I woke up this morning, to reports of police and skaters facing off in the Mission Dolores Park area of San Francisco. At first I thought, "Well that's not so uncommon. Police and skaters have a long a sordid history of facing off." As it turns out, a skateboarding event had been planned in which skaters would take part in a "hill bomb" competition to see who could get the fastest time down the hill. It's generally understood that skateboarders assume the risks of going high speeds on a tiny thing with little to no protection, and if someone wants to do extremely dangerous things with their body well... that's on them.
— Kerith Burke (@KerithBurke) July 12, 2017
More than a hundred skateboarders took over Dolores tonight to fly down one of the biggest hills in San Francisco (this is the bottom). pic.twitter.com/nkghFf9aZS
(video courtesy of The Mint Skateboarding)
The atmosphere of the event soon changed as local police began directing traffic through the area and blocking the street with patrol cars. Determined to continue the event despite the interference, some skaters continued down the hill between cars. The knee-jerk reaction here (even for me) is to comment on how dangerous that is, but who is really in danger here? The car or the skater? My money is on the skater, and as previously mentioned; skaters assume all risks associated with skateboarding. This includes any damage caused to others and their property.
But what about when someone purposefully moves into the path of someone else that is skating down hill at high speed, and body checks them as they try to skirt past? Who is in the wrong then?
(video by @j_oelhamill )
(video by @jimmyalto )
In the second video, it's made clear that the officer stepped into the path of the oncoming skater with the intentions of either forcing him to turn in order to avoid him (a task not so easily accomplished, and one that has caused many vehicles to roll in similar circumstances) or to collide with him resulting in the injury of one or both of them. Given that the officer technically never laid a hand on the boy would you say this still constitutes police brutality? Who do you believe is in the wrong here? Let me know in the comments.