Being passionate about animal welfare is one thing, but attacking someone with a skateboard is a completely different story.
A Philadelphia skateboarder is facing felony assault charges after allegedly hitting a New York City horse carriage driver in the face with her board during a confrontation in Central Park.
The incident happened Tuesday near 59th Street and West Drive, where 27-year-old Abigail Holbrook reportedly approached horse carriage workers and began confronting them over the treatment of horses in New York City.
Footage recorded by one of the carriage drivers shows Holbrook getting into a heated argument about animal welfare.
Things quickly escalated when one of the drivers, a 45-year-old man, reportedly made a comment that upset her.
Holbrook then allegedly swung her skateboard at him, hitting his shoulder and face. The driver managed to grab her board, leading to another argument as she tried to get it back.
The confrontation continued as Holbrook directed her anger toward the person recording the incident. At one point, she appeared to grab his camera while the driver called for someone to contact the police.
Police say the skateboard attack was not the only alleged assault.
Holbrook was also accused of punching another 45-year-old horse carriage driver during the incident.
She was subsequently arrested and charged with two counts of felony assault.
The footage has put a skateboarder in the middle of a controversy that has little to do with skateboarding itself.
Skaters care about animals and support animal welfare, but using a skateboard to attack someone is hardly a good way to represent those values.
The incident also comes at a particularly sensitive time for New York City's horse carriage workers.
Last month, the City Council passed legislation that will ban horse-drawn carriages in the city by 2028.
The legislation, called Romanch's Law, was named after 18-year-old tourist Romanch Mahajan, who died in July after being thrown from a horse-drawn carriage in Central Park.
The decision has drawn strong reactions from both animal welfare advocates and carriage workers.
Transport Workers Union Local 100 representatives have also called for more police protection, arguing that workers should not have to deal with harassment or physical attacks while doing their jobs.
For the skateboarding community, this incident is an unfortunate example of someone allegedly using a skateboard as a weapon.
You can care deeply about animals without attacking people, and being a skateboarder certainly doesn't give anyone a free pass to do so.
TransportWorker Posted:
"The Central Park carriage horses are awesome. Some people are not.
A 20-something animal-rights activist wielding her skateboard was arrested after attacking Horse-Carriage drivers in Central Park. She punched two drivers, struck one with her skateboard, and screamed at families taking rides. Video here: skateboardMOV.MOV
“This is outrageous and unacceptable,” TWU Local 100 Administrative Vice President Alexander Kemp said. “We need a more visible police presence for our members at horse-carriage stands in the park to protect against these wackos. This is their place of work and people are coming just to harass and attack them. All workers deserve to be safe at work.”
Local 100 Shop Steward Christina Hansen, who witnessed the Tuesday incident and called the police, said: “This is what you get when the City Council Speaker praises and poses for photos with extremist organizations like PETA and NYCLASS, whose leaders have lied and vilified us as animal abusers for decades. Their followers, who don’t know a thing about horses, have been brainwashed by these groups’ propaganda and emboldened to lash out.”"