Strict on skaters

Dear Editor:I am a skater from Downey and I am informing you about the strictness shown toward skaters by police. Any little thing that us skaters do is a crime now. I have received two tickets in the past year for skating; one was for riding my board across the street and the other was for skating without a helmet. Both of these tickets were well over $100. Police will look for things wrong with us. They think that we are full of drugs and up to no good. We should be treated like roller bladders because they don't go through the constant stops and searches from the cops. They kick us out of everywhere we go: the mall, stores and even at school they will take our boards away, even if we are just holding them. Don't police have better things to do besides constantly checking skaters and issuing tickets? There are crimes all over the place: people getting robbed, shootings, accidents and emergencies. What I am trying to say is: police, can you ease up a bit on us skaters? We are not full of money to pay for tickets and most of us are not bad people. We just want to have fun. - Joseph W. Rodriguez, Downey

********** Published: December 18, 2009 - Volume 8 - Issue 35