Skateboarding is not permitted in the Inner Harbor.
Paul Blair, head of the police union, had not seen the video but cautioned that videos show only a slice of a story. He noted that it is impossible to know what happened before or after the camera was turned on.
The video came to the attention of the police after a Sun reporter e-mailed the link to the police Sunday morning seeking comment.
The video was posted on YouTube on Saturday but probably was made late last summer, according to the Police Department.
The 3 1/2 -minute video shows Rivieri walking toward a group of boys, one of whom is holding a skateboard. The boy says he did not hear an order that the officer had given him before the video starts.
"Take the earplugs out of your ears. Can you hear me now? Hey, I'm talking to you. Can you hear me?" Rivieri says.
Rivieri tells the boy he is not allowed to use his skateboard.
"OK, I didn't hear you," the boy says.
"Don't get defensive with me," Rivieri says. "You backed off me. I'm not your father. You hear me. I'm not your father. You give that attitude to your father. You give it to me and I'll smack you."
One boy says, "I don't have a father."
"Shut your mouth, I'm talking," Rivieri says.
One boy repeatedly uses the word dude when addressing Rivieri, and the word becomes a point of contention.
"Sit down. I'm not a dude," Rivieri says. He then pushes a boy to the ground and walks away with his skateboard.
"Dude, don't take my skateboard. I didn't do anything, dude," the boy says.
Rivieri replies: "If you call me dude one more time. ... Are you from the county or something?"
The officer's tone becomes increasingly harsh.
The boy, who says on the video that he is 14, says he wants to call his mother, and later the officer asks to speak with her. It is unclear whether that conversation took place.
The person who made the video does not talk and is never identified, though at one point Rivieri addresses the person with the camera, saying, "You got that camera on? If I find myself on ... " The video cuts off before Rivieri finishes his sentence.
Clifford said the boy never made an official complaint to the Police Department and that Rivieri has no other citizen complaints in his file.
annie.linskey@baltsun.com gus.sentementes@baltsun.com
