Alameda has decided that it ought to be a little more illegal to roll around town on a skateboard. Which may have been the original intention, but this is a bit much
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I spent the night in jail over this once*edge_of_withinJune 21 2008, 23:41:34 UTC
Arguably, I am a muscle-powered vehicle. Certainly a Wheelchair is.
Ridiculous - onsaponatime, I lived in Benecia, CA. Benecia doesn't have any "no skateboarding signs", you see, because it's illegal to skateboard in The Entire City of Benecia.
I was happily skateboarding to work (using it like you were, for transportation down a hill), when someone from an (unmarked) car told me to get off my skateboard. I flipped him off because, well, fuck him and his polluting car, right? Right. Off-duty chief of police. Soooo not my day.
*well, sorta. I had a compound ticket of Skateboarding within city limits, disrespecting a police officer (obviously), and evading arrest (I kept on skateboarding. apparently behind me, he identified himself, whatever). I got it knocked down to a misdemeanor fine, and have never paid it - I have no desire to visit a city like that again.
Oh, man. This bizarre bias against skaters in our very modern & broad-minded culture is so pervasive that it seems to be assumed to be perfectly normal by most folks.
I'm not all about the destruction of property in the pursuit of reckless fun. I'm not running down people's dogs & small children on the sidewalks of Alameda. I am precise, cautious & considerate when I'm anywhere near other people, or where other people might come flinging out of doors at me.
Sure, maybe it ought to be illegal to use a skateboard to cause harm to people, places & things. But isn't that true of any object that can be used to facilitate doing harm? Why do we single out skateboards?
And we've been trying to point out the ridiculousness of this bias against skaters & skateboards for decades. I know it's not the most important topic on the table, but come on!
I wonder how many other cities have completely outlawed boards with wheels attached to the bottom. Crazy.
Try skateboarding in the bike lane. That way, you're a endangering vehicles rather than pedestrians, which is much easier to get away with ;)
more to the point, my friend asked a cop about this exact thing, and he said they liked seeing bladers on the sidewalk and skaters on the road, because it's possible to bail off a skateboard.
Comments 3
Certainly a Wheelchair is.
Ridiculous - onsaponatime, I lived in Benecia, CA.
Benecia doesn't have any "no skateboarding signs", you see, because it's illegal to skateboard in The Entire City of Benecia.
I was happily skateboarding to work (using it like you were, for transportation down a hill), when someone from an (unmarked) car told me to get off my skateboard. I flipped him off because, well, fuck him and his polluting car, right?
Right. Off-duty chief of police.
Soooo not my day.
*well, sorta.
I had a compound ticket of Skateboarding within city limits, disrespecting a police officer (obviously), and evading arrest (I kept on skateboarding. apparently behind me, he identified himself, whatever).
I got it knocked down to a misdemeanor fine, and have never paid it - I have no desire to visit a city like that again.
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I'm not all about the destruction of property in the pursuit of reckless fun. I'm not running down people's dogs & small children on the sidewalks of Alameda. I am precise, cautious & considerate when I'm anywhere near other people, or where other people might come flinging out of doors at me.
Sure, maybe it ought to be illegal to use a skateboard to cause harm to people, places & things. But isn't that true of any object that can be used to facilitate doing harm? Why do we single out skateboards?
And we've been trying to point out the ridiculousness of this bias against skaters & skateboards for decades. I know it's not the most important topic on the table, but come on!
I wonder how many other cities have completely outlawed boards with wheels attached to the bottom. Crazy.
Reply
more to the point, my friend asked a cop about this exact thing, and he said they liked seeing bladers on the sidewalk and skaters on the road, because it's possible to bail off a skateboard.
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