New York City skateboarding veteran Wade Yates spoke out after another police encounter involving local skaters, sharing a lengthy statement criticizing the NYPD's 73rd Precinct and calling for more accountability from local officials.
Yates, who is also a businessman, actor, activist, mentor, coach, and hobbyist, posted about the incident on social media, saying he believes officers mishandled the situation and failed to properly assess what was happening.
According to Yates, around 15 officers responded, but he questioned how the situation was handled.
He argued that if there had actually been someone carrying a gun, the outcome could have been far worse because of what he described as poor decision making by police.
He was especially critical of how officers interacted with people in the neighborhood.
"Everything about this interaction was weird as usual, 73rd precinct views our neighbors as dogs and treat us like catching cattle," Yates wrote.
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Yates also said he believes the relationship between police and the community has continued to decline because of repeated interactions like this.
He accused officers of doing a poor job and said trust between residents and law enforcement has almost disappeared.
His criticism did not stop with the police.
Yates also questioned local leadership, mentioning Congresswoman Darlene Mealy by name and asking why long standing concerns in the community have not been addressed.
He argued that elected officials only become visible during election season while residents continue dealing with the same issues year after year.
Another point that stood out in Yates' post was his claim that this was not the first incident involving young skaters.
He said that last year, the same group of officers tackled several teenagers who were simply sitting nearby watching people skate.
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He brought up that incident to support his belief that local youth continue to face unnecessary confrontations.
Yates says that he was standing up for the younger generation of skateboarders and others in the neighborhood.
Rather than focusing only on the latest encounter, he described what he sees as a long running problem between the community and the 73rd Precinct.
He ended his statement by tagging both the NYPD and Darlene Mealy, calling on them to "do better."
At the time of writing, the NYPD has not publicly responded to Yates' comments.