"According to live accounts, the riots started around halftime. On-the-ground images and videos show hordes of people pouring down streets, jumping on cars, and demolishing property as they “celebrated” their win. The crowd was reported to be predominantly white, and the rioters — who are on video committing egregious acts of vandalism and crime — and the general milieu of reports suggest that they were just engaging in harmless, albeit drunken, commemoration of their historic win.
But the images are pretty damning. In one video, rioters are seen destroying the inside of a convenience store."
In addition to Twitter’s real-time news work, mainstream media covered the riots with a particular focus on playing down the gravity of the violence and damage being done to the city of Philadelphia to “celebrate” the Super Bowl win. Journalists called the riots “raucous celebrations” and “rowdy.” At CNN, AJ Willingham and Chuck Johnston wrote, “LOL, you see it's a funny joke because frankly it's a miracle that place is still standing.”
A funny joke.
The idea that riots in the United States are a “funny joke” seems to emerge only when the rioters are white. I still remember images of the days, weeks, and months after Michael Brown was shot and killed by then officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014. SWAT team members clad in full gear, tear gas thrown down busy streets, activists pouring milk into their eyes, and black Americans being arrested in droves, that was the aftermath of a major injustice in Ferguson, Missouri. Black people were being rounded up because they wanted answers.
If only they were celebrating a football win."