Antony Davies and James Harrigan: Lessons from skateboarders’ civil disobedience
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Pittsburgh Public Works Director Mike Gable made quite a splash recently when he ordered that the West Penn Skate Park in Polish Hill be filled with sand. He did this in reaction to people’s desire to use the skate park for its actual purpose: skateboarding. Speaking of the young people in the park, Gable said, “They are not social distancing, and they are congregating in a small area.”
Chaining the park closed wasn’t enough. Those miscreants who were not standing sufficiently far away from each other simply climbed over the fence and cut the locks, causing Gable to resort to more draconian methods. “We have been forced to do this,” he said, “because people are just not listening. They are determined, so we have to take extra measures.”
Instead of taking his cues from the people of Pittsburgh — people who are clearly fed up with having to stay indoors for weeks at a time — Gable looked instead to California, where the same sort of foolishness played out a couple of weeks ago. Sadly, Gable didn’t bother to note how people there reacted to their petty dictators. But he should have.
San Clemente officials filled their skate park with some 37 tons of sand, making it unusable for skateboarders. It did, however, make it perfect for dirt bikers, who made immediate use of the park. Once they had their fun, the bikers and skateboarders combined forces. They dug the park clean, making it suitable for skating once again. Someone even listed “free sand” on the local Craigslist, with the skate park’s address on the ad.
The good people of Pittsburgh registered their displeasure in their own way, by dumping sand in the revolving door at city hall.
The short lesson here, had Gable bothered to think about it for even a few minutes, is that lockdown fatigue is growing. As it does, people are becoming less tolerant of bureaucratic tyranny. Tyrants, of course, are always the last to figure this sort of thing out. They take as given that people will simply obey their dictates, no matter how idiotic.
Yes, people understand Gable’s intent, but they are also coming to understand that the psychological and economic costs are much higher and the covid-19 death toll much lower than what they were led to expect. Consider: 120 people have died from covid-19 in Allegheny County since the lockdown began, and 70% of those deaths occurred in nursing homes. That leaves the death toll among those not in nursing homes at around 36, or about four per week. For perspective, more than 260 people die per week in Allegheny County on a regular basis — that’s more than 15 times Allegheny’s covid-19 death rate, even including nursing home deaths.
Will Gable think about what drove the skateboarders to their disobedience? Likely not. Tyrants’ typical response to civil disobedience is indignation rather than contemplation, and that leads to them doubling down or poor policy rather than reconsidering it.
With Mayor Bill Peduto facing reelection in 2021 and Gov. Tom Wolf leaving office after 2022, a political storm is coming. If citizens determine our leaders’ policies have made a bad situation worse, there will be a severe political reckoning. And if that comes to pass, all the tyrants, from smallest to largest, will be shown the door.