3e - Good Cop, Bad Cop - A Personal Longboarding Narrative

    JaHwan’s board flew out from under his feet and smashed into the wall.  He laid on the ground for a few seconds and laughed it off.  He and I were longboarding on the bottom floor of the parking garage at UTM.  The entire floor was empty and brightly lit and there was only one car parked in the far corner.  We sped around the pillars, got down really low and held onto the inside of the board while tried to kick out the tail end at high speeds.    We boarded around the glossy floor and tried to master our slides for about an hour before the campus police arrived.

...

    Two policemen slowly crept down the ramp in the cruiser and another policewomen came down the stairwell in the opposite corner.  We were surrounded.  I immediately stopped riding, got off my board and started walking towards our pile of jackets, hoodies, and backpacks in the middle of the room.  I dropped my mitts on the ground and leaned my green Sector Nine board against the pillar.  As I lifted my jacket off the ground I heard angry shouts from behind me.  The young male officer barked, “What do you think you’re doing, you know we hate skateboarders down here!” 

    “Sorry, I wasn’t aware.  We’ll get out of here right away,” I said in the nicest possible tone.

    I told the police that we wouldn’t skate there anymore, but instead they took our boards and ordered us to get in the cruiser.  As we squished into the tiny area of the back seat, I overheard the officers talking.

    “So, we’ll go up to the top of the ramp and give these guys their tickets.”  I knew I didn’t have long to make my point, so I started with my defence.

    “I can’t afford a ticket, I’m a student at U of T, I have tuition payments and books and rent and food and phone bills to worry about.  We weren’t causing any trouble down there.” 

    The young officer answered with, “There’s a shit load of signs and cameras down there.  Skateboarders burn things and leave garbage everywhere.”

    I snarled, “It’s pretty shitty that we get stereotyped with those people, just because we like to longboard.”  This comment was followed by silence.

   
    We sat uncomfortably in the back seat of the cruiser while the older officer wrote out our tickets.  He continuously leaned over to the young officer and asked him to read out a sentence.  After helping him a few times, the young officer said, “This writing is so fucking small.” JaHwan and I looked at each other and shook our heads.  Very unprofessional, I thought.  The older officer tried to relate with me by talking about my hometown, Dryden. 

    “I’ve travelled through Northwestern Ontario a few times. Nice place up there,” he said.

    “Yep,”  I started replying with only one word answers and stared out the window.

    JaHwan was handed his ticket and ID, and we were let out of the cruiser.  I gathered my longboard and my backpack and my mitts from the trunk, and the old officer pulled me aside.  He returned my ID, gave me the sixty-five dollar ticket and rested his hand on my shoulder.  He looked down at me and said, “you are the straightest guy I could’ve given this ticket to, so don’t take it personally.”  The young cop interrupted again with another stupid comment.

    “If you get mad about other skaters in the garage, you can tell us about it.”  All I said was “cheaaa, okay,” and we walked away. 

    “Where do you want to board now?”  JaHwan laughed.

    “I dunno man, to the Courthouse, the Justice of the Peace?  There’s no freaking way I’m paying sixty-five dollars for this!”

Why can't all cops be this cool?