What abuse? Taking his skateboard? Ah, poor baby.
That’s what we do with kids. Take their toys away if they don’t behave.
I guess you missed the assault. I suggest a visit to the optometrist.
At my factory we have a lot of exterior concrete ramps and railing and other attractive nuisances. So we had a skater problem.
The first time my plant supervisor (bike marathoner, fitness junkie, etc.) ran out and tore them a new one as they sped off.
The next time he grabbed me, thinking he’d want back-up if it came to violence.
I was depressed from having just been dumped by a short-term GF and was non-responsive to adrenaline stimulus, and as we approached them I started talking before my revved-up boss did. I told them I wished I could offer them the use of our facillities, but knew they could get hurt or creamed by a semi coming in to make a delivery; so even though they were willing to face those risks, it would really be a favor to me to not expose us to our side of them. They never came back.
They’re on those boards in the first place learning to face “danger.” When some cop adds another dimension to the danger its just part of the same process. In their own way, they’re practicing to become men, and if you approach them as men there’s a good chance they’ll respond to it.
These kids are in a publicly marked “no skateboarding” area, they know this and skateboard there anyway and like to videotape their encounters with the cops. They know exactly what they’re doing and it’s just not the same scenario as yours. A cop being all cool and saying, 'you know guys, I wish you could skateboard here but you might get hurt" just isn’t going to work here. Well, maybe it works sometimes, the cop in the video seemed to have simply stopped by to tell the kids they can’t skateboard there and that seems to be a daily routine there between skateboarders and the cops but this one day Eric decided to earn some street cred. I got no sympathy.
I suspect there’s a middle ground somewhere between “gee, you might get hurt” and “scream in your face and throw you to the ground”
It’s laughable to think this cop used the only tools at his disposal to deal with these kids. If this happens every day, there must be a process of escalating citations that will eventually convince the kids to quit skateboarding there.
Well, you pick your battles and decide how to deal with each battle. This is Baltimore. One of the US’s murder-crime capitals. I guess you could spend your time bogging up the juvenile criminal justice system writing up underaged skateboarders with attitudes $100 fines or you could just occasionally tell them to “KNOCK THAT SHIT OFF,” and confiscate their toys if they give you attitude.
There are always going to be kids, but these particular kids are only going to be their particular age-group for a year or two. Do we want some “zero tolerance” policy? What good is that going to do? Every year there’s going to be a new group of 14-year-olds doing the same shit 14-year-olds always do.
I coach, ref and ump youth sports. When I ref or ump, I do not answer to dude. I answer ref or to ump. If a kid gets in my face, I bring the coach out and let them know that the next time it happens, the kids is ejected.
When a kid on my team calls me dude, he gets either a lap or pushups. That is unacceptable.
Unfortunately, we have raised a generation of kids that do not know how to interact with adults / authority figures / their bettors. This leads to kids to who decide to grab a camera, break the law, and fuck with the cops for fun and giggles.
That ALL said, I have no defense for the cop.
You continue to gloss over the whole throwing the kid to the ground part of this encounter.
A folder full of $100 fines is going to go a long way to convincing these kids (and the younger kids who will hear the stories) that they’ll need to find a new place to skateboard.
Simple question: did the cop manhandle the kid, or didn’t he?
Because you continue to argue as if all he did was yell at them and take the skateboard away.
Wow … I read through to post 108 before I got a chance to watch the video. I’m flabbergasted. From a societal point of view—the Rawlsian society I want to live in—I hope the policeman never finds work with any semblance of authority, from rent-a-cop to bathroom attendant.
His actions as an individual, as a private person having an interaction with skater punks, is one thing. It could possibly be argued that he showed restraint. However, his actions as an officer of the law are reprehensible and indefensible.
There’s another video now, from last summer. Odie kicks a toy car that pissed him off.
He was just trying to give Buggy Jr. a little fatherly guidance.
I tells ya. It’s the bee suit – compelling him to defend his hive.
What a shitheel!
What would you say if I told you we have raised a generation of authority figures who do not know how to interact with the public?
I would say that “raised” is the wrong verb. You do not raise an authority figure. You train them, and then you allow certain types of behavior to go unchecked.
With kids, however, you raise them. When you teach your kid to call other adults by their first name, to not show respect for adults, to call them “dude,” you teach the kids that children are the equal of adults. That can later cause many problems in adult/child interaction. It can go further into adulthood when young adults are interacting with authority figures.
However, I would entertain a hypothesis that in some parts of the country a culture of “us vs them” in police forces has arisen. I did not see it until I moved to California and started meeting white, middle class citizens who hated the cops.
I personally have never had a problem with the cops. I have been let go with warnings multiple times when I deserved a ticket. I have always treated them with the respect due their uniform. The individuals did not always deserve it, but that is how I was raised. It was further beat into my by the military. It is reinforced by my complete lack of problem interactions with the police - even in my drunken college days.
I tell my sons to say “yes sir (or ma’am)” to the police. To not argue. To be polite. I tell them if it gets bad to shut up, and tell the police that they do not wish to speak without their parents.
If I found out that my son and his friends were skating somewhere it is not allowed and were videotaping their interactions with the police - there would not longer BE a skateboard (or a video camera) for my son to use. I would also put him on restriction until he showed that he understands the rules of behavior in our society.
If the kid in the video was my son - he would not find himself with any time to go skating with his friends for quite sometime. I would also, however, be having a meeting the Chief about his officer.
What about when the young adult gets a job and becomes an authority figure? Police officers don’t suddenly spring into existence - they used to be kids too.
I think Beware of Doug’s point might be that maybe officer Rivieri wasn’t “raised” right either. Yes, kids should treat authority figures with respect. But authority figures should also be professional and not blow their tops 30 seconds into a very minor incident that probably is similar to other situations that happen all the time.
Heh…the first words out of my mouth when I saw the video: “There’s someone who got his ass kicked in gym class every damn day”.
And I think Algher’s point, whether he intended to make it or not, is that authority figures don’t owe society nearly as much slack as we sometimes wish they’d cut us. People’s rights as citizens used to be earned, in no small part by allowing authority figures much more control over our daily lives. Now our rights are often taken to be entitled.
I wouldn’t want to go back to the days when society forbid any questioning of abusive cops or teachers, or when a boy wasn’t a man until he’d learned to take shit from a drill sergeant. But there has to be some point on the continuum where we give some dignity to the position of police officer, and not think of him as if he was just another skateboarder or Burger King employee or Joe Whatever.
I’m really curious why you would object to videotaping what he does. If anything, I would encourage more videotaping to provide more evidence than just two diametrically opposed stories that both parties would likely tell.
Imagine this story without a videotape. That cop would in all probability still be out on the street.
I agree with your point about there being a place on the continuum were we give some respect to the position of a police officer and have done so in the past, but if I had had more than one encounter like the either of the two now available as taped “asshole demonstrations” provided by this same officer, it would be hard to give that respect as the default option.