Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu responds to the report into the Stanley Cup Riot in Vancouver, B.C., on Thursday September 1, 2011.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
The number of charges that will be laid in connection with the Stanley Cup riot will exceed those arising from the G20 street disturbances in Toronto, Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu said Thursday night.
Answering questions from the public in a live video broadcast from police headquarters, Chief Chu spoke of the 317 charged over the G20 riots.
"We are going to exceed that," he vowed. "You will see hundreds and hundreds of people charged. I guarantee that. … We've told prosecutors to get ready for a large volume of cases that will come to the courts."
Police have been criticized for not laying a single charge so far in their ongoing investigation of the riot, but Chief Chu repeated past assertions that it is more important for police to lay charges correctly than quickly.
The one-hour evening session, a first for the police department, called Tweet the Chief, had Chief Chu responding live to questions submitted on Twitter. It was hailed in a police press release as "a new chapter in the history of the Vancouver Police Department."
However, the total number of viewers tuning into the Internet streaming at any one time barely exceeded 180 over the course of the broadcast.
The historic first question hardly taxed the chief. "What is the best cop movie ever made?" he was asked. " Bullitt," Chief Chu replied.
But the chief also found himself dealing repeatedly with the unprecedented outbreak of looting, arson and violence that took over the downtown after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup.
Chief Chu blamed the prolonged rioting on an estimated 20,000 people who were acting like cheerleaders for the several hundred actual rioters.
He said police could have brought matters under control in short order without the crowds of onlookers thronging the streets.
"We couldn't charge the crowd. There were people who shouldn't have been there," said Chief Chu, noting that officers found dads with their kids in the street.