Downtown sk8r bois vs. veteran and cop; sk8r bois lose

Mom told the cop to get a fucking life.

I don't know which side was more obnoxious. Nobody wins. Cop overreacted though.

I'm no fan of skateboarders, but I dislike bullies with badges even more. I'm sure he's back in Southie beating his kids by now.

these kids are awful... I wish the cop would have just taken their boards in the first place. I tried to hold onto my board once and the cop threw me on the ground and ripped it out of my hands; he gave me a ticket but I convinced him to let me keep my board (they cost about $125-150) and got the ticket dismissed. I learned my lesson though... when a cop tells you to stop skating you leave. You don't try to act tough with your crackly pubescent voice and your longboards your mom bought so you can try to be a youtube hero.

It's really getting pathetic in Boston though... all the good spots are skate-stopped or gone, and the others have cops that will ticket and even arrest you for trespassing as opposed to just a few years ago when they'd hardly bother to kick you out. Kids like this give skaters a bad name, when really it's just another form of sport/exercise like riding bikes, frisbee, jogging etc. It's not like the 80s/90s when skateboarding made you a part of some rebellious counterculture

of course he will be suspended but he will be the hero to seniors everywhere. These skaters have destroyed public property and defaced local public plazas causing thousands of taxpayers money to repair the damage.

this cop is such a clown ... he comes over to yell at the kids for disrespecting the veteran, and within 2 seconds is a disrespectful ass to the skateboarders. way to lead by example

it should be noted that there is a gap in film between the vet talking to the kids, who was rather disrespectful himself, and the cop coming over .. so who knows what else happened there, but the cop is the one who escalated it unnecessarily

Winning

Since when did skaters get all offended when people swore at them?

I'm for the cop but he should have taken their boards away in the beginning. The kids are obviously teenage assholes with a camera - why else would they film themselves harassing an old man obviously hard on his luck.

Skateboards ruin public property by putting chinks in the the granite / marble stairs walls etc that they do their tricks on. If the kids weren't dicks they wouldn't have a problem.

In a civilized society, if you're bothering someone, you go somewhere else. Is everyone here an entitled punk ass brat who grew up with mommy and daddy telling you every little fart you push out is precious? The old guy was getting hassled. Give him a break. I don't care how rude he is - his language was rude but your actions were rude. Oh, I forgot, half of you poorly educated graduates of the pointless narcissism factories of self-esteem they call schools these days don't know the basic rule is to respect your elders. Especially a vet. A vet is someone, by the way, who either volunteered or was drafted into doing something that his democracy asked him to do -- not always when they thought it was a good idea or pleasant to do. In other words, they sacrificed something. To anyone under 25 "sacrifice" is doing without your favorite smoothie for the day. But, you're forgiven, everyone under 25's motto is "MOMMY MOMMY, MAKE THE BAD MAN GO AWAY --WAAAAAA" 89% of the jackasses I see every day under 25 are worthless console monkeys who can't even name 3 states without consulting Google -- but they have tons of trophies at home in mommies basement from the years they showed up and drooled and whined their way through a ceremony.

Cheap, ubiquitous video cameras and the means to put video onto the Internet are real game changers. No wonder bad cops hate video.

Good job by the cop. Hey kid, you are lucky all teeth are in your head today.

For all those making fun of the "Southie" accent here or the lack of a supposed college degree. Really?

Seems more like an unprofessional bully cop trying to be a big man.

Why does everyone assume the homeless guy wasn't the instigator of the problem? In my experience, it's likely the kids were already skating there and homeless dude decided to make a point by sitting down in that specific spot to prevent them from skating there. The kids may have asked him nicely to sit at the next bench over so they could continue skating and got a "MF'er" in return. He probably has the same attitude towards skaters that's prevalent in these comments and acted upon them.

The cop didn't threaten to confiscate their boards, he threatened to take them home, as in steal them. This is what most cops do when they take a board, it's never logged in at the station. You need to arrest someone for a crime or at least issue a ticket in order to confiscate. It's technically armed robbery, but that's never going to be pursued against a cop. I know because it happened to me years ago. The cops exact words to me as he put my board in the trunk of his personal car were "it's a shame I don't skate because I have a garage full of these things". They know most kids will just let it go, so they get away with it. I called the station and ended up speaking with his supervisor. The board was never logged in, the guy took it home. The supervisor made him call me and describe the board so he could pick it out and return it to me. I picked it up two days later at the A-1 station desk.

Finally, I find it interesting how many people are fine with a cop acting unprofessional and thuggish as long it's directed towards a group they dislike. GET OFF MA LAWN!

I used to skate board in town all the time, and when a police officer came and told me to leave, I didn't talk back, or tell him why I shouldn't leave, I left. These kids got exactly what they deserved. I'm tired of punk kids with a complete and total lack of respect. You're really going to try to grab things from a uniformed police officer? You think that is acceptable behavior?

Give me a break. Every one of them deserved to be arrested. If they just shut their mouths and left when they were told to nothing would have happened here. But now we have all of these lovely people on here saying how it was the police officers fault, blah blah blah. You're skate boarding illegally. You were asked to leave. Leave. Don't run your mouth. Don't tell the officer why you shouldn't leave so you can look cool in front of your friends. Grab your stuff, and leave.

What's wrong with skateboarding? And why do the skateboarders have to go away because the grumpy old guy told them to? A way out of line reaction, probably familiar to skateboarders. Maybe BPD can try to catch the people in my neighborhood who are stealing bikes out of backyards or the guy who punched my friend in the eye at a local dive bar.

I'm really depressed by the number of people on here defending the cop.

We pay these guys $200,000 per year. They're supposed to be professional, even to unlikeable assholes.

Thinking that cops should be allowed to break the law to teach a lesson to people you don't like, is a sign of the authoritarian personality; when that attitude becomes widespread among the public we have the stage set for a police state.

Benches are for sitting. The skateboarders disturb someone else's right to sit peacefully, and therefore they don't belong there. End of story. They couldn't respect that, and EVEN when a cop told them so, they had to mouth off. Go play where you're welcome. Learn to play by the rules or bear the consequences. Good for that vet for standing up for his rights. And for the cop for backing him up.

Good thing he's not a cop in Middleborough.

Love the cop! Loud motorcycles with no/racing exhaust are obnoxious. So too are most skateboards which are loud. Quieter (softer) wheels, bearings with synthetic grease, and decks (QuietWood TM, for example) would go a long way towards improving public acceptance. The technology exists. Use the quiet board in pedestrian populated places, the loud, faster one elsewhere. If you need a loud board to let pedestrians know you are coming, you are riding too fast and unsafely.

hope it was obvious to the officer that his voice was being recorded ....

http://www.citmedialaw.org/blog/2007/massachusetts...

millennials. Just move. But like the guy above said, they don't know what it's like to be told "no" anymore.

Skateboarders have become latest nuisance in this city. Then when you call them out, they come at you with their board in hand, ready to swing.

I filmed this entire video. I didn't think he would resort to trashing our property when I explained to him that i didn't think he should be swearing in public. There were little children around. He's supposed to be the model citizen, he didn't keep his cool. I was respectful to him until he trashed my camera equipment.

....because for most young people, their first encounter with the police goes like this.

If cops want respect, they have to earn it.

Ask any young person what they think of cops, and you will get an ear full.

Does anyone know who this shithead cop is?

...because their first encounter with a cop went something like this.

If cops want respect, they have to earn it.

As any young person what they think of cops, and you will get an ear full.

Does anyone know who this shithead cop is?

I use to skateboard downtown, back bay, all over, when I was a teenager. Use to skate in NYC/Manhattan also, and was a bike messenger. I know, skateboarders and bike couriers are 'cool' and a 'hip' part of the urban scene. That said, I'm a grown up now [early 30s], and I can see where that cop is coming from.

1) If the cop tells you to move along with your skateboard, you move along. There's plenty of other places to skate.

Did he use 'unprofessional' language? Yeah, but so what? He doesn't operate in a corporate boardroom and isn't a drone at an HR department. His job requires different skills. I often wish more people would speak and behave less 'professional' [i.e. insincere, plastic, robotic, passive aggressive]. Maybe people would more clearly understand each other.

If he spoke that way out of the blue to an otherwise respectable citizen, then yeah, I'd have a problem with that. Does that happen? Yes, it's happened to me, and I was BS with the cop. But that's not the case here.

2) The 'old man' is probably a homeless vet from the nearby shelter. Cut the 'old man' a little slack. His life regardless of the reasons why, is hard enough. Probably harder than 99% of the lives of people reading this.

3) How many on here have been or are a cop? How many have had to deal with the probably endless, mind numbing stupid, even violent sh*t that human beings engage in daily, like many cops do? They're human, and get worn down by it just like anybody else.

Teenagers can be obnoxious. I know, I was one once.