Stanley Cup riot review to be released today

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Mayor Gregor Robertson may be drawing up damage-control plans once the report into the Stanley Cup riot is released this afternoon.

The independent review is due out at 1 p.m. and News1130 will have full coverage as co-chairs Doug Keefe and John Furlong give their take on why the riot happened and who or what  might be to blame.

The timing could be better for Robertson, with civic elections this fall. Any criticism aimed at Robertson will be fodder for his rivals in the NPA party, which has been laying a lot of the blame for the riot right on the doorstep of the mayor’s office.

They’ve blasted Robertson for encouraging people to come downtown to watch Game 7 of the Stanley Cup without proper preparation.

SFU political analyst Patrick Smith tells the Globe and Mail people are paying attention to issues that could sway their votes and any negative fall-out for the mayor comes with a much higher political cost than normal.

What a criminologist hopes to hear today

A local criminologist is hoping the review will identify a number of key issues; for Dr. Rob Gordon, Director of the School of Criminology at SFU, one of those issues is what he calls the inadequate number of police on the ground.

He adds there’s also the question of whether the site itself was properly prepared by the city. “That would include issues relating to access to liquor, transportation — a way from the scene afterwards — and whether or not the SkyTrain security was functioning as effectively as it might have been.”

He says we have to know how the event was managed. He points out this, along with the Missing Women’s investigation, means two concurrent inquiries into the adequacy of policing in Vancouver.

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