Burglary at Importation Witnessed from Peace Park

Peace Park made blog news again. Check the post titled ‘Big Boi and Burglary ‘ on the Gray Side Projects blog that was posted on October 18th. It basically talks about how someone witnessed Importation Main getting burgled, while drinking beer in Peace Park during the Big Boi show at the SAT. MQC’s Mr. Brooke Walsh found this post, good looking out.

Flipping Bikes

Montréal’s full of Quick Criminals and you don’t need to be hanging out skating on the streets all day to notice it either. In just about every park in the city is some cracked out dude ready to sell you a stolen bike for a great deal. In fact, I heard Montréal has the highest number of bike thefts in North America, it’s become its own industry. Organized crime started exporting stolen bikes in crates to other countries by the tens of thousands.

Bike thieves will straight hustle bikes out in the open as if they were panhandling. So, if you ever need a bicycle, just walk around downtown and look for any weather worn sketch bag that doesn’t seem to match with his wheels. If he doesn’t approach you first, just ask him how much for the ride. The most I have ever paid for a bike was forty bucks for a brand new Federal cruiser, which I still peddle with today. I could have gotten it for thirty, but while I was in the middle of bargaining someone tried out bidding me. The most common cycles for sale on the streets are Canadian Tire Super Cycles, which I wouldn’t even buy brand new for ten dollars. The average going price for any bike off the streets is 20 bucks, the equivalent to a crack rock.

Anyway, the other day at Peace Park I saw some dude rolling by on a Fieling 2008 bike. Leading by example, I asked him how much for the collapsible bike. During price negotiations, I managed to question him on how he goes about stealing bikes. His response was that he doesn’t just rob bikes he steals everything. While showing me his backpack full of tools for cutting chains, freezing and shattering locks, sawing shit, and prying things open, he added, he’d go as far as to following a person who has a bike with disk breaks, just waiting for the chance to nab their ride so he can sell it on the south shore for two maybe three hundred dollars.

Some people argue that you shouldn’t buy stolen bikes because it promotes bike theft. Well let me tell you, in my opinion after getting several bikes stolen, it doesn’t make sense to purchase a new one just to have it stolen again. Besides, buying new bikes from stores in my opinion only saturates the black market. When people buy new bikes instead of stolen ones to replace their stolen bike, less stolen bikes are sold on the streets. This creates a surplus of stolen bikes, which are accumulated by organized crime and shipped to other countries.

A lot of bike shops refuse to repair or buy stolen bikes, but then there are some that profit from it. Meaning, even if you where to purchase a used non-stolen bike from a store, there’s no way to know for sure whether or not it’s a stolen ride. Hence, you might as well just buy it off the streets and save your self some money.

I ended up buying the brand new red-hot Fieling 2008 collapsible for only twenty bucks, still with its plastic wrapping. After I used it as a skate obstacle and not being able to return the bike to its proper owner, I gave it away to a friend who had their bike stolen. If you do have a bike stolen or not, my advice is to invest in a bike lock that’s guaranteed against bike theft.

Dave Bouthillier Bs Flip

Photo: Dan Stevenson

The Truth

Yesterday I called Monique Savoie the founder and president of the Society for Arts and Technology concerning the rumor of the city selling Peace Park to the SAT, which was started by city worker Eric. The truth is that no, the SAT is not putting a fence around Peace Park, and that despite what the vacuum cleaner guy said about the city no longer being responsible for maintaining park, Monique ensured that the SAT is only responsible for cleaning up after their events.

Kid Climbed Shoe Pole

The weather in Montreal has been rainy the past couple days, but fortunately there were some dry spells which allowed for a brief session at Peace Park today. While skating up to the park I could see that the police where on the scene beside Temple dealing with someone one I had never seen before. Getting closer I found Andy, Jean Mat Vincent who has killer sequence at Peace in the new King Shit Magazine, and Andrew Mcgraw sitting in bleach fumes in front of the store. When Jean Mat questioned the smell, Andy said he poured a bunch in front of the place to kill the smell of urine.

Before skating I threw my last two pairs of used wheels up the lamp pole where I’ve been tossing my worn out shoes for the last 9 yrs. I guess it’s now become a used product pole, instead of a shoe pole. Andy suggested I ties my old boards together and throw them up there, which was pretty funny, I just might. One time I tried selling my worn out shoes on the pole to a kid for 10 bucks a pair. When he asked to see them I pointed to the pole. While looking up he asked me why I put them up I answered that that way I would get them stolen while I’m skating around. The kid gave me ten bucks and climbed the pole to the top. I couldn’t believe it, I was scared for his life.  While he was up there i told him he could have as many pairs as he could grab. He must have took  at least 7 pairs of weather worn shoes home.

May Out of Jail for International Day of Peace

May a long time Peace Park local lifer got out of jail on Friday. She was in for 4 months, she and we are happy to have her back. After talking about the inside with May and CJ, Phil Knechtel, Paul the Russian, and I played a game of POSER while we waiting for Bunny to give Head Band Mary a gift before she and her friends cleared of the middle curb.

Speaking of the curbs… on both side of the upper 3 steps are spray-painted stencils. One of the stencils says, ‘Respect the architect as we begin to build’, and the other says ‘Punch Line’. Not understanding what the stencils were about I looked around. I found a sign attached to a parking post notifying of an event for the ‘International Day of Peace’, organized by the Circle of Peace. Therefore, I don’t believe the stencils have anything to do with the rumor Peace Park being purchasing by the SAT, which really doesn’t seem plausible. I don’t see why they spray painted the granite thought, and I couldn’t figure out what Punchline is.

Anyway, once the game was done Phil jetted. Paul and I manualed it up for bit before we started shooting dice. If was Paul’s first time playing and my first time using these nice casino dice I picked up at a flee market the other day. I’m not sure if the dice just are lucky or if it was Paul’s beginners luck,  but once I lost enough money, we hopped in his ride and venture off finding a new bump, which was fun to skate.

For the International Day of Peace on Monday the 21 of September 2009, the Circle of Peace has planned for a flash mob; Give Peace a Second Chance, starting at 11:45 AM, in front of the Society of Arts and Technology. All details on the unfolding of the flash mob will be revealed. Immediately after the flash mob, Circle of Peace will award the Pacifist prize posthumously to Mrs. Muriel Duckworth, a long time peace activist. Her son, film director Martin Duckworth, will accept the prize in her name. The event is free and is in collaboration with Artmistice, SAT, and the City of Montreal.

Disappeared Miele Mountain Bike

A red and white  Miele mountain bike was locked up to a tree at Peace Park last week with a chain and a regular lock and key. The bike was in pretty good shape, the tires weren’t warped, all the break cables were calibrated, and the chain wasn’t rusty. Knowing how the park operates I said to myself, wow, I’d never lock my bike to a tree at Peace Park unattended because it’s likely to get damaged by some drunk dude, or it would simply get stole. The bicycle being in such good shape all clean and shiny wasn’t hard to miss.

Turned out that the bike didn’t budged for close to  a week, becoming the talk of the park. There was gossip of it belonging to someone in the 88 Condon building, some people believed that who ever left it there must have gotten really drunk and forgot where they had locked it up. Whatever the case, I was surprised that the ride stayed there fore so l before  it finally disappeared. All that was left behind was the lock and chain.

Peace Park Sold To SAT, Rumor?

After a tagged up delivery truck passed Peace Park I saw that Shawna and Sergio were sitting together again as I approached. They make up to break up on average 2 time a month, and have been for the past 3 or 4 years. Beside them was Didi, who decided to sit  down on my skate for a ride.

Didi asked for a pushed from Danny Stevenson, which sent him rolling right towards Bunny. Bunny then shoved him backwards with enough force that he almost wound up under a backing up Mini Van. Still looking for thrill Didi got another one of his friends to give him another good push with a running start. He ended up crashing into a tree ending his fun.

While leaving the Peace Park after doing some skating and catching up with Phil Beauséjour, Eric the street worker who called 911 the other day for a sticker I put on his mobile Mr. Snuffleupagus machine, cleaned his way up to Jean Mat Vincent and me to drop the 411.

Eric told us that, in a couple months he will no longer be responsible for maintaining Peace Park. He claimed that the city is selling the park to the Society for Arts and Technology with in a couple months, and it will become their responsibility. Supposedly again according to him, the SAT is going to put a fence around the park encompassing Rue Place du Marché, which they will cover with grass. Personally I don’t believe it. Rest assured that, tomorrow I will contact the SAT to set his rumor straight.

Bloody Knuckles

Yesterday was a nasty day at Peace Park let me tell you. Brooke Walsh and I showed up feeling good off some refreshments we had at our friend’s garage sale fundraiser.  I wasn’t skating because my knee was ajacked from the other day. So, since skating was out of the question we decided to share some refreshments with Devon Menegeon.

While chilling, beside us was a man (Bloody Knuckles) drinking a forty voicing f@ck yous to the world. Next thing we see is him calling the lamppost out before he started punching it. After bloodying up his knuckles, looking for  some other kind of stress release, he asked some guy for a cigarette who gladly gave him one. So messed up, the Bloody Knucles snapped on the guy that just gave him a smoke, and clocked him one. The cigarette guy not stress or worried knowing that it just wasn’t worth it didn’t retaliate.

A couple minutes later our friends Georgiana and Kate from the garage sale gave ring. The girls said  they were coming  to see us, and mentioned that they wanted to experience the park in real life after checking out the website. When they arrived we just chilled as Paul (The Russian) Sollar slide some Kickflip Backside Tailslides.

Helping to maintain the Peace Park’s great reputation, hard timer Bloody Knuckles took another fit and started shit kicking the lamppost. Doing this must have gotten his bladder going because he his took a piss after right on the spot with the police in sight. The best is this scraggly girl who tried robbing my stuff last month started taking pictures with her cell phone.

Loving Peace Park Brooke, Georgiana, and Kate sent me into the store for some beer. When I got in there Bloody Knuckles was getting caught for trying to stuff 3 forties into his pants. He gave resistance as the employees tried to escorted him out. In the end Audrey had to get involved and set him straight, she don’t mess around.

Times just continued to get harder for Bloody Knuckles, bike cops happened to be cycling by during his stand off at the dep’s (corner store) door. The police dumped out some local’s beer then disappeared with the emotionally broken man.

Once the cops left, we were having good time. I even put down some manuals. Then a street sweeper vacuumed up to us. As the cleaner went past us I stuck a sticker on it. The city worked flipped out his phone and dialed 911. I couldn’t believe it, so I told him,” relax it’s just a sticker”. Anyway we didn’t ’stick’ around after that, we decided to take our beer down to the old port, and hang out in a more serene atmosphere.

Gold Mario Cold Shot

Mario Cold Shot cruised up to Peace Park today catching me skating flat ground perfecting hard flips. He was on his bike instead of on his famous roller blades claiming he had to exercise different muscles. Mario used to pass by the park at least 3 times a week kicking down beers for the whole crew, good times. Now, he hasn’t had a drink in over a year. Some things change, but according to Mario the park hasn’t. He said that while he pointed out these two dudes making out on the ledge.

After Mario left I went to the Montréal Pool Room for some steamies to go. Before I could sit down to eat them, this guy named Jimmy approached me asking if I was interested in buying a ring or cufflinks. Showing them to me he mentioned they weren’t real gold. However just looking at the ring I knew it was real, and invited him to sit. During the time I was eating my steamies Jimmy showed me more jewelry.

Once we negotiated a fair price for the 2 pendants and the ring at 10$, he began telling me how he’s been hooked on crack for a month and half smoking 4 grams a day. Jimmy continued to explain that he went to rehab,  only out for four days before he fell back into it. His plan was to spend my $10 on one last rock before returning to rehab. Our conversation ended with me wishing him good luck after he asked he if I had another 5 buck because his ‘last’ rock wasn’t enough to satisfy him before going into rehab.

Stoked on my new ring I showed it to some skaters at Peace Park. One of them had a friend who was like,” You just got that right? I work at the pawnshop on the corner, and that guy tried selling us that ring 20 minutes ago. We tested it and it wasn’t real gold”. Convinced it was real, having a lot of experience dealing with gold, I decide to have it tested for fun. I went to Angelica Diamantaire Joaillier & Bijoux Raffinés on St-Catherines street to have it tested. The people there were super nice. They scratched the gold and applied an acid to it. The result was that the jewelry was all real gold. They suggested I try to find the owner, but if I couldn’t find him they would give me $90 just for the ring. Stoked I returned to Peace Park just in time to watch Mary chase after a midget walking past the park.

 

 

Reassured Cops Dumping Beer

Getting to Peace Park pretty late today there were no skaters present, only locals doing their regular drinking until two police officers rolled up. They didn’t get out at first, but it didn’t take long before they were pouring out peoples open beers. That’s when I started doing my regular picture taking, which attracted their attention.

After the cops finished dumping everyone’s beer they walked over to me asking me what my problem was. I responded that I had no problem, but they continued to ask me the same question in a hostile manner. This continued for a couple minutes until one of them finally asked me why I was taken pictures of them, so I explained that I’m making a documentary on the park. They didn’t seem to believe me at first but after explaining my project to them, they realized I was for real. They then eased up and expressed their concerns to me about how I always take their pictures; and asked if I could understand why they didn’t like it. I said yes, I can understand their point of view, and then proceeded to reassure them that it’s not my intention to single out them or the police in general. In fact, the video will not single out any social group, organization, administration, or person. The documentary is simply going to help elucidate the situation at Peace Park to all groups involved to better understand their “locals”, and to find ways to address the needs of everyone who interacts with the park.

Seems like a lot of people expect the Peace Park documentary to be full of shit and piss, while pointing fingers. Let me reassure that I feel a great responsibility in representing Peace Park through this documentary not just to the skate community but to the world. My intentions are to portray an image of respect, integrity, and professionalism in hopes of making this world a better place.

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