Officer Dude

My attention has been caught by the sad story of Officer Salvatore “Dude” Rivieri roughing up a young skateboarder. (In case anyone has not seen the video, you can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgWrV8TcUc.) I’m going to leave the emotional reactions, of which I’ve had many, aside, and go for a legal viewpoint.

Even if we give Officer Dude the benefit of the doubt and assume that the kids in the video were being total jerks — heck, let’s say that the moment before Officer Dude got out of his vehicle they were taunting him, making rude gestures, and calling him “pig” — there is no evidence that they were doing physical harm to others or threatening Officer Dude with physical harm. They had no weapons. They weren’t waving their skateboards at him in a menacing manner. Furthermore, the young skater was not resisting arrest. In short, there was no duty-related reason for an officer to use force. In other words, this was an assault, plain and simple. Neither a police badge nor a tender ego gives a person permission to assault someone. (Let alone assaulting a youth a third his size.)

That’s right, I’m going to come right out and say it. Officer Dude was wrong, wrong, wrong. He should have kept his angry, grubby hands off that kid, no matter if the kid was the worst kind of foul-mouthed, disrespectful punk there is.

Having said all that, I wonder: Why is this so interesting to me? I usually don’t even watch the news because I just don’t need to be reminded of all the ugliness in the world. What’s revving me up about this case is just the gut reaction about how wrong O. D. was — and how right I am.