Posted on 08/11/2004 7:22:50 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost
A pair of baby-faced Whitman boys, busted on a public street for illegal skateboarding, were arrested, booked and shackled before being hauled into a Brockton juvenile court to face charges, the children's irate parents said yesterday.
``It's absurd,'' mother Stephanie Saltzman said. ``My son is 12 years old and all he was doing is skateboarding. I mean, you gotta be kidding me.''
Saltzman's son, Josh, and 14-year-old neighbor, Ryan Maxwell, were arrested Aug. 3 when a Whitman police officer caught them skateboading on South Avenue. A town bylaw prohibits using skateboards or other devices to ``coast or slide'' along public streets.
Town officials would not comment on the specifics of the case yesterday, but they said police would not arrest kids unless their illegal actions were more severe than simply skateboarding.
``They would have to be doing something that causes it to rise to that level,'' Town Administrator Frank Lynam said. ``It's at the discretion of the officer to determine whether an arrest should be made.''
Dean Leavitt, the officer who collared the rosy-cheeked boys, declined to comment yesterday.
The boys insisted they were merely skateboarding in front of their homes when an officer took their boards and ordered them into the back of his car. They said they complied without any protest.
``I couldn't believe it was happening over skateboarding,'' Josh Saltzman said. ``We have too many cops that have nothing to do in this town.''
The boys said they were booked at the police station and then driven to Brockton Juvenile Court, where they were locked in a cell for two hours before being led into a courtroom with shackles around their wrists and ankles.
Michael Maxwell, Ryan's father, said he raced to court to pick up his son after he was told the boy would be held overnight if he did not arrive before 3:30 p.m.
``I was sitting in court when they called out his name and I could see his hands and hear the jingling as he walked,'' Maxwell said. ``To arrest a child for riding on a board? I don't know what that serves.''
The boys were ordered to perform 15 hours of community service before Nov. 1.
Town officials said they have had numerous incidents involving skateboarders jumping off library steps, weaving through traffic and creating other disturbances. They say they are trying to find a suitable location for a skateboard park.
You can read that as "compliant lap-dog reporter omits to check up on lying weasel unnamed town officials."
Let's see- the town has an ordinance, the kids broke it, the cops enforced it- this is a problem?
From the kid's radio talk, he probably called the cops worse than jerkface when they spoke to him. With some cops this will raise a freindly verbal warning to a full-fledged booking.
Being the benificiary of a broken elbow inflicted by a kid riding a bike on a sidewalk, I support the idea of limiting the areas where bikes and skateboards intersect with pedestrians.
These kids were cuffed and thrown in the clink, shackled, for two hours, for the grand crime of skateboarding in front of their house. That doesn't sound to me like a cop doing his job; that sounds like a robot or a computer following source code.
Common sense: an uncommon virtue.
"One night I came home late and found my room door gone."
That is a fantastic idea. I have a 13 year old daughter. Thus far, action like that hasn't been necessary, but it's worth keeping it in mind, just in case.
Ben Junior would flip out!
I have no problem with kids on boards in public areas as long as they give right of way to those who are walking. Most (certainly not all) of the skateboarders I've experienced in our town don't maintain a sense of respect for other people. They swear, spit, get awful close to mowing people down (for a defiant thrill I'm assuming) and generally don't have a healthy respect for authority. Intentionally frightening the elderly then yelling at them to move their 'lame f'in a$$es' isn't exactly a respectful thing.
That very well could be the case.
We had one in Greensboro but I understand it went out of business due to liability insurance.
Unlikely to be true. Which is why you get "contempt of cop" cases where something vague is ocnjured up to put you in handcuffs.
We have kids in our town who skateboard/roller blade everywhere. The county courthouse, the high school, anywhere where there are steps and railings. The amount of damage is truly a sight to see. Who do you think pays for the fixes, MY TAX DOLLARS. Who pays the parents when these kids - most of which don't wear any protection devices - sue because little johnny got hurt on county/city/school property - MY TAX DOLLARS!
Okay...stepping down from my soapbox...but I really like the extra height it offered for a moment in time. :o)
I suppose none of you ever violated the law by jaywalking,
found yourself in handcuffs, booked, put in prison and
sent to court. This is an outrage!! If they want to
do something about the children, they need to do it to the parent and it shouldn't be putting them in their literally
stinking prisons.
Won't work. We have a skate park in our housing development, and the kids insist on using the rails and benches at the information center instead. Their excuse? The skate park is "lame".
bingo.
So...self government has no place in this situation?
Somebody's dad has been listening to Dr Laura S.
Here in my little neck of the woods the Veterans are less than thrilled with us because skateboarders are destroying "Veterans Park" by rolling over things and breaking them. The've posted "NO SKATEBOARDING" signs but those zany madcap kids just pull them down. Boys will be boys.
Then when the rotten cops give them a summons for trespassing or damaging, they have their picture in the newspaper the next day, pouting, and telling their story about the nasty policeman.
I once thought about opening up a skateboard park where kids could skate but then I read about all the lawsuits from parents when their kid got hurt on the property.
Forget it. Just another example how lawsuits are ruining everything.
I wonder why the veterans aren't as mad about the bums who bath and do their laundry in the fountain.... or sit their drinking hootch all day long.... another of life's mysteries.
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