If you saw this in a movie, you’d think it was stupid.
Skateboarders rioted at the iconic intersection of Hollywood and Vine Saturday night while lining up for the premiere of Baker’s skate film Bake and Destroy.
The LAPD, already stretched thin with space shuttle Endeavour winding its way through the city streets, wasn’t in the mood to play around with a bunch of skater boyz, so they responded with a motified tactical alert.
And when the cops showed up in riot gear, a bunch of skaters throwing rocks and beer cans didn’t get too far. LAPD Sgt. Rudy Lopez said there was a group of about 400 skateboarders in the street. Shopkeepers were advised to close shop and lock their door after the incident started at about 9 p.m. Pacific time.
Weirdly enough, it’s hard to tell why this movie is being shown for free previews at all, but it’s set up for showings in several major U.S. cities this fall. But if you’re a skateboarder and you get Thrasher Magazine, there’s a DVD of the movie in the November edition for free. Yes, we know, it’s not as much fun throwing beer cans at your mom and cigarettes at your little sister as it is when you go out in public and chuck them at a cop or two.
Kevin Takumi, a photographer for the LA Fox affiliate, said the crowd broke up when more police got there:
Hollywood LAPD Metro showed up and everybody ran. They didn’t even start pushing them yet twitpic.com/b3z6vg
— Kevin Takumi (@KevinTakumi) October 14, 2012
But the skateboard crowd was really shaken up for a while, said Twitter user @HaitianReggie, who calls himself an ESPN skateboarding writer:
People were cool but then around 830 people were hitting each other with beer cans, throwing cigs at pedestrians & starting fights.
— HaitianReggie (@HaitianReggie) October 14, 2012
and:
Rioting just to riot. It was a free skate video premier on Hollywood Blvd. Mad people showed up, got antsy, started wyling.
— HaitianReggie (@HaitianReggie) October 14, 2012
So we’re thinking that this skateboarding movie, which got a premiere at the famous Vine Theater, got a whole lot of free publicity Saturday night.
Oh, and if you’re wondering WTF “wyling” means, the Urban Dictionary says it means to “act or do something dumb.”
Yup, like rioting at the free skateboarding movie premiere when you can get the DVD for free, anyway.