Logan Boulet's family joined the Taber Golden Suns on ice on Feb 26 in recognition of the upcoming Green Shirt Day.--SUBMITTED PHOTO
kking@medicinehatnews.com
A recent incident in which racial slurs were spray painted on a wall at the Kinsmen Skate Park is not reflective of the city’s skateboard community, says Skateboard Association representatives.
The incident took place March 17, when several individuals described as being young were observed spray painting racial slurs, including the N-word, on the wall outside the Kinsmen Skate Park bathroom.
Medicine Hat Skateboard Association president, Sam Larsen, posted photos of the individuals believed to be involved on Facebook following the incident with a statement which read, “As the president of the Medicine Hat Skateboard Association I am extremely angry about this. We take pride in our skate park and 100 per cent do not tolerate this.”
Larsen painted over the vandalism within 24 hours of it appearing and hopes the incident will not repeat itself.
“Racial slurs and homophobic slurs are not OK,” Larsen told the News.
While upset about the incident he hopes it will be a learning experience for those involved.
“I honestly don’t think these kids knew the extent of what they were doing,” he said. “You would hope someone could talk to these kids and let them understand it’s not OK.”
Jade Ritchie, Medicine Hat Skateboard Association member, is proud of the way the association handled the situation.
“Having that word graffitied on the skate park looks bad on skateboarders and builds a bad reputation,” Ritchie said. “Part of MHSA is just about trying to break that stereotype. We’re kind of just working towards (creating) a community for people to feel welcomed into and able to skate but also have the people around you supporting you.”
Larsen agreed with Ritchie.
“What happened on (March 17) has never happened before – not since I’ve been around,” said Larsen. “It definitely has nothing to do with skateboarding.”
Medicine Hat police are appreciative of the Skateboard Association’s quick reaction.
“The Skateboard Association has been just an outstanding partner for the city for skateboard park cleanup. (Kinsmen Skate Park) is pretty pristine as far as skate parks go. They should be very proud of that,” Joe West, inspector of operations with MHPS, told the News.
While West described the vandalism recorded at the skate park as “disturbing,” he said such incidents are rare.
“We do see racial slurs (graffitied), but it’s quite infrequent,” West said. “It’s very important to the service we take any sort of hateful graffiti or of the like seriously … We’ve laid charges to acts of that nature in the past.”
West encourages Hatters to remain respectful of each other and public spaces.
