A lifeguard on Redondo Beach, California went on a massive power trip when he went after a teenager who briefly set his boogie board on a trash can so it wouldn’t get sandy. The video was shared on YouTube by David Hogg and features his 17-year-old friend identified as “Thomas.”
The incident occurred at Topaz Jetty, an esplanade on Redondo Beach.
The video begins showing a lifeguard leaning over Thomas, telling him, “Nobody cares about you.”
There is then a brief summary of what sparked the confrontation.
After enjoying the ocean, Thomas briefly set his boogie board down on a trash can so that it wouldn’t get sandy. When the lifeguard asked Thomas to remove his board, the teenager did so but mouthed off, saying, “I didn’t know it was a crime to put your board on a trash can.”
The lifeguard then became unnecessarily hostile to the teen.
He leans down, removes his sunglases, and gets very close to Thomas’ face. “What are you gonna do?” he says to the teen. “You don’t use that language here, son. I will get in your face.”
Thomas says he’s leaving soon, anyway.
“I would suggest you don’t come back,” the lifeguard says to him.
The conversation then goes on back and forth a bit as the lifeguard grows more threatening.
Eventually, the lifeguard leaves.
But as Redditor tagliatelli_ninja accurately summarized the entire conflict, “Meanwhile, someone’s drowning.”
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article misidentified the YouTube user who recorded and posted the video as Davis Green instead of David Hogg. The video was published on YouTube by Hogg, but was shared on Reddit but a user named Davis Green, which helped it go viral. Hogg, who was on vacation in California visiting friends when he filmed the video, has become an outspoken advocate for gun control after he survived the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. You can read more about him here.