I expect simple behaviours here. Friendship, and love. Any advice should be from the perspective of the person asking, not the person giving! We have had to make new membership moderated to combat the huge number of spammers who register
Location: US/Canada
Registered: September 2009
Messages: 733
SPECIAL TO IOMFATS-By Brody Levesque (Bethesda, Maryland) July 30 | Ten days ago a Baltimore City Police Officer was cleared of the most serious administrative charges, involving berating and pushing a 14-year-old skateboarder at the Inner Harbor three years ago which was not only caught on tape but was uploaded to YouTube and went viral.
According to City Desk beat reporter Peter Hermann writing for The Baltimore Sun newspaper:
"A three-member police panel called a trial board held a hearing last week and found Officer Salvatore Rivieri guilty of failing to issue the youth a citizen contact receipt and file a report but not guilty on charges of using excessive and unnecessary force and uttering a discourtesy
Hermann also reported that:
"The video, which was posted online by one of the skateboarder's friends, became an Internet sensation in part because of Rivieri's rant on the ever-contentious topic of whether teens pay enough deference to authority. Rivieri became enraged when Eric Bush, listening to an iPod, appeared to ignore him and later repeatedly referred to the officer as "dude" and "man."
At one point, Rivieri told Bush: "Don't get defensive with me, son, or you'll spend some time in juvenile. You aren't allowed to ride your skateboards down here, nowhere."
Then, Rivieri went on his now-famous rant:
"Obviously your parents don't put a foot in your butt quite enough because you don't understand the meaning of respect," the officer screamed at Bush. "First of all, you better learn how to speak. I'm not 'man.' I'm not 'dude.' I am Officer Rivieri, and the sooner you learn that the longer you're going to live in this world. You go around doing this kind of stuff, somebody's going to kill you."
Hermann writes:
"The officer's lawyer, Michael Davey, confirmed the trial board's decision but refused to comment further, noting that "the case is not concluded until the commissioner signs the final order." He said that the police commissioner does have the right to fire his client.
But William P. Blackford, the attorney for the now 17-year-old skateboarder, said the department has yet to take the simple step to say it's sorry.
"I never thought Officer Rivieri was an evil man," the lawyer said. "He overreacted. They should just apologize." He said that dragging the case out over three years only shows the public that police have unique rights and "re-enforces the insidious perception that the police play by different rules.""
[Video below.] The most obvious aspect to the video is that it serves to illustrate how American law enforcement pushes the limits of acceptable practises and unless confronted in a very public fashion, will continually abuse the authority it is granted.
In many instances during otherwise peaceful protests, there have been American police officers who have behaved just as badly as this one towards persons exercising their freedom of speech & expression.
During a recent LGBT Pride event in the American deep south, the prevailing attitude of the law enforcement contingent was not too dissimilar to that expressed by this Baltimore Officer towards the participants.
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Baltimore Police Officer Cleared On Abuse Of Authority 
