so, but if any of you have tried to talk a drunk person out of something they have their heart set on, threat of arrest is probably the last and only option.

[suprf1y]

Originally Posted by Jim

Booing an anthem isn't good... Though, I don't think this was a good example either... During the Olympics in Vancouver, VPD threatened to arrest someone for wearing an American flag... At a global event, where Vancouver is supposed to be welcoming the world, it didn't seem right...

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/l...shColumbiaHome

What doesn't seem right, is your sensationalism of this non-story.

Canadians have taken to draping flags around their shoulders, wearing patriotic colours and painting their faces to show their enthusiasm – but while red and white may be welcomed by police, stars and stripes might just get you arrested.

A video posted to YouTube on Saturday shows a group of police stopping a Team USA fan who was robed in the red, white and blue on Granville Street.

In the massive Olympic crowd, where Americans were clearly outnumbered, police feared his patriotism could incite fighting or rioting. He was asked to remove his U.S. flag and put it away.

"I don't wanna," he replied.

"But I'm telling you, people are drinking," an officer wearing a fluorescent vest said. "We're trying to help you."

The video was shot at 1:28 a.m., hours after the Canada-Slovakia hockey game ended on Friday night. Minutes later, a Vancouver Police Department sergeant intervened, threatening the American with arrest if he didn't comply. The man instead removed his flag.

Const. Lindsey Houghton told CTV News the officers were fulfilling their duty to keep the downtown core calm during Olympic celebrations.

"No matter what the colour of the flag you're carrying, people are talking at each other, tensions rise a bit," he said. "Our role is to make sure everybody's safe and having a good time."

Police could have arrested the man for breach of peace, Houghton said, for his own safety.

"Really what we would be doing is removing them from that potentially violent situation and moving them somewhere else."

Drunk partiers are the cause for the VPD's concern, Houghton said. The prevalence of alcohol downtown at night, despite a few early liquor store closures, has kept police busy since the start of the Games.

[Jim]

Sensationalism? All I did was very very briefly summarize the events (because I believed the link would be viewable by all), here we have the Police threatening to arrest someone for something that is not illegal... If I went to the USA and was threatened with arrest for wearing a Canadian flag as a cape I would be shocked... Especially if they were hosting the world there for the Olympics. It's just my opinion of course, yours may vary, but as a guest to our country this person being threatened with arrest for being patriotic is probably not a good memory for them to go home with?

[TurboT]

Originally Posted by Jim

Sensationalism? All I did was very very briefly summarize the events (because I believed the link would be viewable by all), here we have the Police threatening to arrest someone for something that is not illegal... If I went to the USA and was threatened with arrest for wearing a Canadian flag as a cape I would be shocked... Especially if they were hosting the world there for the Olympics. It's just my opinion of course, yours may vary, but as a guest to our country this person being threatened with arrest for being patriotic is probably not a good memory for them to go home with?

Getting thumped on by drunk idiots a better memory?

Jim initially I think your argument holds merit, where we'd never expect our law enforcement to penalize someone for showing their countries colors during an international event, and if that was the case, we'd be outraged and embarrased.

On the flip side, nothing is that black and white in the world. This fellow was drinking, wandering around amongst other drunk people taunting and shouting back and forth. There was obviously tension there or they wouldn't have stepped in. It wasn't, "You're American so you're going to jail." It was, "Your behaviour is close to inciting a riot so stop it or we'll 'relocate' you."


I know the police also asked the news media to stop filming crowds as much because they were getting 'worked up' and raising tensions before big events, or after.

[Jim]

If we look at your on the flip side argument then I could agree with you, though I'm not sure how accurate it is because I wasn't there... The police did shut down liquor stores, so I didn't think the crowds would be too drunk? Though I suppose they could be drinking at the games or restaurants before heading to the street. Anyways not really a big deal either way, it was quite a while back.

[TurboT]

Originally Posted by Jim

If we look at your on the flip side argument then I could agree with you, though I'm not sure how accurate it is because I wasn't there... The police did shut down liquor stores, so I didn't think the crowds would be too drunk? Though I suppose they could be drinking at the games or restaurants before heading to the street. Anyways not really a big deal either way, it was quite a while back.

Well it's a reasonable discussion point. :P

Early liquor store closures doesn't mean people didn't 'stockpile' or hit the bars as you mentioned. There was certainly a party atmosphere down there during the games.