5.27.98

The Truth is Out There

About two or three weeks ago I left home for a week-long school trip to Dresden, a former East German city and home to several famous buildings. It was actually kind of fun, but this trip is not what I want to write about in this column. What I want to tell you about is what happened at the skatepark at home while I was gone.

As you might have experienced, rollerbladers (especially the really young ones) quite often tend to get in the way of skaters. Now apparently one day while I was gone on said trip, some kid rollerbladers were standing on the funbox and refused to move as they were politely asked by a younger skater. He told them he was sorry but he might accidently run them over if he didn't land the trick he was trying. They immediatly told their dad about this encounter and he came over to start yelling at the young skater that his kids could do whatever they pleased. Sensing the conflict, a far larger father of some other rollerblading kids came over to get involved. As he was getting rough with the skater an older skater came to defend him (verbally). Unfortunately there were no other older skaters there so this large dad just beat the skater up and ran.

When I got home from Dresden my mom told me about the incident and I got pretty mad. But not enough: Last Saturday the skater who got beat up (luckily in good health again) was called to come to the police station. That seemed ok, since he had reported the beating to the police shortly after it had occured. There he found out that they had been unable to locate the bulky beater but that the lying jerk of the rollerblader-kids' dad had reported the skater for hurting his kids or some shit like that. You might be able to imagine how I feel now.

Don't let stuff like that happen and if it does: Stay strong and fight the lies.

If you'd like to comment on this incident or if something similar has happend to you, please eMail me (alfred.hochrein@weihenstephan.org). I'd like to know.

-Alfred Hochrein