A Security Worker Ended Up Brain Damaged After Confronting Skateboarders | Culture forced to do some soul-searching
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. It’s crazy that as endemic board sports media fall victim to advertorial and pay-to-play content that mainstream media sources like the New York Times have started to put out some of the most real content. This story about how Pizza skateboards pro Jesse Vieira was arrested for in connection for an assault on a security worker in San Francisco – while filming with GX1000 – who is now suffering from debilitating brain damage. It’s heard breaking story expertly crafted by Matt Ruby. The article quotes many of skateboardings elite as the culture has long glorified the battles between skateboarding and those who don’t want it on private property.
Sample:
“What happens to Jesse doesn’t change anything,” Amanda Jansen said when asked how she felt after the mistrial.
Regardless of the outcome of the next trial, some important voices from within skateboarding are acknowledging that the sport needs to put the brakes on glorifying conflicts with security workers and get back to what Eisenhour described as “certain guidelines” that can minimize “the odds of conflict — and keeping the disruption to a minimum so the spot can still be used by others.”
If this case is an example, those guidelines may have broken down over time.
Brian Anderson, a longtime professional skateboarder and Thrasher’s 1999 skater of the year, said there were ways to head off a conflict.
“Sometimes there will be a security guard that’s like, ‘Hey you guys, I didn’t see you, you didn’t see me,’ and he or she will actually leave and you say thanks,” Anderson said.
Other times, skating involves moving from one place to the next to stay one step ahead of trouble.
“Treating those people with respect and walking away provides you with the opportunity to just feel better, feel good about yourself, but also you can most likely come back,” Josh Stewart, who makes films about the sport, said.
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Click to THE NEW YORK TIMES for the feature on skateboarders versus security workers and the soul-searching the culture is forced to do
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