Guns N’ Roses 1992. Stanley Cup Finals 1993. Saint Jean Baptiste 1997. The Exploited 2003. Freddy Villanueva shooting 2008. NHL Series Round Wins 2008, 2010. No other city in North America can claim these many riots in such a short span of time, each one having a different motive than the other but having one common element which fuels them all… drunken mooks. In a vibrant and outgoing city like Montreal, the riot has become a national past time, where burning cop cars and looting Footlockers is a distinguished art. Most countries use this means of civil disorder for political or social reasons, but out here in the 514 we’ll find any reason to riot cause we simply just love breaking shit.

I’ve had the chance to live out a few of the fore mentioned events in my lifespan, sometimes as a spectator and other times as a participating trouble maker, but I’ve always noticed a recurring pattern which enabled me to break down this glorious phenomenon to a science:

The starting point is often a celebration, where a good part of the city gather in a public setting in order to drink, chant and live out life in good fun. You can feel the same warmth in the air like on New Year’s Eve and the sound of ghetto bird helicopters patrolling the skies adds more excitement to our hearts than fear. Most people are out there having a good time and living the partying lifestyle Montreal is world renowned for, but amidst this festive ambiance you can always spot the goons on each corner sipping their brews slowly and mischievously eyeing the situation like vultures on a fresh corpse.

As night progresses and alcohol starts mixing with people’s blood levels, the vibe slowly starts changing from celebration to ruckus. One small event leads to another, for example fireworks being projected into the streets or a random street fight between drunken cliques. Soon enough, as the goons get deeper and the party-goers get drunker, it all leads to the famous catalyst of any riot: the first thrown brick. It’s like watching the President throwing the first pitch at the World Series… you know its gonna be a hell of a night.

Once that brick hits the storefront window, it’s like music to the crowd’s ears. Soon after, the alarm system echoes out into downtown’s streets and all you hear for the next few minutes is windows smashing and kids wildin’ out. Christmas came early this year. Waves of mooks rush in and out of stores holding onto anything they can grab while others content themselves with destroying public property and lighting cop cars on fire. Meanwhile, the police riot squads get into formation and close down the radius but let people go on fucking things up while they wait for the chief’s call to advance. I call this period of time the ‘Free-Pass Moment’.

The looters keep shopping for a good period of time, unaware of the police trap closing down on them in a tight knit formation. When the orders come in, the gas canisters burst into the air and fall into the crowd creating a mass movement, like turning the light on in a room full of cockroaches. A thousand people running in the same direction on downtown’s busiest street while tear gas perfumes the atmosphere is a beautiful site to see. I call this part the ‘Ghetto Marathon’.

From then on, the mob’s activities concentrate more on the police than the shops. Rocks, bottles and anything lying on the ground get hurled at the anti-riot formations which in return charge at the kids and beat the fuck outta anyone who is in the way. A game of cat and mouse is played with the police through downtown’s alleys and backstreets for the remainder of the night. The smarter ones manage to leave the scene with a good score of Grey Goose bottles and Footlocker white tee’s, and the drunker ones stay behind to play tag with the riot squad. Cop cars get burnt, officers get injured, kids catch cases and shops suffer collateral damage. All this because of what? Cause Montreal is a breeding ground of drunks and vagabonds. I love my fucking city.

Here are some first hand riot anecdotes from some of our favorite mooks:

STACK MONEY on 1993 Stanley Cup Finals:
“Not for nothing but I really think my dude Maink set off the riots, at least he was definitely one of the instigators. He got up on top of a car, ran across the roof of 3 whips and did a stage dive into the crowd. There were so many people on St-Catherine Street that people couldn’t move out of the way so he crowd surfed for a couple of seconds then he threw a bottle across the street against a building. I heard people saying ‘It’s beginning’. We met with some Haitian kids we didn’t know, but they had the same plan as us and had brought knapsacks. Then we made our way to the Neon that used to be next to Sam The Record Man and got busy. People were getting robbed by other miscreants while they were running out of the store with their loot. I thought I had gotten a couple of dope pairs of pants but in the chaos I grabbed some joints that turned out to be nut-huggers, so I threw them shits in the garbage. ”

COMAONER on 2008 riots:
“So we left the Wu-Tang show that same night the Montreal Canadians beat the Boston Bruins for the second round of the Stanley Cup finals. Already on the way out of the venue, you had mad dudes all over the street being rowdy as fuck. So we made our way to Al-Taib for a bit then make a move back to the hood, but as we’re eating outside of the spot we see like 5 or 6 dudes trying to smash open the Rogers window on Guy Street with no success(Vinny don’t sue). One of them goes in the back alley and comes back with a good 50 pound rock which did the job and smashed that window into a thousand pieces. Sure enough these guys run in trying to snatch whatever, so we follow them and there’s a 50 inch plasma screen on the floor. Everyone’s trying to get it but since it was stuck to a pole we just started to smash it and ended up just bouncing with some phone accessories. Another good mtl riot story…”

KILLA-EF on riots in general:
“Street riots are the truth, I mean, I only roll with hooligans and shit. So when you got random hooligans all over the place you just go crazy and wild the fuck out. Uncontrollable mook urges. Everyone is breaking shit, stopping traffic, slamming cars, climbing on buses through the back windows, hitting tags in public, and the list goes on. I don’t even watch sports or anything like that but when you’s a true mook, for whatever the cause of the riot is, youre taking part of it. A real mook will always instinctively participate and take action in any type of riot.”

photo contributions courtesy of Scan DA.

Some media and homemade videos documenting Montreal’s favorite sport… the Riot. :

NHL Second Round Series Win, downtown Montreal. 2010.

Freddy Villanueva shooting by Police, Montreal North. 2008.

The Exploited show cancellation, Berri-Uqam. 2003.

NHL Stanley Cup Final Win, downtown Montreal. 1993.

Guns N Roses & Metallica Show Cancellation, Olympic Stadium. 1992.