“First of all, you’ve disrespected me, this badge and my department!”
“Obviously, your parents don’t put a foot in your butt quite enough, ’cause you don’t understand the meaning of respect!”
“I am not Man, I am not Dude, I am Officer Rivieri!”
“–The sooner you learn that, the longer your gonna live in this world. ‘Cause you go around doing this kind of stuff, someone’s gonna kill you.”
Thanks to the power of a video camera, YouTube and the vigilance of a few skateboarders; they’ve been able to successfully document the abuses from another power-hungry cop who’s Napolean complex comes out throughout the video.
It’s possible these kids were violating a “no skateboarding” law or similar; but there was no actual crime committed since they were not actually skateboarding, they were leaving the premises. The officer approached them unsolicited, stole their property, physically and verbally assaulted them. Then he continues to harass them on their usage of the term “dude.”
The video ends when the kid gave his name, the officer turns to return to his golf cart, in passing, he asks the camera man, “Is that camera on? If I find myself on –.” LOL, Owned.
I guess there’s an ounce of goodness in this. The cop luckily just yelled and didn’t get trigger happy or wanted to try out his Taser on these adolescents. I’ve often advocated that discretion is key to proper enforcement. It’s quite clear that Officer Rivieri’s discretion needs some readjustment. I sense a little civil litigation should handle that.
Update: Another video of Officer Rivieri surfaces with him targeting an artist who was playing with his RC car in a public area. In both videos, the officer maintains the same stereotypical loud-mouth attitude. It’s almost comical, but really isn’t in many ways.