are the police in your towns bias to unicycling becouse me and evan dunbar-trials uni were riding in a park and riding on some ledges and this secerity gaurd is like to us its time for you to leave and we ignored him and rode to another part of the park and i was tring this line and he gets this other gaurd to come and kick us out and he like follows us out anser this question and would you tell some probablems you have hade with police and security
security guards aren’t even real police. they are like dogs, you can totally mess with them if you ride near the perimeter.
bias police town mine none have never kicked anywhere from been smiles sometimes get
Ha ha. Nice JJuggle, nice.
After five hours of laughing at JJuggle… I’m going to say that YOU have the problem with security guards. You’re on private property. They CAN call real police to assist the situation, if you decide not to listen to them.
Never get an attitude with guards/police. If you do, they will always give you, AND ANYONE ELSE on a uni (because riding a wheel, you’re pretty noticable), a hard time, and they will expect behavior exhibited by YOU from other unicyclists. I know that makes no sense, but it happens - think about the stereotypes that go along with a skateboarder. You don’t want to start any negative unicycle stereotypes.
Try to find a time to ride when the business is shutdown, like 4 in the morning or a sunday. Sundays are good for banks and government buildings - post offices, court houses, etc.
The security guards are not ‘biased’ against unicycling. That’s the most immature interpretation of their behavior you could give, other than calling them big meanie heads. Their job is to keep trespassing and loitering to a minimum. Personaly, they might have nothing against you, but if they want to eat, they have to do their job.
Most security guards have been pretty nice to me, most likely because no one else rides a unicycle in my town. Just agree politely and find another place to ride.
Dave
Probably shouldn’t ride in Atlanta anymore if you are on a unicycle then. 
Oh yeah, police are different. Always do what the guys with badges tell you, and don’t talk back. You’ll be happier for it.
I’m a skateboarder as well, so maybe that is why I already have a sour attitude about security guards 
hehe
Zimmy
With haunted hearts through the heat and cold,
We never thought we could ever get old.
We thought we could sit forever in fun
But our chances really was a million to one.
As easy it was to tell black from white,
It was all that easy to tell wrong from right…
whats wrong with skaters? 
Re: Zimmy
Bobby had some wicked, beautiful, poignant dreams.
And perhaps even more so, their job is to keep the business from lawsuits from people who get hurt on company property. Being on the property is one thing. Doing something where you can potentially break bones or worse is an even bigger potential problem.
Unfortunately, saying you’ll never sue someone carries absolutely no legal weight. Even if you say you won’t, your parents or even your insurance company may do it anyway.
I’m a skater turned unicyclist… so I can say from experience that you (and by ‘you’ I mean me - teenager with long hair) get treated MUCH differently if you have a skateboard than a unicycle. A business owner seeing a skater on their property assumes his property will be vandalized/detroyed… in my small town at least, carrying a skating carries a very negative connotation with it.
Nothing is ‘wrong’ with skaters, there’s just very bad stereotypes that go along with a skateboard… the movie ‘Grind’ comes to mind… and like any stereotype, there is a small element of truth, but for the most part its completely false.
John - I completely forgot about that whole liability part, thanks.
Dave
Eh, I don’t know what exactly did it down at that park that night.
As soon as we parked and got out, we were met with shady reception. This has never happened to Kenny, or me before. Which is something the security guard said he “highly doubts.”
It was weird how we were never given specific rules at first, but were called out so early on by the man. He told us not to “linger,” which could mean any number of things–and didn’t make much sense, considering a kids baseball game was going on at one end of the park, and a city band rehearsal at the other end.
I’m 19, and I was with the two ten-year-olds–and Kenny’s twin was on a skateboard.
I asked if it was okay if we road around the park, and that we just wouldn’t stay in one particular area too long. He said okay.
As time went on, when we did get kicked out, the reason wasn’t clear. I wasn’t even approached, it was my ten-year-old companions. The two guards acted cocky, and were pulling rules out of a magic hat somewhere. Because all of a sudden, when I asked why, they said “skateboards aren’t allowed down here.”
My town is a small town. Some police don’t care, some do. Some security guards don’t care, some do. In that park, there is one guard in particular who hates skateboarders flat out. There are some cops that hand out $100 tickets, and some that tell skaters to move on. And in accordance with the small town mentality, things do become biased. Some of the city’s comissioned security guards do, sadly to say this, have power trips. People in this town brown nose each other one minute, and talk behind others backs the next. Some are buddy-buddy and do favors for each other. This is no joke. Never move to this town! It’s goofy and socio-political like this. Everyone knows each other. The people with money, really run things around here, and it’s funny to watch others suck up to them, because if you have money in this town, you control its operations.
Bah, anyway. They didn’t even mention the unicycles. I was a little stunned but spoke in a polite, but straight forward manner with both of the guards for automatically assuming we were going to be trouble makers.
The guard that spoke to us when we arrived at the park, was at a bench staring and not only that but glaring at us hard, incessantly. The other fellow was smiling. The one on the bench got the other fellow to tell us to leave. He practically escorted us out, and the kids said that while I was loading our equipment into the car, he was carefully writing my license plate number down.
Over a week and a half ago, these gentlemen never spoke a word to us three. Never! They just watched what we were doing the whole time with that glaring blank expression.
I feel that we could have been approached more straight-forward, and professionally from the get-go. It was as if we were targeted. I understand about being a liability. That’s fine. But they were never upfront with rules. There are no signs in the park, either. It was like they were purposefully and personally trying to get rid of us, because they needed a little drama for their shift.
later,
Evan
PS: Lesson learned: “I’ve had no trouble here in the mornings” --“That’s because no one’s down here then”–Then I give the guard a smile, thinking ‘that’s the only time I’m ever coming down here, again. You won’t see me.’
I know what you’re talking about with the small town… I live in one of three towns nestled in a valley, with just over 15,000 people total. If you don’t know someone, you at least know their family.
I’ve never had a real problem with cops. I do have story, though. One night - probably around 2 am or so - I rode down to the donut shop to meet my friends. Parked out front was (I swear I’m not making this up) 3 cop cars, with probably 8 or 9 local cops inside just BS-ing their shifts away.
They gave me the usual ‘how do you stay up on that thing’ comments, laughing. One cop bet another 5 bucks that he couldn’t ride it… so I said I’d chip in another 5. I can still hear the one guy “ok man all you hafta do is ride to the street and you get ten bucks”… it was a good laugh for everyone.
For cops, it really depends on their mood, I think… and if you’ve been an asshole in the past or not.
Dave
Which town? Your avatar mentions two. Kalamazoo, or the one where we’ve had two National Unicycle Conventions?
I live in a village of approx 1100 people. Most everyone knows most everyone else. And there are no police or security guards!
(On the other hand, there is some vandalism of our kids’ park…)
I’m amazed you’ve got 1100 residents & still call it a village! Mines only got around 250 or so, maximum. I was looking for the definition of a village, and found the Wikipedia entry. I love the fact that America has rules about what is/isn’t a village… Villages have to be less than 5 square miles in size (in New York state), but in Ohio there are no area limitations but they have to have less than 5000 inhabitants… In the UK at least its kind of made up as we go along. Something to do with the sense of community & where the majority of the inhabitants get their income (agricultural/non-employed = village, industrial/commerce = town)
Loose.
Yes, and to confuse matters further, our village has a Town Hall.
Apologies for the threadjack.
You’ve had TWO NUC’s in Adrian? Of all the places to host a NUC, I would think my hometown would be the least likely location. Yes, Adrian. (I learned to ride a year after the '99 NUC. A classmate at my high school made me aware that an event took place here–Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known. It’s funny how some things work out.)
I’ve yet to ride downtown Kalamazoo. But, WMU has given me no problems. I’ve seen one security guard, who was watching a set of stairs shaped in a way that resembles an old roman ampitheater. I was debating whether to ride down the stairs or not. Instead, I rode by, without a word exchanged between us.
With a little creativity, and versitility the campus is good for urban trials. There are even a few natty trials lines to be found.
Later,
Evan
Re: police
“ksanunis” <ksanunis@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com> wrote in
message news:ksanunis.1qu51u@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com…
>
> are the police in your towns bias to unicycling becouse me and evan
> dunbar-trials uni were riding in a park and riding on some ledges and
> this secerity gaurd is like to us its time for you to leave and we
> ignored him and rode to another part of the park and i was tring this
> line and he gets this other gaurd to come and kick us out and he like
> follows us out anser this question and would you tell some probablems
> you have hade with police and security
>
I think MOST Police and Security guards are OK…but that will only
remain the case as long as we don’t annoy them. When I see kids leap up on
park benches and such with bear trap pedals, the damage this can cause will
quite justifiably earn them a bad reputation, and a kicking out of the area.
Guards protect the area from various intrusive activities. That is
something we have to live with. Danmage to the street furniture etc, as
not a good way to build a good unicyclist reputation, and we need to earn
and then keep such a reputation. It would be so easy to get lumped, as a
whole, with the skateboarders, who have in many situations alienated the
general public. It is far easier to defend our position as long as we are
staying with clean noses
Another possiblilty is that the guards/police have a genuine concern for
your welfare. To a non unicyclist, riding a ledge on a uni seems a pretty
damn goo way to try and kill yourself. They don’t know you can do it
with your eyes closed, they may just see an imminent accident. They
don’t need the paperwork. We need to cut them as much slack as they need
to give us.
Nao