Vancouver Riots 2011: Couple Kisses During Chaos (PHOTO)

UPDATE: The couple has been identified.

While a city burned its Stanley Cup dream in the flurry of flames, looting and bone-breaking that was the 2011 Vancouver riots, an altogether different sort of passion spilled, literally, into the streets.

At the moment, they're known only as the kissing couple.

But that won't last long.

When this unlikely snapshot of lovers entangled on a tear-gas filled street, with riot police in the fore and background emerged Thursday morning, you can bet the great media race was on.

It will, most certainly, be the picture that launched a thousand media inquiries. Who are they? What were they thinking? And who will get to them first?

"We're looking for the kissing couple in this photo," CBC News tweeted at 10am Thursday "Know them?"

Good start. After all, the Twitterverse, as usual, caught the image on the quick.

Looks like Gerrard Trojillo (gt23GOTHUNDER) was first on the mark, tweeting, "lol couple kissing during #canucksriot" at about 10 am on Thursday. He was referring to the Esquire blog that first published the photo.

The riots began after Vancouver's Canucks lost the Stanley Cup last night to the Boston Bruins.

The Vancouver Sun has more on the photographer who snapped the picture.

Click over to our slideshow for more photos of the riots and take a peek at the kissing couple below:

WATCH:

Comments

[Esther Rainville]

02:21 PM on 07/04/2011

Well doesn't this look like a computer copy job.

[Paul Booth]

03:07 PM on 06/26/2011

You might consider upgrading your feminism from second wave (groupthink: women are victims, need protection) to third wave (individual empowerment: each person, regardless of xx or xy, navigates through the world with a peculiar set of advantages and disadvantages and is responsible for the resulting experience). This woman, whom none of us know, made a set of decisions that led her to the position she was in when this photo was taken. Please respect her autonomy, and that of each commenter here!

[yimmyhyena]

10:15 PM on 06/23/2011

i dont understand why they kept hitting them even after they were on the ground. i guess just because there cops?

[roudy]

06:57 AM on 07/01/2011

That's what they do best.

[Emily Travelated]

05:24 PM on 06/22/2011

This photo captures a very precious and beautiful moment. It's definitely my favorite of the last year.

[Esther Rainville]

02:23 PM on 07/04/2011

phoney or what, who placed that in the background?

[canpete]

10:39 PM on 07/07/2011

i agree, it has "picture of the year" written all over it.........

[Bee Geller]

05:39 PM on 06/20/2011

I think it's amazing the press this picture is getting - reminds me on a modern day "kiss", that famous picture of the couple kissing in times square, but with a new age spin on it- the romantic in me wants to beat up the cynic, and tell her that it was not staged...
check out my blurb on my blog on this same story today to read more
http://styleisland1.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/buzzed-on-a-monday/

[Joseph Fisher]

09:27 PM on 06/19/2011

There are times when sunny smiles dim to hiss
when mob minds mull a mile in a rift
then hot fingertips fall on soft lips
and all else becomes moot in a kiss

[Francois Bergeron]

03:18 AM on 06/22/2011

not bad.

[Gruntled Citizen]

11:39 AM on 06/19/2011

I do hope that with all of the picture taken from smartphones and digital cameras, the miscreants during the riot who flipped over cars, looted (stole!) from stores such as Hudson Bay Co., and otherwise damaged property, are identified, arrested and prosecuted. See the slide show, slide #22 and 11 for examples.

[fromdnorth]

01:14 AM on 06/19/2011

Sorry wrong thread...

[fromdnorth]

01:13 AM on 06/19/2011

Pity a room full of clowns do not know what is funny...

[gmcinahuff]

11:59 PM on 06/18/2011

Now that's a blissful kiss.
Where does one find a man like that?
I'd start a riot to get a kiss like that ~

http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Love-A-Blissful-Kiss/812886

[Watching rock grow]

11:59 PM on 06/18/2011

I am thankful the young lady had her underwear on, that someone came to get her, to help her. I hope she is okay. If the cops are going to start pushing young women, around in public again perhaps it is time granny dresses make a comeback.

[whatchamean]

08:40 PM on 06/18/2011

shows that riots can be arousing?

[Praline]

03:40 PM on 06/18/2011

I cant believe this story is bigger than whats really going on in Vancouver.

[yimmyhyena]

11:38 PM on 06/18/2011

its much more interesting than some drunk kids starting a riot over a lost hockey game

[StrawHat]

12:03 PM on 06/18/2011

I was THRILLED to learn that she was not being assaulted (the other photo I saw looked an awful lot like other photos of a drunk girl being mauled by strangers). However, she was:

1) Knocked to the ground by the police shields;
2) Injured and in pain;
3) Crying and being comforted.

I could see instantly that this was NOT a situation in which a normal, happy young lady would choose to place herself.

How this turned into a pack of hubba-hubba sex comments by millions of total strangers is clear: the photographer irresponsibly published a photo taken at an angle that was pointed directly at her naked thighs and partially naked buttocks while she was being held and caressed by her companion.

She didn't VOLUNTEER for this soft-core porn treatment of her injury and pain. It was foisted on her by the "new journalism" we're all supposed to embrace as "democratic" and "hip".

Personally, it disgusts me that a person can be knocked to the ground, injured and crying and then be subjected without her consent to group slavering and salacious commentary by millions of strangers who can't seem to give anyone the basic human dignity they deserve.

I fear for the future of human kind if this is the direction that "journalism" and "infotainment" are heading. At this rate, we're heading straight back towards the public humiliations of petty criminals and public abuse of animals with vendors serving refreshments to the grotesque crowds.

[celere]

06:18 PM on 06/18/2011

Interesting that you still find a sexual assault on womanhood in all of this.

[linkatlin]

06:28 PM on 06/18/2011

thanks

[Nero]

08:08 PM on 06/18/2011

I also find it interesting you found a way at the end of your online thesis to link the photo to inevitable public humiliations, animal abuse and such. You must live in a sad lonely world.

[Palaver]

11:45 AM on 06/18/2011

Well, at least someone was open for business.

Though, the best way at stopping boys from being boys (violent) is for all the women to close up shop. It's called a sex strike and it helped end the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003.

[linkatlin]

01:07 PM on 06/18/2011

well I'm not so sure about that probably if women close the shop up we are going to became more aggressive

[StrawHat]

01:29 AM on 06/19/2011

Yeah, it's our fault when you guys become aggressive...

Sheesh.