‘A word to the wise should be sufficient‘. This is a standard practice of all parties; That of carrying a legal ‘non provocative- plausibly innocuous’ item for use as a weapon. Of course, we now have a court case where the jury recognized that a skateboard was used as a weapon capable of inflicting death of serious injury, so that knowledge could prove valuable.
Antifa Appears To Have A History Of Using Skateboards As Weapons
Far-left groups such as antifa appear to use skateboards as tools of destruction, videos captured at protests and riots show.
Anthony Huber, one of the men fatally shot by Kyle Rittenhouse during the 2020 riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, had gained attention for the use of his skateboard to attack Rittenhouse.
Skateboards have also been used to violently smash through windows or to assault police officers.
Here's a copy of the video, that was later deleted by the original poster, showing rioters beating on a CPD officer.
h/t: @CWBChicago pic.twitter.com/JvipmYodZa— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) August 16, 2020
Skaters appear to have a history of participating in protests a well as utilizing the slogan “skate and destroy” to summarize their involvement in protest culture, according to a blog post from skater magazine Jenkem.
“Things are replaceable; life is not. No building nor brand no matter how luxurious should be valued at anything even approximating a human’s life, no matter what human,” the article said.
In the post, titled “A Skater’s Guide To Attending A Protest,” the writers break down the approach and necessary supplies needed for attending a protest. One of the tools they specifically mention is a skateboard, explaining how “it’s pretty cool how many uses a skateboard can have in a protest.”
Skateboards allow protesters to write protest slogans on the grip, and can be used as a “tried and true device for quickly dipping out of tricky situations,” the article said. They are also effective in self-defense and can make a shield and even “if you get enough skaters on the frontline you can link together to form a phalanx on some gladiator kind of tip.”
Attacked at a #BLM #Antifa #NyC rally, smashed egg in my head, hit with umbrella, spat on, knocked with a skateboard as the crowd says don’t protect her she’s for Trump. pic.twitter.com/hpSTdIaZt2
— Tara Szczepanski (@PoAmBrotherhood) January 10, 2021