On July 7, 2007, Baltimore City Police Officer Salvatore Rivieri approached a group of teens who were skateboarding along Baltimore’s Inner Harbor near the Maryland Science Center. Given the amount of foot traffic that flows through the area, skateboarding and cycling are not allowed due to the threat of injury to pedestrians.
Amongst the teens was 14 year old Eric Bush who, as luck would have it, had a friend that recorded the encounter with Officer Rivieri. Seven months after the incident, the video appeared on YouTube and went viral.
Almost two years after the incident, internal police charges were made against Officer Rivieri:
As a result of this incident, on June 15, 2009, the Department charged [Officer Rivieri] with five violations of the Baltimore Police Department General Orders. The first charge included eight counts of conduct unbecoming a member of the Baltimore Police Department, including unnecessary use of force, assault, use of profane language, failure to issue Mr. Bush a Citizen/Police Contact Receipt, and failure to submit a Miscellaneous Incident Report to appellant’s supervisor. The second charge included two counts of unnecessary force and/or violence. The third charge again included a count of failure to submit a Miscellaneous Incident Report. The fourth charge again included a count of failure to issue Mr. Bush a Citizen/Police Contact Receipt. The fifth and final charge included two counts of neglect of duty, comprised again of one count of failure to submit a Miscellaneous Incident Report and one count of failure to issue Mr. Bush a Citizen/Police Contact Receipt.
On July 15 and 16, 2010, a hearing board consisting of other members of various ranks from the Baltimore Police Department met to decide what, if any actions should be taken against Officer Rivieri.
During the hearing, Officer Rivieri testified Eric Bush had threatened him with the skateboard. There is no evidence to support that claim. Rivieri also claimed he had issued a contact receipt to Bush, but there is no record of that contact receipt anywhere.
It appears Officer Rivieri has issues with the truth.
The outcome of the hearing is hard to believe. (more…)
Apr 26, 2012
Posted by AAfterwit on Apr 26, 2012 | Comments Off
Editor’s Note: The following post is not meant to demean all police, but rather highlight some of the failings of people who are in the law enforcement profession. It’s the people – not the profession.
Once in awhile you just have to wonder what people are thinking.
Take for example Officer Bret Witte of the Fargo, South Dakota police department. Officer Witte is in a bit of hot water for leaving his car unlocked and having several pairs of handcuffs, a bulletproof vest, a handheld radio, a Taser, two loaded ammunition clips for a handgun and a knife stolen.
This is not the first time Witte has been in the spotlight for the wrong reason. Witte had been previously disciplined for trying to taze a driver who he claimed was leaving the scene of an accident. The police found Witte’s use of a tazer to be outside of the “use of force” guidelines the police department had established.
Witte was also reprimanded in 2002 for having sex in his patrol car with an 18 year old who was his girlfriend. Two years later, she was arrested for prostitution.
What makes the story of the theft of his equipment so funny is that a man came to the police station locked in the handcuffs looking to have them removed. It seems the thief is a friend and put them on the guy and without a key, could not get them off.
There is a certain poetic justice to that.
In Des Moines, Iowa, Officer Brandon Singleton demonstrated the wrong way to handle being in a traffic accident:
Police Sgt. Chris Scott said Singleton apparently crashed his vehicle around 1 a.m. Tuesday in the 3800 block of East Ovid Avenue. A neighbor told police he heard a noise and saw a police car at the scene.
Over five hours later, at 6:34 a.m., Singleton told dispatchers he needed help changing a tire in the 2600 block of Dean Avenue — over three miles away. A police supervisor noticed damage on the patrol car that didn’t add up with Singleton’s description of what had happened: The car had two flat tires and some body damage, Scott said.
An officer allegedly spotted marijuana in the car. That prompted a search that turned up meth and drug paraphernalia, police said.
Let’s see….. hit and run, leaving the scene of an accident and drugs in the car. (more…)
Sep 10, 2011
Posted by AAfterwit on Sep 10, 2011 | Comments Off
This could either be a new entry in our series of “Cop Behaving Badly” or another in the long list of “Stupid Federal Government Tricks.”
Glenn Gross, a 22 year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department and who works in the Information Technology Department has been arrested and booked on 215 counts of injuring public records and a single count of malfeasance in office.
Gross “wrote” and entered tickets for seat belt violations against drivers that do not exist. While the drivers may have been fictitious, the money Gross received was not.
Gross was paid by a federal grant given to the New Orleans Police Department to cover overtime for officers that write seat belt tickets.
Gross was caught when a supervisor checked on some of the tickets and couldn’t find any real drivers. The supervisor turned the information over to internal investigators of the NOPD.
The investigation may not end with Gross:
Officials said the investigation is continuing and that other officers, and possibly a supervisor, are also under scrutiny. [Superintendent Ronal] Serpas said he couldn’t say how much overtime Gross collected as a result of the scam.
We cannot figure out what is more stupid and ridiculous – a cop writing tickets for phantom drivers, or the Federal Government providing a grant to pay overtime for cops to be writing tickets for anything, much less a seat belt violations.
Can’t we just end the madness and stop these type of federal expenditures?
Aug 5, 2011
Posted by AAfterwit on Aug 5, 2011 | Comments Off
Back on July 22, 2011, we posted a video of Canton Police Officer Daniel Harless having what many consider a less than exemplary day on the job. Another video, this one from July 29, 2010, has surfaced staring Officer Harless.
Unlike the first video, there is no indication one way or the other as to whether the passenger of the car has a concealed weapon carrying permit.
The commands, words and thoughts that Harless uses in the above video are eerily similar to those used in the video we posted earlier. In both cases, Harless threatens the citizen with being shot, and Harless claiming he would not lose any sleep over it. Imagine if you were to threaten a cop with such language. Or imagine that you threatened a neighbor saying that you were going to shoot them. The cops would arrest you and rightfully so. Yet in both of these cases, one of which we see that the citizen is handcuffed, the cop is allowed to threaten the citizen with what amounts to an execution.
Police have a difficult job. There is no one who doubts that. They get put in some unpredictable, situations – situations that can result in injury and death to either the officer or the citizen. (more…)
Jul 22, 2011
Posted by AAfterwit on Jul 22, 2011 | Comments Off
In 1967, an episode of Star Trek, (the original series) called Mirror, Mirror was broadcast. The plot centered around some of the Enterprise’s crew were accidentally transported into parallel and alternate universe in which they were no longer “good and benevolent,” but ruthless and evil.
We sometimes wonder if we don’t see that scenario daily. While there are good teachers, there are teachers who do not deserve to be near kids. There are politicians who want to serve their constituents and politicians who want to control power and money. There are companies. who are responsible on many levels and then there are companies who care only about the bottom line. In every profession there are good people and there are those whose “mirror” reflects a certain type of evil.
Policemen are not immune to this. There are a large number of good cops out there in this country. There are men and women who are put in difficult and sometimes life threatening situations every day. We do not intend to demean or dismiss the job they do.
Sadly, there is another type of cop out there as well. These are cops that are power hungry, abusive, and need to be stopped.
Reluctantly, we have decided to add a new category here at Raised on Hoecakes to highlight some of those abusive and non-professional cops. (more…)
Quote of the Day
There is no work, however vile or sordid, that does not glisten before God. — John Calvin
