Rick Rypien memorial defeaced by Bieber fan, cleaned by Canucks fan

Via Reddit's /r/Canucks channel comes this tale of defacement and redemption. It seems that Vancouverites are amazingly good at cleaning up graffiti, especially with the practice some got after the Stanley Cup riots in 2011. This time the cause of the graffiti was something more devastating than the Canucks losing the Cup. It was due to… Justin Beiber. And it was on a memorial to deceased Canucks forward Rick Rypien, who passed away last August 15th.

Witness the damage caused by one Simran Mann, who was brilliant enough to sign her work:

If she had taken a second to come down from her Biebs-induced high, she might've noticed the fact that the memorial has a picture of Rypien in the middle of it, with a multitude of messages written on it. None of these messages are about a pre-pubescent (yes, I know he's 18 now, but I don't think his hormones have caught up with his age yet) pop star. They're all regarding someone who suffered through great emotional anguish before he ended his life.

Pass it to Bulis basically takes down this fan better than I ever can, but it still disappoints me how vapid and unobservant people are, and not just Beliebers. Before I get all "GET OFF MY LAWN" over here, it doesn't take longer than a second to be aware of your surroundings and be observant of what you're doing and where you are. If you see a wall with multiple messages written on it that begin with "rest in peace" or RIP or some variant thereof, don't write "ZOMFG BIEBER IS SO HOTTTTT!" on that same piece of concrete.

Frankly, it's preferable if you don' write that anywhere, but I digress.

Luckily, a civic minded Canucks fan undid the damage caused to the memorial:

To whoever did this, thank you. Rypien is beloved not just in Vancouver, but by fans of the game. His loss was, and will remain, a tragedy. The fact that a fan of a Hillary Swank look-alike would deface a memorial to him is a much smaller tragedy, and more or less speaks to the vacantness of some members of a certain generation.

About Laura Astorian

Laura Astorian is the head editor for the SB Nation blog St. Louis Game Time and has been a Blues fan from childhood. She promises that any anti-Blackhawks bias will be left at the door. Maybe.

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