By Steve Cave, About.com

Unfortunately, skateboarders tend to have a lot of run-ins with cops. Something about the skate punk culture, something about how dangerous skateboarding is, and something about how a lot of cops are drunk with power ... it all combines to many skaters having sad cop stories to tell.  but bad police experiences with skateboarders still happen. It's just the world we live in. Share your story here, and read about what other skaters have had happen to them.

burned hands at 12

A group of us were skating around town mid-summer in the san fernando valley (read - HOT) when the cops stopped us. We were 12. They ordered us to place our hands on the hood and "spread em." We complied. The hood must have been at least 120 degrees. I put my hands down and immediately brought them up a few inches so I didn't get burned. The cop screamed at me, "Get you F-in Hands on the hood NOW." I explained it was really hot. "I don't give a S-it, get em on there." I did, for about two minutes. When they had their way with us (which included a rather blatent swipe of my privates) my hands had blistered from the heat. I guess I understand, 12 year olds really are scary to a beefed out, steroid filled cop. I mean, we might have bitten his ankles or something. And he clearly had to search us, who knows where we were hiding our skateboards. It was a wonderful lesson in who to trust, and the cops clearly are not one of them.

—Guest t-rad

happy and sad

i was jumping a fence to get to a skate spot and a cop happened to be passing so i stopped when he told me to. i was being respectful and everything but he was pissed so he took my board and busted it. then i got really mad and cursed at him. nothing happened to me. i called and reported him the next day and they fired him so i was happy about that.

—Guest alex g

Stupid school cops

I was in 10th grade going out to go skate during lunch with a friend. I just got the board for my birthday and I was psyched to have a fun session before my next class. I got my board taken by a security guard a week before, though I got it back after school, but I was accused of running over a teacher. I never knew of a goody-two-shoe skateboarder with 5 years of experience could do such a thing. Well, as we were going outside, the SAME EXACT security guard was near the door and came up to me. At this point I wanted to urinate in my pants and told him we were going OFF of school grounds. He didn't care, and grabbed my board. I didn't let go, and then a minute into the "tug-of-war", he said to me, "You wanna get hurt?!" I told him to hurt me so that I could attempt to beat him up. Then I eventually gave him the board, went to the office, and reported him. He lied, saying he didn't want me to get hurt. I believe that as much as I believe I have HIV. 3 years later, I STILL hate him. S4L!

—Guest P.Well

We CAN all just get along!

As usual, Steve gives excellent and level-headed advice. I would like to add an observation about what police harrasment is: First, the attitude that the cops approach you with will probably seem un-called for as much as half the time, but it is understandable because experience with skaters that DO act like punks is probably in their history by the time you meet up with them. It's not harrassment if you are skating on private property and they ask you to leave. New pavement and curbing is something we all lust after, but someone with some political clout just paid an arm and a leg to lay it down, and they sure don't want to see it marked-up and chipped away at before it even cures. An axle-grind or power-slide on two-or three day old concrete can do damage. It takes months to cure to it's hardest. My solution is to be really careful to skate in public designated venues. If your town has none, call the City Manager's office and request it. Follow-up!

—SirBailsAlot

Skate Hating Cop

Me and my friend were out skating some of our regular spots when all of a sudden a cop showed up telling us we could not skate here anymore, we took our boards and walked away about 200 meters up the street to my friends parking lot. We both learned to skate there so we liked the place alot... And what do you know the same cop appears and tells us not to skate here either, we were really mad now and told him that we had skated here for years, he bacame mad at us and... you figure out the rest.

—Guest Virre

Took my board!

So I was skating at night in this big parking lot. It was new, so it was nice and flat and there weren't many rocks or anything. I was cruising around, doing stuff, and a cop came by and took my board! He said it was private property. I had to go to the police station to get it back, but then they did give it back.

—Guest Joey