I strolled through downtown today and I’m happy to report that everything is almost back to normal after the Vancouver riots. Windows are still being fixed but besides that you’d never know what happened.

The police stated the instigators were criminals, anarchists and thugs who came downtown hellbent on destruction and mayhem. However a large group of young people joined in afterwards, most without a criminal record.  117 people have been arrested but only 2 charged.

It’s surreal to me that it even took place. I left work at 5:00 pm one day and came back at 9:00 am the next. The city did such an incredible job cleaning up the place that if it weren’t for TV and/or social media you wouldn’t even know what took place.

These are all pictures I took on my way to lunch a couple days ago. It’s important to me that people know that most of us didn’t expect this to happen, nor do we condone it.

My previous post was about how social media was used during the riots.  I wrote this post during the riots and was getting most of my information from CBC.  Can you believe they were reading Tweets on the news? I had to revise my post a number of times because the story kept changing moment by moment.

It’s incredible to me that these news stations used Twitter to keep up to date.   I’ve never seen it done prior to this. This is a seismic shift in media if you ask me.

The next topic I thought you might find interesting is how social media is being used to catch the so-called conspirators.  The police have received 3,500 email tips including:

• 53 with videos attached.
• 280 Crime Stoppers tips received.
• 344 emails containing only text.
• 676 with links to YouTube.
• 708 tips with images attached.
• 1,011 with hyperlinks to other social media sites other than YouTube (mostly Facebook).

One of the most notable thugs caught on camera confronting a police man and swinging at a fireman, Dustin Anderson, plans to surrender soon. He noted that he can’t leave his house because of his new found notoriety.

Last but not least, the now famous “kissing couple” shown in the picture above have hired an agent to kickstart their comedy career in Australia. The picture was taken while riot police battled to gain control of the streets.  Getty photographer Rich Lam got the shot of Scott kissing Alexandria after she fell.  The picture soon went viral in their favor.   I bet they never thought that would happen?!

Overall it was an absolutely horrific event that demonstrated the stronghold social media has on our wold. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Have you?