“Superman, Signs, and Shaggy: Skateboarding to Union Square - Blackbookmag.com” plus 1 more |
| Superman, Signs, and Shaggy: Skateboarding to Union Square - Blackbookmag.com Posted: 18 Oct 2010 01:56 PM PDT
 ') I've been a skateboarder for more than 20 years. It's my second choice in life. Work comes first, because without work I couldn't afford sneakers and boards. But when I go from work to skating it's like slipping from one world to another. I work with smart, educated, family-oriented people. When I leave work to go skating in downtown New York, I see all the junkies, lowlifes, and degenerates. Instead of going home to watch TV, I skate and watch all the entertainment going on in the streets. It's like reality TV without the TV. I leave work at 5:00 p.m. and can skate from 57th Street to Union Square in 11 minutes flat. I fly down Eighth Avenue—laughing at the fat businessmen running to the Port Authority to catch their buses—and turn on 42nd Street and go past the New York Times building (my daily bible), where I cut down Seventh Avenue. They just repaved it over the summer and it's smooth as silk. I have the street signals timed so if I hit them just right, I can go through four signals no problem. I bust a left on 32nd Street where I make a point to high-five this black Superman I know whose job it is to hold a sign for some bullshit advertisement. I give him props because he's Superman, America's hero. Then I take Broadway the rest of the way to the park. On the streets there are two rules I go by: don't get arrested, and don't get into fights. I do, however, have a bad habit with cars that almost hit me, either punching them or spitting on their windshields. If it's my fault I'll skate right up to them and apologize, but if they're texting or on the phone I'll call them out for it. And don't get me started on pedicabs, because that's a story for another time. I always refer to Union Square Park as my backyard, even though I live in Jersey (too broke to live in NYC). I spend more time at the park than I do at home. I know all the park rats (regulars). I know the skaters, bikers, junkies, crusties, punks, scenesters (emo music, skinny pants), perverts, scumbags, gravers (gothic ravers), and even the people who clean up the garbage. These people make up for the family I don't have. Union Square is also my skate park and it's fun as shit. Ask anyone: Who rips this park down skating? They'll point to me. You have to have a street name to be down. I go by Shaggy. Then there's my dad, Signs (pictured left, with me). He's not really my dad, but I can definitely picture him that way, not that I particularly like him. Signs is homeless, always has a cigarette dangling out of his mouth, and he's got the coolest teeth in the park: two really pointy fangs on the bottom of his mouth. I love watching him eat. He eats like my cat, Anna, with his tongue sticking out because he can't chew his food. Having a good set of teeth in this park is a privilege. Also, to be an official park rat you have to have a gig. My dad's gig is walking around with two cardboard signs. He'll approach people and show a sign that says, "What's the best nation?" Then he'll whip out another sign that says, "Donation." Then he'll hold out a cup and say, "Any change will do." If it's a couple he approaches, he'll tell the girl to dump the dweeb and marry him, because he's a great cook. Sometimes I'll blow his spot up and say, "How can you cook if you don't even have a home?" He usually yells at me to shut up, and then tells the people he's begging change from, "That's my son." I'm starting to think he really believes he's my dad. This is what I do when I'm not skating. Fucking with bums is one of my hobbies. Then there's a kid we call Dusty. I gave him that name after watching him get high huffing Dust-Off. Every time he took a hit his eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head. I egged him on, screaming and cheering. I know it's bad, but I did that kind of thing for a couple of years. I worked at a restaurant and sucked the gas out of whipped-cream canisters all the time. And I was better than Dusty because I got to the point where I could do two cans at once. I don't recommend you do that. Anyway, Dusty is really out of his mind but I love him like a brother. If you hang out in the park, hide your cigarettes. Smoking is bad, but all park rats smoke, and it's a guarantee that once you light up, a line of them will form. Cigarettes are worth more than money at the park. Sometimes I'll carry a pack but just have one cigarette in it, so when I pull out the pack they believe me that I only have one left. Sometimes I tell them I'm out, and since I'm a park rat, they'll come back and give me one. That's the privilege of being a park rat, free cigarettes without begging. So stop by Union Square Park sometime and say hi. Join the family and become a park rat, or just hang back and enjoy the show. Bobby Crawford is a writer, skateboarder, office mailroom employee, and New York Times profile subject. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Deadly Shooting's Aftermath Leaves Valrico Bewildered - The Ledger Posted: 28 Sep 2010 01:30 PM PDT Published: Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 6:00 a.m.  Click to enlarge Kanina James, wife of Valrico shooting victim David James, said she can't understand why there's been no arrest in her husband's killing. Her son Garrett, 17, at right, said he had had confrontations with the neighbor they say shot James. Buy photo EDMUND D. FOUNTAIN | St. Petersburg Times  Click to enlarge Hillsborough sheriff's deputies have arrested Trevor Dooley, left, and charged him with manslaughter. During Sunday's fatal argument, Chief Deputy Jose Docobo said, Dooley took the gun from his waistband and confronted David James, who reached for the gun. Then, Docobo said, Dooley fired. Buy photo Willie J. Allen Jr. | St. Petersburg Times School bus driver Trevor Dooley was led in handcuffs from his home on Partridge Point Trail and booked into the Hillsborough County jail. "The suspect fired the gun. There's no indication the victim pulled the trigger," sheriff's Deputy Chief Jose Docobo said in a news conference this afternoon. The shooting stemmed from a dispute over skateboarders. David James, 41, was killed Sunday in front of his 8-year-old daughter. Dooley and James started arguing Sunday afternoon after Dooley confronted a boy riding a skateboard across a basketball court and James defended him, neighbors and authorities said. The men got into a "physical confrontation," according to Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies. Dooley was carrying a gun, and James was fatally shot. The Sheriff's Office had not earlier named Dooley as a suspect or charged him with a crime. Authorities said they were investigating who pulled the trigger or whether the shooting was justified. Dooley did not drive his bus route this morning, a school district spokeswoman said. He and his wife, Patricia, who also drives a bus for the school district, called in sick Tuesday. The morning after the shooting, Dooley drove his regular school bus route. Cobbe said the Sheriff's Office did not notify the school district of Dooley's involvement in the shooting until after he finished his route The incident began when Dooley walked out of his suburban house Sunday afternoon, past his trimmed lawn and nice landscaping, to confront a boy riding a skateboard on the basketball court across the street. That's against the rules in this neighborhood, and Dooley was carrying a gun. James, with 20 years in the Air Force, was playing basketball with his 8-year-old daughter. They played every Sunday. James stood up for the skateboarder, neighbors said. The men argued and got into a "physical confrontation," the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said. Then, in front of his daughter, James was shot dead. What authorities don't know is who pulled the trigger, or whether it was justified. The Sheriff's Office has not named Dooley as a suspect or charged him with a crime. When police arrived around 4 p.m., he was waiting with the dead man. He invoked his right to remain silent and called his lawyer. "We haven't named him yet as a suspect. I'm not going to say he's not," said sheriff's Col. Albert Frost. "We have various witnesses and various conflicting statements at this point to start with. Obviously, that doesn't help us. We're trying to sort out the facts and trying to determine what really happened." Neighbors said Dooley is a fine man with good intentions. They couldn't understand how a man wound up dead. "It's just really sad and it's stupid," said Sam Romano, 50, a neighbor. "None of it made any sense to any of us." Mark Cox, a State Attorney's Office spokesman, said he couldn't yet explain why no charges have been filed. "It's still very much a pending investigation," he said. "We're working on it diligently." Neighbors said James was defending skateboarders, who they said have had multiple run-ins with Dooley. "We've gone off on each other before," said James' stepson, 17-year-old Garrett James. James' wife, Kanina James, can't understand why Dooley is free. "It's over and it's done and it can't be undone," she said on the phone to a friend Monday morning. "Yeah, they caught him and they let him go. I don't know why." She smoked Marlboro Golds on her back porch in the Twin Lakes neighborhood, on a white wicker bench, blotting her eyes with a paper towel and trying to make sense of how a father-daughter basketball game turned deadly. Kanina James said her husband was a good man. "He would help anybody out. I think that's what happened yesterday. I think he was just trying to help someone out." The two met when Kanina worked as a cocktail waitress in Las Vegas. She was taken by his big muscles and his eyes. "I remember thinking, 'He's just so beautiful.' His eyes were so pretty." They married a few years later, in 1998. James loved his daughter Danielle. The two played basketball every Sunday and rode around the neighborhood on a Kawasaki Vulcan motorcycle with a special seat for Danielle. "He and Danielle were so close," Kanina said. "He was her best friend." Kanina said she learned her husband had been shot when a woman called from his cell phone. She hurried to the park and noticed that paramedics were not working on him. She tried to run to him but deputies held her back. At the scene, Danielle asked her mother why no one was helping her dad. "I just said, 'He already went up to heaven.' " Detectives interviewed the girl Monday. The Sheriff's Office said she was traumatized, which complicates the investigation. "The minute we can reach a point we have a finding and something we can move on, we will," said Frost, the sheriff's colonel. 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