The Skateboard Test

I got the opposite lesson out of skating since we had to negotiate with cops all the time.

It's 3 in the morning, you want to skate some plaza, and the only thing stopping you is the cop on his beat. As soon as I found the cop, I'd go ask him if skating here was fine, or if somewhere else was better.

The cop that gets stuck with a city beat at zero dark thirty is either the n00b or did something stupid and isn't super happy with Authority. On top of that, the only people awake at this hour are drunks, bums, and skaters. Given a reasonable skater, which one would you prefer to talk with?

I knew that if I was the least irritating of the options, I had good chances at being cut some slack. So, there's no way I would front some attitude or do anything that would deviate from the "nice kid who happens to be on a skateboard" image.

Filters are the opposite of useful since they drop so many people who could make a positive impact if you structured the encounter properly.