the comments about jailed skater are more amusing than the actual story...

[skategeezer]

from the globe and mail...non-skaters reactions and comments mostly...


Fredericton man ordered to pay fine by Wednesday or face up to five days in jail ...Read the full article

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1. <LI class="comment craig458" id=comment2036561>Craig Cooper from Toronto, writes: Better ban bicycles, too!
   
   
   Skateboarding is not a crime.
   
   • Posted 14/05/08 at 12:12 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
   <LI class="comment slaspa" id=comment2036565>Stan L from Canada writes: What a Tool!!!! If the city has never received complaints about skateboarders then I can only imagine what he was doing to receive a fine......At 25 years old it is clear that this dimwit still needs the guidance of someone more mature than he to make decisions for him and remind him that when you break the law, no matter how small or how big, a real adult would own up, and take the hit.
   
   
   The fact that he is trying to use the environment as a excuse is what is really apaulling, how stupid do he and his group of 80 think people are?.....IF this dimwit was so concerned about he environment then one would think that he would have thought about the envrionmental benefits of a skateboard and don seomthing to change the law BEFORE he was fined and not after......how trite and how childish....I hope the fine is a BIG one.
   
   • Posted 14/05/08 at 12:13 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
   <LI class="comment puddles3" id=comment2036587>The Skipper from Canada writes: 25 years old on a skateboard ??????????????????
   
   • Posted 14/05/08 at 12:18 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
   <LI class="comment joeydick" id=comment2036594>Joe Canada from Kingston, Canada writes: 25 years old and his transportation is a skateboard?
   
   
   Enjoy your 5 days in lock-up.
   
   • Posted 14/05/08 at 12:20 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
   <LI class="comment tridus" id=comment2036604>Chris Eaton from Fredericton, writes: Funny, it wasn't that long ago people were saying that using the 'environment' as an excuse to want to put up a clothesline meant you were just cheap. Didn't that law get struck down in Ontario recently?
   
   I really want to know what Stan L. is on. The guy is showing up to turn himself in for jail time. How is that not owning up to breaking the law? Refusing to pay the fine (and taking jail time instead) is a form of civil disobedience and protest.
   
   
   As for what he did? According to the local paper, he was going to East Side Board Supply (a skateboard shop) to buy a helmet for his brother. I know, clearly a master criminal at work. How dare people use skateboards to get to the skateboard shop. Next thing you know they'll be driving into car dealerships.
   
   • Posted 14/05/08 at 12:22 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
   <LI class="comment eapeartree" id=comment2036606>Andre Poirier from Canada writes: Stan...
   
   Very brilliant comment ... what a dimwit. He should be driving an SUV on the road so everyone else is safe.
   
   The Skipper ... why not 80 years old on a skateboard. Are you too old to have fun...
   
   
   Pathetic.
   
   • Posted 14/05/08 at 12:22 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
   <LI class="comment mannock" id=comment2036612>John Smith from Ottawa, Canada writes: So send SK8RBOI to jail. In the present high security environment, he'll NEVER get a job. And he will end up as some old fart complaining about his rights. What a myopic buffoon.
   
   • Posted 14/05/08 at 12:24 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
   <LI class="comment imola06" id=comment2036620>Martyn Whitt from toronto, Canada writes: Ad Hominen attacks on a human being because he likes to skateboard is pretty weak.
   
   
   I believe in fundamental rights such as free speech, or freedom to worship without interference by the state-thus as an extension of that I believe in another's right to ride a skateboard, bike, walk if he/she feels they'd like to. The power in this country firmly lies with the civil service and the bureaucracy-and that is not democracy.
   
   • Posted 14/05/08 at 12:26 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
   <LI class="comment slaspa" id=comment2036633>Stan L from Canada writes: Chris Eaton.....when you get a fine you pay for it, you don't look to cause a stink, you don't look to find someone else to blame. IF a skateboard is his mode of transportation, then what would it have taken a long time ago to write a letter to his local councillor to get the bylaw changed? Perhaps the bylaw was introduced a long time ago, perhaps using the skateboard in this manner wasn't considered then.......no it's FAR easier to create a case of civil disobedience as a way to deflect blame and give yourself some attention isn't it.....I meand the way I outlined is pretty sensible, but hey if you don't mond the court time and expense of locking someone up for 5 days then go for it.....but it seems to me an adult would have paid a fine, then written a letter as a sensible start....
   
   • Posted 14/05/08 at 12:29 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
   <LI class="comment psebert" id=comment2036638>Paul S from Niagara Region, Canada writes: Enjoy jail.
   
   • Posted 14/05/08 at 12:30 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
   <LI class="comment waynemorrison1" id=comment2036645>Wayne Morrison from Toronto, Canada writes: Riding a skateboard on city streets. His age aside, he obviously isn't bright enough to figure out that skateboards are a menace in traffic. Weaving in and out, hitting a rough patch and taking a face plant, all great fun, but not where there is traffic. If the five days in jail don't do him any good, it'll at least give the driver's in Fredericton a bit of a break.
   
   • Posted 14/05/08 at 12:32 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
   <LI class="comment wallygr" id=comment2036648>Wally Grisold from

[retroflyer]

It's pretty evident none of the people saying he should've written a letter to have the law changed have ever tried to do just that.

If he wrote a letter he'd be just one voice crying for change. On the other hand, the fact that he went to jail sparked a story, and brought way more attention to bear on an antiquated law and mindset on the part of the city, hopefully with positive results.

Not sure I'd have the conviction to go to jail over this, but...hats off to him! Gutsy and, more important, right.

All I know is the story makes me mad.

[neuros]

I don't find many of those amusing, just enraging. Closed minded people who think that skateboards are for 13 year olds and that they have NO place on the road is just, well... upsetting, to say the least.

[longboardorific]

these people are really smart!
i mean even gonz says that skateboards are like yoyos

[Blackmore]

But that practice put him squarely in the crosshairs of police, who have the discretion to enforce bylaw S-9 with a $50 fine. The bylaw prohibits the use of sleds, toboggans, skateboards and wagons on the capital's streets.

Lol The code that states that skateboards cant be used is called S9

[Bruce22]

lol, I think Connecticut is going that way, seriously it's like people (not only cops) have nothing better to do than bitch at us for using their precious back country roads that nobody drives on except us and the tuner car people at night.

[Alpha06]

But that practice put him squarely in the crosshairs of police, who have the discretion to enforce bylaw S-9 with a $50 fine. The bylaw prohibits the use of sleds, toboggans, skateboards and wagons on the capital's streets.

Oh man sector 9 at it again.

[granville686]

haha wow, can you say ignorance?
one good comment though

[Barf]

Good for him! Stupid laws need fixing, and no letter-writing is going to fix anything.

[toro]

But that practice put him squarely in the crosshairs of police, who have the discretion to enforce bylaw S-9 with a $50 fine. The bylaw prohibits the use of sleds, toboggans, skateboards and wagons on the capital's streets.

I know it's rediculous but am I the only person that had a quick flash of filling that town with riding lawnmowers and driving them around town to screw with their traffic and show them what an outdated law that is? Probably.....

[WyleKeaton]

To the subject of the thread - yes - some are real ignorant.

To the Subject of the story - If he was riding on the side of the road, where he says he was, I don't see it. Look at the Google Maps sattelite image (East Side Board Supply Fredericton Canada - Google Maps) and there is parking on both sides of the road - so he must have been "in" the road where there's traffic. There are no bike lanes so he pretty much had either the sidewalk or traffic. It sounds to me like the town tolerates riding on the sidewalks which is a huge pain in the arse with all those damn pedestrians. So his choice is the street. Although I find back alleys and parking lots way more fun and fast.

Now - as for not paying the fine - I'm kinda split. I might have payed it and then put up a stink at the next town meeting to see how this could be rectified (I said rectified..hee-hee-hee). And he may have shown better judgement by fighting the ticket rather than choosing to ignore it and then accepting jail time. People tend to respect that more than straight up defiance. It sounds like this may have been encouraged by his parents - probably some liberal hippies left over from the cold war era.

So now - when all is said and done - is anything positive going to come of it? Will the issue be raised at any future town meetings to have some ordinance changed? Will the local skate community step forward for this one person; will East Side Board Supply? And one last thing.... Pleeeease stop using the "we don't have anyplace to skate..." excuse. Millions upon millions of us are doing fine-free every day. So why are these few being "picked on"?

[SteveC]

I swear I must owe at least a grand in skateboarding fines. got a $160 ticket once.
been summoned to court multiple times for not paying them, and not gone...


Ah, Australia. The land of the free ride.