The Parade
The hockey team Los Angeles Kings won the 2014 Stanley Cup, and had a parade last Monday in Los Angeles to celebrate the victory. During the parade, fans from all over California came out to support and celebrate with their favorite hockey team. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, over 200 uniformed officers were sent to the parade to make sure everything went okay. Although the parade went by without a problem, the LAPD’s Public Information Officer said that there was an increase in alcohol related arrests than when the Kings won the Stanley Cup in 2012.
According to Christopher Harris, who attended the parade with his family, a lot of people who attended the parade had gone to the bars surrounding the Staples Center, and had gotten drunk before attending the parade. “I saw one person throw up on the street in front of a policeman. They put him in the back of the police car,” Harris said. The cheers from the crowd started getting louder and louder as the players from the Kings started passing by.
Robert Lopez, who attended the parade even though he was rooting for the New York Rangers, said that the Kings fans started getting really annoying. He was pretty sure it was because of the alcohol; everyone seemed pretty drunk. Lopez said that he was glad that he didn’t bring his New York Rangers jersey, as he originally planned on, because he said people would have definitely thrown stuff at him.
A public relations worker for Los Angeles Kings issued a statement for the hockey organization saying that they do not condone people to drink before going to attend the parade. He went on to say that they took the precaution of having the parade start earlier than it did in 2012 so that people didn’t have a chance to go get a drink. It seems as if it still failed.
