Skateboarder alleges excessive force in Pier arrest
by Garth Meyer
A young skateboarder at the new Redondo Beach Pier skate park the night of April 21 alleges that a police officer “stomped” on his board as he skated by, causing him to fly into the air and hit a fire hydrant with his back – before being arrested for skateboarding on the Pier, resisting arrest and obstruction of an officer.
A bystander’s video shows the moments surrounding the incident.
Arrested was a 19-year-old male, booked into the Redondo Beach jail for two hours before he was released on his own recognizance to his mother.
“I was just trying to leave the area (after police arrived)” said the suspect. “I believe what happened to me can definitely qualify as excessive force.”
The arrest was the first of three unnerving interactions with police that night, he said.
The video, filmed by another skateboarder, shows a group of about 12 officers herd boarders out of the skate park just after 9 p.m. Police were called to the site for a “disturbance.”
Leaving in a crowd of about 20 skateboarders, the suspect skated toward the Pier parking garage by Quality Seafoods – where he and his girlfriend had parked her car – when the suspect encountered an officer.
“He had his legs wide, standing in the center, almost blocking the way to the garage. (and then) he stomped on the nose of the board,” he said.
The arresting officer is the one the skateboarder alleges tripped him up. The officer was not telling him to stop or go the other way, said the suspect.
“I’m aware of the video that got a lot of publicity,” said Captain John Naylor, Redondo Beach acting police chief while Chief Joe Hoffman is away this week. “Obviously, I can’t comment on an internal affairs investigation. We’re looking into the event in totality.”
Agonized yelling can be heard in the video, as the images show other skateboarders go the same way the suspect went, before retreating at the sight of three officers in formation, pulling billy clubs in hand. The suspect is on the ground behind them, against the fire hydrant.
“I was thinking (the officer) is going to let me through, I’m following the officers’ orders,” said the college student, who lives outside Redondo Beach.
A 14-year-old boy behind him said he witnessed what happened next.
“We were leaving the skate park. (The suspect) was ahead of me, I got off my skateboard and walked to the side,” said the boy. “I saw the officer make contact with the board, when he put his foot out, then that (the suspect) fell into the fire hydrant, where the bolt sticks out. I saw him screaming in pain.”
The boy is the brother of the suspect’s girlfriend.
The citation for resisting arrest, the suspect believes may be because he was skating past the officer.
Did he resist or obstruct an officer?
“I was in so much pain, all I was doing was yelling,” he said.
The police report has not yet been released, due to the case “being active and under investigation,” according to Charley Clark, lead police services specialist for the Redondo Beach Police Department.
The arrest was made at 9:16 p.m., according to the Summons to Appear. The detainee was led to a police car at the Pier parking garage and taken to the main police station, while he says his back was still bleeding.
“I had to request them to treat my wounds,” said the suspect.
In the jail cell, he said he took toilet paper and wiped fresh blood from his back.
Later, when he put his shoes back on to be released, and went through his belongings, he noticed his phone was missing.
He used his mother’s phone to call his girlfriend, whose phone has a tracking component set up for his phone, which came up “2418-2452 Artesia Boulevard.”
His girlfriend said she drove to Artesia and found the phone, cracked, in the middle of the specified intersection, between 1:30 -2 a.m.
“I heard it get run over, then I found it,” she told Easy Reader. “It looked like something had hit it (previously), like a blunt object, not just a tire.”
“Even if it wasn’t police who took it there, they’re responsible for your items while you’re (detained),” the suspect said.
He indicated he is sure he had it on him at the park and officers had it during his arrest.
“They took it from my pocket during the detaining process. The cellphone was in my right pocket,” the suspect said. “When I fell, the officer removed my cellphone from my right pocket and from my left pocket he removed my earbuds and Metro card.”
For the third element of the night which he described as unsettling, he states that an RBPD officer, not the arresting officer, said to him, “Skate or die” three times in a “patronizing tone.”
The first instance was when the officer put the detainee’s skateboard in the trunk of the patrol car – and the 19-year-old into the squad car – and again when the officer took the skateboard out of the trunk as the suspect was being processed outside the station. The third time, the suspect alleges was inside the jail when he was being booked and the officer put his skateboard with his bag of other belongings.
Why the obstruction charge?
“I feel its more of an intimidation tactic, to be quite honest,” said the skateboarder.
He has not registered a complaint against Redondo Beach Police.
“I’m afraid of retaliation,” he said.
His Notice to Appear in court is July 20. Potential penalties for the charges include one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
As for the original call for a “disturbance” at the skate park, the suspect and his girlfriend surmise it was a noise complaint, saying they saw no fighting nor yelling or other such activity, and they had been at the park for almost two hours.
In recent years, before the skate park was built, on the same site on the Pier, the Redondo Beach Police Department held its annual “King of the Harbor” skateboarding competition.ER