Beware, He's Possessed to Skate

It isn't easy being green. Just ask Al Gore. But for one eco-friendly Canadian, the price is 15 hots and a cot. Via Breitbart:

Lee Breen, 25, was ticketed in August 2007 for skateboarding on Fredericton City streets in easternmost Canada, but refused to pay the fine, and so a judge ordered him jailed for five days.

[...]

"The city says it wants its citizens to find alternative forms of transportation, and so I did," Breen said by telephone from outside Fredericton city hall, prior to his arrest.

"I completely bought into the 'green lifestyle.' I run a gas-free lawn care company and I don't drive. And now, they're putting me in jail for actually embracing an alternative form of transportation that cuts down on (CO2) emissions."

Whole thing here.

Comments

Neu Mejican | May 14, 2008, 3:48pm | #

Yep, deregulation is important for a greenlife style, despite fears often expressed around here that it is just a ploy to increase regulation.

NM | May 14, 2008, 3:49pm | #

green life, excuse the lonewackolikelapseofspacing

Bob Goodman | May 14, 2008, 4:13pm | #

They're slicing it awfully thin to encourage bicycling but disallow skateboarding! What makes skateboarding any more dangerous than bicycling? Or skating, for that matter?

Reinmoose | May 14, 2008, 4:13pm | #

The town clearly didn't mean it, they just wanted to get re-elected!

Episiarch | May 14, 2008, 4:13pm | #

I run a gas-free lawn care company

This dude is a masochist. Or else he's a sadist and makes his employees do all the work.

Mike Laursen | May 14, 2008, 4:14pm | #

I'm curious how he runs a gas-free lawn care business. Not the actual lawn care equipment itself, but how he lugs it all to the customer's house. A herd of goats on skateboards? That would be cool.

MassHole | May 14, 2008, 4:16pm | #

Nice Suicidal Tendencies reference.

sage | May 14, 2008, 4:17pm | #

I love old school Suicidal Tendencies.

Let's skate!
Seemed like such an innocent toy
He was the All-American boy
Got a skate at eight years old
Now the story can be told
Beware he's possessed to skate!
Skating takes him up in height
He's a pilot on a modern flight
See him flying through the air
If he don't land then he don't care
CHORUS
Cause he rips-he rips
When he skates-he skates
Cause he never hesitates
He's the wizard on the wheels
Like a modern gladiator ain't got no fears
So skate
He shoots the pool like a launching pad
If it ain't insane then you can't get rad
Skating is all that's on his mind
He's skating radical all the time
CHORUS
Beware he's possessed to skate!
Looks like a magic carpet ride
Six foot airiels inverts backside
Optical illusion it must be
He redefines insanity
CHORUS
Doesn't understand why you'd wanna walk
Ain't got time to sit and talk
Used to be just like you and me
Now he's an outcast of society
Beware he's possessed to skate!
And the skating's getting radical

Kolohe | May 14, 2008, 4:43pm | #

A herd of goats on skateboards?

Though wiki says 'herd' other sources say 'a tribe of goats' or a 'trip of goats'"

Which sotra makes sense, because if you were to see a whole bunch of goats going past you on skateboards enroute to landscaping work, you're on a heck of a trip.

val | May 14, 2008, 4:47pm | #

In case anyone is interested, follow my name to the reaction from my fellow canukistanians. By large pretty reasonable, but there are a couple of douchebags.

Gilbert Martin | May 14, 2008, 4:54pm | #

"I run a gas-free lawn care company and I don't drive."

I'm guessing his business is kind of slow.

PeeDub | May 14, 2008, 5:19pm | #

He could use other fuels, such as diesel, which are not technically "gas".

Gawd, for "reason"able people, y'all sure are slow.

(drink)

Gilbert Martin | May 14, 2008, 5:53pm | #

"He could use other fuels, such as diesel, which are not technically "gas"."

Not likely - since the twerp was bleating about cutting CO2 emmissions.

Diesel wouldn't be any better than gas for doing that.

ItMustBeSaid | May 14, 2008, 6:13pm | #

Skateboarding is a crime.

R C Dean | May 14, 2008, 6:14pm | #

refused to pay the fine, and so a judge ordered him jailed for five days.

Just remember, every time somebody yammers on about how this regulation or that license isn't really "coercion," that at the end of every legal road is either submission under threat of incarceration, or actual incarceration.

...and I'm here to... | May 14, 2008, 6:29pm | #

at the end of every legal road is either submission under threat of incarceration, or actual incarceration

That's not the "end." If you resist incarceration, no matter what for, they kill you.

Every violation of any law or regulation, down to having a class ring on a chain hanging from your rearview mirror, is punishable by death, or it wouldn't be punishable at all.

J sub D | May 14, 2008, 6:47pm | #

From val's link-

I say that because so far their complaints against this young man sound like sour grapes in the hands of some miserable old coot who feels if kids are having fun then something must be wrong.

I've never understood the hatred so many feel about skateboarding. Tell me about the skateboarders who were rude and I'll talk about motorists. I'll bet I have more life and limb threatening stories.

Ken | May 14, 2008, 7:37pm | #

Probably uses biofuels to transport the equipment, just a guess. He may even use it in the equipment.

I'm really at a loss for how they can distinguish between skateboards and inline skates or bicycles. This just doesn't make any sense at all.

And how is a guy on a skateboard a real threat to people in cars. Sure he could cause an accident, but is that any more likely than a guy on a bike causing an accident? Or a horse?

highnumber | May 14, 2008, 8:01pm | #

Ya know, sage, all ya had to say is "and the skatings get radical!" Not the whole song.

Daniel Reeves | May 15, 2008, 7:36pm | #

Yep, deregulation is important for a greenlife style, despite fears often expressed around here that it is just a ploy to increase regulation.

The problem is that we're looking at government regulation as a one-dimensional thing. On one side, anarchy, and the other, socialism, and connecting them, a line segment. But that's obviously not how it is. If you agree that socialism and anarchy are not the most efficient and fair forms of government and that the best argument is somewhere in the middle, then its a corollary that you also believe that there are some good regulations and some bad ones.

This type of barbaric anti-skateboarding regulation must go, but other regulation will have to pop up to support the green agenda.