“I don’t know why I said there were rules. Maybe I
was drinking.”
Now, tales of the Southern California gang Bay
Boys have long been shared by surfers to their children as
horrifying bedtime stories in order to keep young charges on edge
and alert. “Be careful tonight, li’l Koa, or the Bay Boys will come
through your windows, build a makeshift fort in your room and tell
you to ‘scrub it.’”
The notorious association guarding Palos Verdes’ Lunada Bay have
long been in the news but, more recently, brought to trial for
being dangerous and lewd. Various witnesses describing levels of
vicious intimidation rarely seen outside of the Amazon jungle.
Exposing genitalia, for instance, when changing out of wetsuits or
throwing rocks near to people.
One case, currently winding through the courts, though is
quickly unraveling and with it the Bay Boys’ reputation as more
dangerous than MS13. Two Bay Boys were examined during the civil
proceedings. First, Sang Lee how had been busted for
sending a rambling email to other Bay Boys in which he called
himself a pirate and said he would “die by these rules.”
The honorable plaintiffs attorney Vic Otten asked him, “Is it
true that you believe Lunada Bay belongs to you and a select group
of people?” Lee responded, “No, I don’t think so. It has a special
place in my heart. We try to clean up the area…” then said the wave
was not “world-class” merely “better than average.”
Next, Otten asked him about the “rules.” Lee answered, “What are
the rules? There’s no rules. I don’t know why I said that…” before
adding “I don’t know, maybe I was drinking.”
In regards to the “pirate” reference, Lee replied he called
himself one because, “I kind of like pirates.”
When plaintiff Thomas Long was called, he admitted under cross
examination that he was simply told the “things he was doing were
not inconsistent with surfing etiquette” and that he’d never been
threatened or subjected to violence.
The judge, Honorable Lawrence Riff, became visibly frustrated
when told there were 17 victims waiting to share their stories of
woe, sighing, “It will be unduly cumulative, and will be an undue
consumption of time.” He then said settling the case would be best
for everyone.
According to the plaintiff’s second attorney, Mr. Franklin,
their clients don’t want money but rather “want the city to install
a panoply of improvements to encourage public access: signs
welcoming visitors and pointing them toward available parking,
upgrades to the steep and rocky ‘goat trail’ leading down to the
beach making it easier to descend, a blufftop sea telescope, as
well as seating, water fountains bike racks and railing all along
the blufftop.”
Sounds fun.
More as the story develops.
