garrettdini
Member
So I live in a pretty small town in New Hampshire, and the cops here have absolutely NOTHING to do. Me and a few friends of mine were longboarding in town a few days ago, we had hit up a few different hills in town and seen the cops heading to each of the hills as we were leaving. We get to this one hill though, probably the last hill we were gonna do anyways, and the cop finally rolls up behind us. He drives behind us for a bit and watches us skate down the hill and once we get to the bottom he throws on his blueys and stops us. He then tells us that there's an ordinance in town about skating on town roads and that apperantly we are not allowed to skate on any roads in town at any time under any circumstances, the only places we can use our skateboards are the skate park and a flat parking lot behind the book shop downtown. We explain to the officer that our boards are our method of transportation and they're not meant for doing tricks and can't be ridden at the skate park. And at this point he thought we were talking back or something and told us that he could take all of our boards for 30 days right now and write each of us a $100 ticket for skateboarding on town roads, but he's not going to because now that we've been warned once if he catches us again he claims he can take our boards permanently and give us all tickets. This was pretty much the end of the situation and we went home after that, but I've been looking into the town ordinances and I'm pretty sure he was just making stuff up.. both of the other cops that talked to us about longboarding in town told us it was allowed as long as we weren't downtown and weren't interfering with traffic. but I'm pretty sure it was the chief that stopped us because he said both of the other cops were "new and didn't know the laws". I looked up the laws today and it says nothing about not skateboarding on town roads.
"§ 179-2. Definitions
SKATEBOARD - Any wheeled vehicle intended and designed to be propelled by one (1) foot with one (1)
foot on the vehicle at the moment of initial propulsion. "
"§ 179-4. Skateboards.
A. No person shall operate a skateboard as defined herein upon a public highway or upon the lawful
sidewalks in the central business area and shopping plazas, villages or malls in the town of Peterborough
during regular business hours for said business areas.
B. No person shall operate a skateboard during the hours of dusk to dawn in the Town of Peterborough.
C. Any person operating a skateboard shall at all times yield the right-of-way to any motor vehicle or
pedestrians present and shall operate said skateboard in a prudent and careful manner and at a reasonable
rate of speed. "
"§ 179-6. Violations and penalties.
Any person convicted of a violation of this chapter shall be liable to a penalty of not more than fifty dollars ($50.),
and he may have his bicycle, skateboard or roller skates impounded by the Police Department for a period not to
exceed thirty (30) days or, in the sound discretion of the court, forfeiture of his/her interest in the bicycle, skateboard
or roller skates in question to the Town of Peterborough for disposition in such manner as the court may direct. "
If I read all that right then pretty much everything the chief told us was wrong. He could maybe say we were going too fast on our boards, but even still, he can't give us $100 tickets and take our shit, right?
What can I do about this? The cops have nothing better to do than follow us around and harass us for longboarding, and they're not even going about it legally.
TL;DR : The cops in my town are douchebags and wanna take my shit for longboarding on town roads.
"§ 179-2. Definitions
SKATEBOARD - Any wheeled vehicle intended and designed to be propelled by one (1) foot with one (1)
foot on the vehicle at the moment of initial propulsion. "
"§ 179-4. Skateboards.
A. No person shall operate a skateboard as defined herein upon a public highway or upon the lawful
sidewalks in the central business area and shopping plazas, villages or malls in the town of Peterborough
during regular business hours for said business areas.
B. No person shall operate a skateboard during the hours of dusk to dawn in the Town of Peterborough.
C. Any person operating a skateboard shall at all times yield the right-of-way to any motor vehicle or
pedestrians present and shall operate said skateboard in a prudent and careful manner and at a reasonable
rate of speed. "
"§ 179-6. Violations and penalties.
Any person convicted of a violation of this chapter shall be liable to a penalty of not more than fifty dollars ($50.),
and he may have his bicycle, skateboard or roller skates impounded by the Police Department for a period not to
exceed thirty (30) days or, in the sound discretion of the court, forfeiture of his/her interest in the bicycle, skateboard
or roller skates in question to the Town of Peterborough for disposition in such manner as the court may direct. "
If I read all that right then pretty much everything the chief told us was wrong. He could maybe say we were going too fast on our boards, but even still, he can't give us $100 tickets and take our shit, right?
What can I do about this? The cops have nothing better to do than follow us around and harass us for longboarding, and they're not even going about it legally.
TL;DR : The cops in my town are douchebags and wanna take my shit for longboarding on town roads.
