Skateboard scuffle video gets worldwide audience

PORTLAND, Ore. - A violent confrontation between a group of skateboarders and security guards in Pioneer Courthouse Square was captured on video and then posted on the Web.

The grainy video is posted on Skateboarding.com and while it’s just 21 seconds long, a lot happens.

It happened at the Southeast corner of the Square the night before Thanksgiving.

“It was skateboarders attempting to do dangerous tricks, which we don’t allow,” said Portland Parks Public Safety Manager Mark Warrington. “So the security officers asked them to not do that, and then they got into a dispute.”

The video doesn’t show who threw the first punch, but the very first thing on the video is a woman’s voice which faintly said, “Oh, my. He just hit that policeman.”

What the video does show is a security guard in a yellow jacket in a scuffle with a skateboarder. Then a security guard dressed in black swings a skateboard at one of four skateboarders.

A third security guard flies into the scene and more punches are thrown.

The security guards don’t carry weapons; they only carry radios. And according to Warrington the guards can only observe and report incidents unless they need to defend themselves.

He said in this incident they were.

On Skateboarding.com most of the posted comments condemn the security guards.

Since the skateboarders took off and investigators don’t know who they are, their side of the story cannot be obtained.

The video was posted by a professional skateboard video maker out of Sacramento, Calif. The company was contacted by a reporter but it has not returned requests for comment.
 

The video from Skateboarding.com

(Note: The original YouTube video from Skateboarding.com contained expletives. KATU removed audio from portions of the video where swearing was heard. Nothing else was modified.)