“I don’t know why I said there were rules. Maybe I was drinking.”
Now stories from Southern California The Bay Boys gang has long been told by surfers to their children as bedtime scary stories to keep the young charges alert and on edge. “Be careful tonight, little 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 organization that guards Lunada Bay in Palos Verdes has long been in the news, but was recently brought to trial on charges of dangerousness and lewdness. Several witnesses described a level of intimidation rarely seen outside the Amazon jungle, such as exposing genitals when removing wetsuits or throwing rocks near people.
However, a case currently being tried in court is quickly becoming unsettled and with it the Bay Boys’ reputation as more dangerous than MS13. Two Bay Boys were killed during the Civil proceedingsFirst, Sang Lee was caught sending a confusing email to other Bay Boys in which he called himself a pirate and said that he would “die by these rules.”
The plaintiff’s attorney, Honorable Vic Otten, asked him, “Is it true that you believe Lunada Bay belongs to you and a select group of people?” Lee replied, “No, I don’t think so. It is a matter of particular concern to me. We are trying to clean up the area…” He then said the wave was not “world class,” but merely “better than average.”
Next, Otten asked him about the “rules.” Lee replied, “What are the rules? There are no rules. I don’t know why I said that…” before adding, “I don’t know, maybe I was drinking.”
Regarding the “pirate” reference, Lee replied that he calls himself one because “I kind of like pirates.”
When plaintiff Thomas Long was called, he admitted under cross-examination that he had only been told that “the things he was doing were not against surfing etiquette” and that he had never been threatened or subjected to violence.
The judge, the Honorable Lawrence Riff, was visibly frustrated when told that 17 victims were waiting to tell their stories of suffering. He sighed, “It would pile up unnecessarily and take up an unnecessary amount of time.” He then said that settling the case would be best for everyone.
According to the plaintiff’s second attorney, Mr. Franklin, their clients do not want money, but “a whole series of improvements from the city to encourage public access: signs welcoming visitors and showing them available parking, improvements to the steep and rocky ‘goat path’ leading down to the beach to make it easier to descend, a marine telescope on the cliff, and seating, water fountains, bike racks and railings along the entire cliff.”
Sounds funny.
More on this later in the story.
