A group of skateboarders is upset over a YouTube video depicting a Baltimore police officer pushing and yelling at a teenager who called him “dude.”
“It?s obviously an incident that drew attention to the plight of our youth and adult skateboarders,” said Stephanie Murdock, president of Skatepark of Baltimore.
“I?m upset by the way the situation was handled. If it were kids playing baseball, I doubt they would have been treated the same way.”
A Baltimore police officer was suspended with pay this week after a video surfaced Saturday on YouTube.com. It depicts him yelling at, pushing and bullying a skateboarder.
In a letter to the Baltimore City Council mailed Wednesday, Murdock said the incident, which has drawn national attention, underscores the need for a second, larger skateboarding park.
“The entire skateboarding community of Baltimore is currently being underserved with the facilities we have in place,” wrote Murdock, who said two Council members have responded. “If your city doesn?t have a skate park, your city is a skate park.”
The video showed Officer Salvatore Rivieri patrolling the Inner Harbor in mid-July and telling a group of skateboarders that skateboarding was not allowed there. Rivieri took offense after Eric Bush, 14, called him “dude.”
Bush?s mother, Peggy Miller, said suspension isn?t enough punishment.
“He?s getting a vacation out of this,” she said.
Murdock said her group has received a $30,000 grant from the Abel Foundation and raised $11,000 toward building a $1 million park.
“The only skate park in Baltimore is Carroll Park, which is only 10,000 square feet,” she said. “We need close to 64,000 square feet.”
