Skateboarding has always been at odds with public spaces. The streets, pavements, stairs, and more that make life easier for pedestrians also make for the perfect playground. Hence, neighborhoods and even cities have gone to great lengths to deter skateboarders from practicing their craft in public. So, what happens when one such measure hurts the very pedestrian they were supposed to protect?

Unfortunately for four-year-old Finley Richards, it resulted in a gash that’s likely to leave a mark permanently. Four-year-old Richards was visiting Manchester’s Cathedral Gardens with his parents when he tripped and fell. While falling on the pavement would definitely hurt, the anti-skateboarding “blades” on the sidewalk made things much worse!

Young Finley smelled his head against one of the protruding blades, opening up a deep gash on his forehead. “It was very traumatic, there was lots of blood,” said the child’s father, Paul Richards, after rushing his kid to Accident and Emergency (A&E). Richards also said the city council should remove the “obviously very dangerous” skate stoppers. However, he wasn’t the only one.

“Total disgrace. Disgusting. Remove them immediately. What sort of moron allowed them in the first place?” questioned the netizen on X. The fan called out the City Council’s ignorance and lack of foresight before installing such hostile architecture. Paul Richards also agreed and reported the ‘blades’ to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The child’s father argued that the City Council could’ve come up with several other methods to deter skateboarding in public places. However, he was disappointed to see the city take the easy way out by adopting hostile architecture that could cause “potentially life-altering” injuries. The sidewalks of Cathedral Gardens feature rounded but thick, protruding blade-like structures.

These skate stoppers are equally spaced and line the entire sidewalk. They have a simple objective: To ensure skateboarders can’t grind on or perform tricks on the sidewalk. However, Finley Richards’ accidents have exposed them as unsafe even for regular pedestrians. Thankfully, the City Council took notice of their short-sightedness.

Skateboarding fans weren’t the only ones raising their voice

To say the incident angered netizens would be an understatement. “We never like to hear about any person getting hurt, whatever the circumstances. The Council has been made aware of an accident that occurred in Cathedral Gardens at an event earlier in September and the relevant departments are currently reviewing the incident,” said a City Council spokesperson.

However, that didn’t seem to earn them any sympathy points from X-users. “Why do councils insist on shutting down public spaces? The installation of anti-skater blades, and anti-homeless spikes is more anti-social than skaters or the homeless have ever been,” argued one netizen. For the uninitiated, the blades at the Cathedral Gardens are far from the only example of hostile architecture.

Hostile architecture doesn’t stop at skate stoppers. In November 2017, Vox published a now-viral video showcasing the examples of hostile architecture in major cities such as New York. The video showed standing benches, uneven and protruding vents, metal stubs on pavement, and more. These architectural features deterred not just skateboarding but also discouraged gatherings and the homeless.

Meanwhile, one netizen couldn’t understand why the City Council needed such extreme deterrents. “Why are people anti-skateboarding? They’re doing no harm, and it’s an outdoor activity that gets kids off their screens. Those blades look lethal for tripping over too.” commented the distraught netizen. Even those who didn’t agree with skating in public places couldn’t justify the blades of what happened to Finley Richards.

“These are a disgusting thing to have, but at the same time, I’ve seen the state of our local park thanks to skaters,” commented a netizen. However, while most pressed their anger at the planners, some mocked them with sarcasm. “Damn, whoever could’ve predicted something like this would happen, except everyone who predicted that something like this would obviously happen,” connected one user.

Everyone on the internet understood the danger of anti-skateboarding blades. However, what surprised and disgusted them was that it took a four-year-old getting permanently scared for the members of the City Council to see the same.