Skateboarding is not a Crime
Skateboarding is a very controversial subject and seems to have a bad reputation. Normally people see a board in a skateboarders hand and they say things like, "here comes trouble," or they might get timid and not talk at all. Skaters seem to be stereotyped all of the time for no reason. If we truly live in a society where we are free to make our own choices and decisions, and where we are innocent until proven guilty why are we not able to skate freely? Why are we as skaters stereotyped as "trouble kids"? Skaters are told when to, where to and what to skate on. If I said, "I saw a bunch of bikers today." Would you assume I was speaking of a bunch of motorcycles? Would you feel a bit threatened if I said I saw them just outside? If you answered, "yes", why would you feel threatened? Is it because people who ride motorcycles are stereotyped as always belonging to gangs? Now what if I told you that the bikes I saw outside where policeman on motorcycles, visiting us to talk about the dangers of drugs. Would you feel relieved? Why? There are good people and bad people that come from all walks of life, live in all neighborhoods, and are both trusted members of society as well as low life people.
I was once just skating with five friends and we decided to stop at CVS for some chips, soda and gum. Because we are riding skateboards, are you now assuming we are going to steal the chips, soda and gum? We walked in and the people behind the registers looked up, the manager pointed to a worker then to us. He then "discretely" began to follow us. We weren't in there for five minutes when we were told our boards were not allowed in the store. We walked out put our boards outside and came back in. We were then confronted by the manager and were told, "you boys were already told to get out, now go!" We said, "you told us our skateboards were not allowed in here, so we put them outside." His reply to this was, "well now I'm telling you guys to leave...your not welcome here." I feel that when people look at us they get a sense that we are bad and are out to ruin property. Actually it's just the opposite. When we find a skate spot that has good terrain we don't want to destroy or ruin it because then we have no where to skateboard. The only thing I ruin is my body when I fall and my board. We don't want to be hassled. All we want to do is skate and practice. We aren't slackers either because I have to keep my grades up and do chores for money to go to skate parks and be good so I don't get grounded and my board taken away. They come in all sizes and all colors. Stereotyping is part of that society and definitely causes problem
Some common words found in the essay are:
Crime Skateboarding, told leave, soda gum, leave cvs, chips soda gum, answered yes, five friends, kite flyer, boy kite, skaters stereotyped, tend accept, chips soda,
Approximate Word count = 971
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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