You may have heard in the local news from San Francisco that the skateboarders who used to do the Dolores Hill Bomb switched their venue this year to Twin Peaks. That’s after years of them zooming down Dolores Street where they frequently interfered with traffic, endangered pedestrians and hurt themselves in crashes. The Twin Peaks hill is considered safer and less intrusive to traffic and more acceptable to the S.F.P.D.
There’s this young guy who’s some sort of spokesman for the skateboarders; I didn’t catch his name, but I’ve heard him twice on KQED radio and once on T.V. Someone asked him what he thinks of the switch to Twin Peaks and he said the skateboarders are still going to be “sticking it to the man.” He didn’t explain what he meant, but “sticking it to the man” has long usage in the English language as a metaphor for (according to Wiktionary) “to take some action intended to defy a source of oppression…or authorities like teachers, bosses, police or politicians.”
I assume the skateboard guy was referring, not to teachers or employers, but to the San Francisco police, who have always been frustrated by their inability to control the Dolores Hill Bomb. Now, as someone who came up in the 1960s and went through all that civil rights and anti-Vietnam stuff, I know a little about the desire to “stick it to the man.” Young people can be anti-authority; indeed, rock and roll brims with that emotion, bless its rebellious soul. “Sticking it to the man” is not only an in-your-face repudiation of authority, it can be a punishment and retaliation for it. So I’m not attacking the spirit of freedom and youth that underlies “sticking it to the man.” But I do want to understand it in terms of when it goes awry, into directions that not only let young people feel rebellious but actually are harmful to society.
Sideshows are an ideal example. They, too, “stick it to the man” because the sideshowers know that the cops hate sideshows but are largely powerless to stop them. Sideshows are a middle finger to the police, and to the innocent residents of neighborhoods that are afflicted with them.
I completely “get” the excitement of sideshows and downhill skateboard bombs. Courting physical danger also is part of being young, and so is the demonstration of athletic prowess. May it always be so! But what I have trouble with is the enjoyment that the skateboarders have with “sticking it to the man.” They’re not only reveling in the physical athleticism of bombing, they’re demonstrating that they will not be “pushovers” for the police. In that sense, the skateboarders share in common the anti-police mania that infests so many Oaklanders.
The police are viewed as bad people. Insidious, crazy, violent, racist gun nuts who love to terrorize Black neighborhoods. Ask a cross-section of Oaklanders and this is what you’ll hear: as someone posted on Reddit, “Don't be peaceful when they want us to be peaceful! Stick it to the man!" This explains so much of what has gone on in Oakland for years, including the downtown protests after, say, the George Floyd event, and the ACAB graffiti you see on lampposts and sidewalks. There’s an element of, “You can’t tell us how to behave and if you try, we’ll just act out and stick it to you!” There’s also a mutual attraction between the “stick it to the man” crowd and far-left causes: the new Twin Peaks bomb was dedicated to the pro-Palestinian cause.
Well, okay, but really, if someone insists on breaking the law then they should be prepared for the consequences, including getting tossed into jail. Having said all this, I have a certain sympathy for the hill bombers. Who I don’t have sympathy for are the idiots who destroy downtown every time they think a rogue cop has shot an innocent Black man. Fortunately, we haven’t had a downtown riot in some years now, which means that Donald Trump hasn’t put a target on Oakland’s back…yet. But I guarantee you, if things get out of control downtown, Trump will send the troops here, and then Barbara Lee, the City Council, and Gov. Newsom are going to have a real mess on their hands. So let’s keep Oakland peaceful! To those who would riot—and they’re always out there, waiting for an opportunity to pillage—I say, don’t be stupid and play into Trump’s hands. He’d love for you to burn and smash and destroy. Whose side are you on, anyway?
Steve Heimoff