Aaaarrrrrgh!

Day before yesterday, someone at the park thought it would be a good idea to scream out “F#@& THE POLICE” while Hammond PD drove by the park… it was stupid to do, and none of us at Small Times support that type of crap… here’s why:

1. Skateboarders already have a reputation that we don’t deserve. Lots of people think skaters are nothing more than vandals, and they see us as scum of the earth. We know this isn’t the case, but when you do stuff like that, you feed into the negative stereotype that they have of us.

2. It ruins your skate session. When the skater in question screamed at the cops, they stopped, got out of the car, and effectively banned that skater from the park. Is it really worth losing out on a day of skating (or longer) just so you can scream curse words at cops? Of course not… you ruined your own day by acting like a moron.

3. It ruins everyone else’s skate session. Here’s the deal… technically, the rules of the park say that when it gets dark, the park is closed. As most of you locals know, we can usually get away with skating well into the night (depending on what officers are on duty). I was skating with over a dozen people the night of the incident, and not only did an officer run us out, he walked around the park to make sure that everyone was out of there… the dude was pissed (and he had every right to be). By cursing out law enforcement for no reason, everyone who was still skating had to feel the effects of one person’s actions… I still had at least an hour’s worth of skating in me… but I had to leave because of one person’s outburst. That ain’t cool.

Overall, the park scene has been very chill… but just remember, we go there to skate. We don’t go there to start fights, we don’t go there to scream at cops, and we don’t go there to to hassle people. If you go to the park to act like a jerk, I’ll be the first person to tell you to leave (even if I’m your friend). We have a park now, and we’re extremely lucky for it, but don’t take it for granted! A lot of money and a lot of work went into getting the park built, and the last thing we need is to lose it or have it policed heavily because of moronic activity that a few people choose to take part in.

Fellow skaters… we need to be the regulators. If something bad is going down and you can’t put a stop to it, tell one of the older skaters there (usually me, Doug, or any of the other elder regulars). We have your back, but most importantly, we have the park’s back. Treat the park like it’s your best friend… if you’re a skater in this parish, then you need to show the park how much you love it by keeping the bad stuff in check.