Violence erupts at skatepark

By Sue Newman January 27, 2012

A sub-culture of aggression and violence among children as young as eight is developing at Ashburton's skatepark, a skater's mother says.

The woman (who did not want to be identified), is one of a number of adults who say they have growing concerns over the fights, abuse and anti-social behaviour that often mars the skatepark experience for some youngsters.
On Wednesday night at about 5pm, the woman said she witnessed a fight between two youths and a woman on the corner of Cass and Moore street.
This had spilled over from earlier arguments at the park.
"These were all the same kids who'd been at the park, they had scooters and skateboards.
"There were eight-year-olds, people in cars all watching a woman and kids brawling on the street."
Her 10-year-old son went to the skatepark recently and was 'smacked over' by an eight-year-old.
"People need to know what's going on down there.
"There are eight and 10-year-olds down there all the time, unsupervised and there are punch-ups down there all the time.
"I said to one little boy, why don't you go home and he said to me 'this is my home; these are my bros.'
"He was eight."
She said she'd heard from a truck driver who drove past during the afternoon and noticed an older boy hitting a younger child. He called out to the boy from his window and was told 'f...k off, you'll be next."
The littered state of the skatepark indicated its users didn't respect the facility and their behaviour indicated they had no respect for themselves and others, she said.
"I've been to Timaru's park and to Christchurch and they're spotlessly clean and the kids are all riding around and having a good time.
"We've got people throwing punches and swearing, eight-year-old throwing stones at trains. Where are the people who should be doing something about this?
"It needs to be nipped in the bud now."
She said the police did attend yesterday's incident, but the heat had gone out of the confrontation by the time they arrived. They spoke to one or two people and then drove off. The crowd of young people returned to the skatepark.
"We're getting a bad reputation as a town.
"We've had it in the past and we're getting it again. We're trying to attract people here because it's a nice place to live, but we've got the Bronx right next to the main street."
Yes there is an undercurrent of violence at the park, young skaters say, but that's only some of the time.
Most of the time park users are just doing what they love – scooting and skating.
"It's not the kids who skate, it's the kids who come down and hang around down here who cause the problems; some of those guys come down and try and intimidate us," one young skateboarder said.
"There are kids you know to stay clear of but sometimes the fights happen 'cos of things that happened outside the park," another said.
The youngsters didn't want their names used.
That's the quickest way to get smacked over, blab about who's smacking who, they said.
And they weren't just critical.
Several of the younger skaters said they would like their park to be indoors, to have some controls on it and for it to be part of a larger leisure park.
"You can't stop people coming here, but kids should only be here if they've got something to ride," one young rider said.
They don't like it when outsiders arrive and they don't like it when those outsiders start trashing their park.
"You've got dopeheads coming down here and they just don't care.
"We'd like to see the cops come down here a bit more often."
They generally know the kids who carry knives, the kids to stay clear of.
They've all seen fights and recalled a recent stoush between two girls.
The cops broke that one up, they said.

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