Riot in Philadelphia After Phillies Win World Series

Philadelphia -- With two overturned cars, numerous bonfires, tear-gas canisters, and a busload of riot cops, last night proved to be one of the most wild and out-of-control celebrations of any championship that this writer has ever observed.

When the Phillies won the World Series a crowd converged on City Hall, a mob that quickly went from festive and joyous, to riotous and destructive. Like a war-torn path of destruction, South Broad Street stood desolate after riot cops secured the area by pushing thousands down Walnut and Chestnut sts., past an overturned and burned out car towards a blackened dumpster, where someone had lit a blazing fire. The trash accumulating steadily on the street was fuel for several large bonfires beside which people warmed their hands and danced until they were pushed away by Philadelphia police, who stamped the fires out and contained the flames.

As the night wore on and sales at the beer shops skyrocketed, fights broke out on the block just south of City Hall, where riot police fought off aggressive Phillies fans. A large fire swelled up on Chestnut Street, a fire that turned out to be an overturned red sedan with a smashed windshield. Phillies fans torched the vehicle as riot police attempted to contain the crowd on Walnut and Chestnut sts. Another overturned car stood on its side on a side street closer to City Hall, its windshield also smashed.

Riot police arrived in a yellow school-bus, quickly forming a line in amongst the thousands of energized Phillies fans, who quickly turned from celebrators into violent rioters, sparking fires, throwing beer cans, and yelling obscenities at police officers, bike police, and riot police. Tear gas canisters went off, sending hundreds rushing down South Broad Street. A photographer's camera was smashed by an angry rioter, as bike police and riot police swarmed upon the fight, securing the perimeter from any more assaults. A SEPTA transit stop was mangled and destroyed, the metal twisted and broken and the framework of what had once been a transit shelter lying on the street in front of Philadelphia police, who stood with batons in hand, demanding that all bystanders move along.

At the scene of the riot, one man yelled "I hate the police," at which point another turned to him and said, "I'd be careful if I were you."