Crackdown Overkill : Laguna Niguel throws the book at errant skateboarders

For many years now, the skateboard has been a hip symbol of carefree West Coast living for the young. And the fact that the kids of baby boomers are now hurtling like alpine ski jumpers off the curbs of Southern California has not gone unnoticed by the governing elders.

Some people who wound the first generation of skateboards down cement paths in the 1960s--now parents, in law enforcement or on city councils--are interpreting the limits of freedom for children bent on exercising their liberties to “the max.”

The tension inherent between the good times and the public safety became excruciating in Laguna Niguel this past week when the parents of one of two 15-year-olds complained loudly that the boys were arrested, handcuffed and photographed for the alleged crime of riding skateboards in the street. The police said they were only upholding the law after issuing a warning, but even Mayor Patricia Bates became uneasy with her city’s heavy-handed regulation of a lighthearted activity. Many other communities in Orange County and elsewhere also have wrestled with the issue of skateboard regulation in similar uncertainty, trying to find the right balance. Some have enacted their own ordinances, containing varying restrictions.

Of course, police have the right to protect the safety of pedestrians, motorists and even the skateboarders themselves from the perils of reckless sidewalk surfing.

Youngsters should be encouraged to wear safety equipment and required to stick to safe paths, out of the way of others.

But let’s not go over the edge of the curb with the penalties for excessive license on a skateboard. Those who violate the law deserve a warning or a citation, but not a pair of handcuffs and a police record.