Gossip Queen: Sam Newman on lockdown as skateboarders threaten to rally
Sam Newman has described himself as like a prisoner in his own home as police urge him not to confront skateboarding “pests” who threaten to rally outside his Docklands apartment in protest against him.
Fiona Byrne
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Sam Newman has described himself as like a prisoner in his own home as police urge him not to confront skateboarding “pests” who threaten to rally outside his Docklands apartment.
Newman has become public enemy number one for a group of skaters after he was filmed last month confronting a pack who were skating in the precinct near his apartment in defiance of a council sign banning such activity.
The disgruntled skaters organised a protest on his doorstep on Saturday.
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“I was advised (by police) not to come down and tell them they should not be there. I said ‘what, so be a prisoner in my own precinct?,” Newman said.
“They are anti-social pests looking to become, as Andy Warhol said, famous for 15 minutes in their life by using me as a scapegoat for quelling their fun.
“It is a try on and I am not quite sure why I would be told not to get involved. That is how anarchy takes over with people who want to be pests.”
Newman said it was ridiculous the council would not enforce its own rules.
“I pay a fortune in rates, a fortune in body corporate for the place we live in and it is ridiculous that the council don’t police their own bylaws,” he said.
“There is a picture of a skateboard with a line through it. The police and I rang the council and they said ‘yes, that is an advisory sign’.
“Why would the council bother to put a sign up if they don’t want people to adhere to it?”
The planned protest however, that was promoted via Facebook, was a fizzer with only four people turning up to sit on the disputed steps.
But another anti-Newman skater rally is pending next month.
Meanwhile Newman broke his shackles and went golfing on Saturday.
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