posted February 13, 2008 05:48 PM         

Last I heard on this story the man had some broken ribs which he did not know at the time since he cannot feel anything from his shoulders down.

posted February 13, 2008 10:53 PM         

www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-te.md.officer12feb12,0,2952754.storybaltimoresun.com
Inner Harbor incident hits Internet
Officer suspended after video shows him berating teen

By Annie Linskey and Gus G. Sentementes

Sun reporters

February 12, 2008

A Baltimore police officer was suspended yesterday after a YouTube video surfaced on the Internet showing him berating and manhandling a teenage skateboarder at the Inner Harbor.

On the video, the officer, Salvatore Rivieri, puts the boy in a headlock, pushes him to the ground, questions his upbringing, threatens to "smack" him and repeatedly accuses the youngster of showing disrespect because the youth refers to the officer as "man" and "dude."

At one point, Rivieri, a 17-year veteran of the force, says:

"Obviously, your parents don't put a foot in your butt quite enough, because you don't understand the meaning of respect. First of all, you better learn how to speak. I'm not 'man.' I'm not 'dude,' I am Officer Rivieri. The sooner you learn that, the longer you are going to live in this world. Because you go around doing this kind of stuff and somebody is going to kill you."

Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department and the mayor's office, said authorities have begun an internal-affairs investigation.

"The entire incident raised red flags for all of the members of the command staff who watched the video," Clifford said.

He said yesterday afternoon that Mayor Sheila Dixon had not seen the video, which appears to have been shot last summer, but that its contents had been described to her and that she was "very displeased."

"We have invested a lot of time and energy in having better relations between the community and the police," Clifford said. "The bad behavior of one police officer can jeopardize a lot of hard work."

Clifford said Rivieri's suspension entails a transfer to administrative duties with pay.

Reached at home Sunday, Rivieri said he was not aware that the incident had been recorded or posted to a public Web site. He acknowledged having encounters with skateboarders at the Inner Harbor last summer and told a reporter that he would review the video on YouTube.

"These kids, they've got nothing better to do," Rivieri said.

Yesterday, after being suspended, Rivieri said, "I have no comment. Thank you."

Attempts to e-mail the person who posted the video were unsuccessful. Police said they do not know the identity of the youth involved or who shot the video.

Clifford said the department has tried to e-mail, through YouTube, the person who posted the video and is contacting area schools in an attempt to find the boy.

Skateboarding is not permitted in the Inner Harbor.

Paul Blair, head of the police union, had not seen the video but cautioned that videos show only a slice of a story. He noted that it is impossible to know what happened before or after the camera was turned on.

The video came to the attention of the police after a Sun reporter e-mailed the link to the police Sunday morning seeking comment.

The video was posted on YouTube on Saturday but probably was made late last summer, according to the Police Department.

The 3 1/2 -minute video shows Rivieri walking toward a group of boys, one of whom is holding a skateboard. The boy says he did not hear an order that the officer had given him before the video starts.

"Take the earplugs out of your ears. Can you hear me now? Hey, I'm talking to you. Can you hear me?" Rivieri says.

Rivieri tells the boy he is not allowed to use his skateboard.

"OK, I didn't hear you," the boy says.

"Don't get defensive with me," Rivieri says. "You backed off me. I'm not your father. You hear me. I'm not your father. You give that attitude to your father. You give it to me and I'll smack you."

One boy says, "I don't have a father."

"Shut your mouth, I'm talking," Rivieri says.

One boy repeatedly uses the word dude when addressing Rivieri, and the word becomes a point of contention.

"Sit down. I'm not a dude," Rivieri says. He then pushes a boy to the ground and walks away with his skateboard.

"Dude, don't take my skateboard. I didn't do anything, dude," the boy says.

Rivieri replies: "If you call me dude one more time. ... Are you from the county or something?"

The officer's tone becomes increasingly harsh.

The boy, who says on the video that he is 14, says he wants to call his mother, and later the officer asks to speak with her. It is unclear whether that conversation took place.

The person who made the video does not talk and is never identified, though at one point Rivieri addresses the person with the camera, saying, "You got that camera on? If I find myself on ... " The video cuts off before Rivieri finishes his sentence.

Clifford said the boy never made an official complaint to the Police Department and that Rivieri has no other citizen complaints in his file.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgWrV8TcUc

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The truth is ... everything counts. Everything. Everything we do and everything we say. Everything helps or hurts; everything adds to or takes away from someone else. ~ Countee Cullen

posted February 14, 2008 12:44 PM         

This particular city and police dept. are going to be a whole lot poorer after the law suit and the young man is going to be a whole lot richer. Which he fully deserves in recompense for the indignity and abuse he suffered at the hands of this cop and the cops all around him who either thought it was funny or just ignored the abuse.

posted February 14, 2008 12:57 PM         

Sociopaths will often enforce the laws they fear to break.

People become cops for several reasons.

One or more of the following may apply:

Too unintelligent for a better job.
(They did an expose on Michael Moore's old show,
"The Awful Truth", and there is a test they give
to aspiring officers, and they denied this guy
because he got a high score on the test.
They said he was overqualified.
They only want dumb cops.)

Sadistic.
(They get-off on having and abusing power.
Police work provides them with opportunities
to exercise their violent tendencies with impunity.)

Napoleon Complex
(They feel small and powerless,
so they choose a career that allows them to intimidate people,
and force people to give them, at least, a semblance of respect.)

They are lazy.
(They want a job that consists of mostly
sitting around with a radar, catching speeders,
and pulling up alongside other cruisers for a chat.)

They like to speed.
(This job gives them permission to drive 100 miles an hour
in order to give a ticket to someone who is driving 75 miles an hour,
on the premise that 75 miles an hour is a dangerous speed.
And they can speed whenever they want and not get pulled over.)

They just sort of fall into it.
(Many people just fall into their professions
for reasons of proximity and convenience.)

They actually want to serve and protect.
(This is the rarest type of law enforcement officer.
If you meet one, post a thread on it, because THAT is news.)

posted February 14, 2008 01:04 PM         

"This particular city and police dept. are going to be a whole lot poorer after the law suit and the young man is going to be a whole lot richer."

I'm happy for him, if he gets the dough, and it helps.
But taking money away from the body that is entrusted
with investigating crimes and keeping the streets safe
may not be the best way to get back at them.
They will just cut funds for things that matter.
And, anyway, we are talking about tax-payer money.
These cops should be prosecuted as civilians, -
just as civilians would be prosecuted for such abuses, -
and not as representatives of an institution.
They should pay out of their own pockets, for years to come.
Not let the tax-payers foot the bill for their gestapo tactics.