Japan’s Sakura Yosozumi competes in the women’s skateboard park final at the 18th Asian Games in Palembang, Indonesia, Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
It’s been said there’s a fine line between protecting the public from itself and tyranny.
And to what degree should we be protected us from ourselves, anyway?
As you might have heard, California likes to err on the side of extra protection.
In the town of San Clemente recently, cool skateboarders weren’t staying quarantined — they were hitting up the local skatepark to grind it and catch some rad air.
But the Powers That Bemoan weren’t much for it — social distancing and all.
Apparently, amid the pandemic, governmental groaners had forgotten the decades-old iconic cry of ‘boarders all over:
Skate or Die is one of our favourite games, here it is on a C64 tape! Remember this @EA ? #retrogaming #c64 #skateboarding pic.twitter.com/trAa0HAbFc
— GamesYouLoved.com 🕹 RETROGAMING COMMUNITY (@gamesyouloved) June 17, 2019
Did you skate or die? Never played skate or die much as a kid. Quite honestly, I didn’t realize there was a sequel until I started collecting. Any fans out there? #skateboarding #retrogaming #retrogames #nes #8bit #oldschoolgaming pic.twitter.com/mnJqPuE8hF
— RetroThunder (@ThunderRetro) July 28, 2019
Literally skate or die pic.twitter.com/HtlgU2YXuC
— yung phở (@pheosia_) October 25, 2019
So officials decided to give the skaters a bit of What For — you think you can play around in this town? Kick sand.
Literally.
The government dropped 37 thousand tons of granular, mellow-harshing material onto the park.
It was a gnarly sight:
Wow… democrats drunk with power… democrat corruption in plain site…https://t.co/03R7y7jHg3
— Grim Dawn (@GrimDawn4) April 19, 2020
From KCAL9:
San Clemente had shut down all its parks and facilities on April 1 under the state’s stay-at-home orders, but skaters ignored signs warning against trespassing at the Ralphs Skate Court, 241 Avenida La Pata. Since park facilities have been closed city officials say they routinely saw people visit the skatepark, even by some children accompanied with their parents, according to the San Clemente Times. City officials told the newspaper they followed in the footsteps of other cities, and filled the skatepark with 37 tons of sand.
And there was this:
The nonprofit group that has raised money to support the skatepark…says the city made the decision to fill the skatepark with sand without notifying them first.
It’s a sad state of things.
But hey — they didn’t sand the rail:
Where there’s a wheel, there’s a way.
Some other suits took a cue from San Clemente and filled LA’s famed Venice Beach skate park, too.
KTLA reports:
By Friday afternoon, the ramps and bowls at the park located at 1800 Ocean Front Walk were buried beneath enough sand to make them unrideable. All parks, beaches, bike paths and trails in Los Angeles County are closed until at least May 15 to support social distancing under the county’s Safer at Home order.
That, my friends, is disconcerting indeed.
And let me add: Venice Beach was already crawling with things surely worse than the coronavirus. So why close now?
Witness the party pooping:
Venice Skate Park vs LA COVID Social Distancing pic.twitter.com/x5vMEa0O8C
— HUNTER WE!SS (@Hunter_Weiss) April 18, 2020
And a buncha people thought it was crap:
Supereme Chairman Garcetti of the LA Communist Party has things well in hand. https://t.co/MnQz66QGIQ
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) April 18, 2020
Ted Cruz saw it as an object lesson:
Clearly, the greatest public- heath threat imaginable…a kid on a skateboard. Young people, remember, this is what Big-government statist Democrats do—they take away your freedom. https://t.co/VBCmnZRvfC
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 19, 2020
Conservative radio host Buck Sexton called shutdown itself malarkey:
Some us have been warning about inevitable government overreach and abuse of power all along. Now we have city officials not just shutting down parks- idiotic in itself- but actually going the extra mile to make them unusable for all.
This is not about safety from a virus⬇️ https://t.co/PcJZhAhtNt
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) April 18, 2020
The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh made an interesting point:
Yeah, great idea. Obviously we don't want the kids outside, in the sun, in the fresh air. We want them inside having prolonged indoor contact with their older family members. https://t.co/7UEuwF4ixp
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) April 19, 2020
And speaking of poop and crap, First Amendment lawyer Harmeet K. Dhillon found a particularly curt way to sum things up:
This is some petty, tyrannical bullshit right here. https://t.co/flHEUV3ZMj
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) April 18, 2020
Adequately done, but I think everyone missed the most obvious conclusion, given the topic:
Totally bogus.
-ALEX
See 3 more pieces from me:
A Hoarder Tried to Return 4,800 Rolls of Toilet Paper, the Supermarket Director Gave Him the Finger
Pain in the Butter: Land O’ Lakes Finally Stops Being Horrible Racists
In a Heartwarming Video, a Public Worker Serenades a Quarantined 94-Year-Old for Her Birthday
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