Let those Cameras Roll !!!!

All of us can make the world a better place if we all take Bob Saget’s advice from “American Funniest Home Videos” and keep those camera’s rolling, because as off recently, the police have been the stars on TV, receiving anything but $10,000 for having the best video clip. Sadly these videos are neither funny nor worth joking about.
Camera’s have caught a lot of exciting material over the years ranging from hilarious crotch shots, to elephants humping rhinos and even amateur porn. But the social implications of having people on the street with cameras have done wonders for cleaning up the streets exposing excessively abusive cops because with cops like these, who needs bullies?
In 1991, Rodney King became an icon in an instant. Thanks to the amateur footage from George Holliday, he caught the whole incident on tape. After the video hit the television airwaves, people were up in arms at the LAPD, and change resulted after riots, killings and looting. Brutality was brought to the surface of social problems, and police realized they might indeed get caught on camera.
But is Baltimore the new L.A.? And is Eric Bush the new Rodney King? The newest chapter of brutality comes from the Baltimore harbor. If people didn’t trust the police now, I don’t know what they think after this. This one Baltimore officer in fact puts the “rut” in brutality. Officer Salvatore Rivieri of the Baltimore police was video taped being overly aggressive towards 14 year old Eric Bush. Officer Rivieri was taped was taped putting the child in a choke hold and dragging him to the ground.
But have we judged too soon? UC Campus Safety officer, Gary Hodgeson, thinks that people need to try and understand where Rivieri is coming from. Hodgeson senses Rivieri came from a “Strict Italian family, where rules are rules . . . and the kids he was dealing with are prototypical of the ones I deal with here . . . These kids think they are granted rights they really aren’t, and a police officers job is made more difficult.” He continued, “As the adult, he should have drawn the line and didn’t. He let anger and emotion gets the better of him.”
In a Baltimore Sun, Mayor Sheila Dixon called Rivieri a "bad apple" and the officer was immediately suspended. At the end of the video, Officer Rivieri yelps, “Is that camera on? If I find myself on. . .” What seems to be coming out is a “you” possibly referring to YouTube then the video cuts off . . . How quickly he knew how his own fate was sealed. Why cops still use excessive force in an age where anyone can post videos online at any time, why take the risk? It’s just silly. International cops don’t seem to be getting all this negative attention, why American’s? Maybe the end to Saget’s AFHV’s theme explains it . . . “Oh the funny things you do, America, America, this is you.”