Drama Of The Day

When I got to Peace around 6pm the other day, it felt like I went back in time to 2003 when the presence of crack in the park was at an all time high. The park’s been relatively serene this year, but in the last couple weeks some newbies have taken control over the parks operations. They walk around acting all tough trying to assert their power over the local lifers, while attracting an irregular clientele that clashes with the regulars. This results into fights because the locals who have been there for years don’t get pushed around easy. Also, this increase in distribution brings more cracked out people onto the manual pads and ledges, and attracts more police patrol, making it harder to skate than usual.

The only skater at Peace when I arrived was Frenchie, but unfortunately he wasn’t there to skate. He was just passing through on his shredder board gonna pick up a cheque, so I ended up skated alone. The only place available to skate was the South East corner ledge. Usually when I show face, I get the locals to move on the middle mani pad, but that day I wasn’t feeling the hassle. Fortunately there was a new grass gap to skate instead.

Leaving stuff lying around at Peace is not the best idea, but neither is skating with a camera in your pocket. So, I put my camera in my hat on the ledge near the Couche-Tard with my cash in it. The locals know not to mess with my things, however the new sketch bags in the park have yet to be put in their place. Sure enough, as I was skating this scraggly chick tried robbing my shit. Approaching her she was immediately said,”this is your stuff,” as if I didn’t know. While grabbing my hat back, I could see she was attempting to hide 4 bucks of mine in her hand. I shouted at her to give me my money, and the stupid bitch had the nerve to ask me for a dollar. I took my money back I answered that she was lucky I didn’t just slap the shit out of her (being a girl and all) what she just tried to pull.

Literally a minute later this other arshole decide to try and gank my shit. I just about lost it yelling, “what the f@ck you think you doing?.”  He just tried to laugh it off, and that’s when I realized I should have slapped the first teif, because not setting an example let the new crowd think they can try and snatch my shit with out repercussions. So, I yelled out, “the next person to touch my shit is getting knock out,” loud enough for the whole block to hear me.

That’s when Didi, looking in rough shape, came over to see what the commotion was all about. After Didi expressed his concern, and started crying, he told me that his mom had dyed that morning around 7am. I gave him my condolences, as he and sought comfort from the park community.

It that wasn’t enough commotion, shortly after everyone in the park heard a super loud thud. Looking up we saw a taxi committing a hit and run on the corner, of St-Dominique and Rene-Levesque going East. Some dude started chasing after the cab, but the taxi was ghost. That third interruption in my skate session made put me over the edge. I had had enough of the tension/ drama and bounced.

By Dave Bouthillier