A Mom's YouTube Nightmare

Prius Recall | Millionaire Mom Murder | Sexist Super Bowl Ads

A Mom's YouTube Nightmare

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

filed under: family

The Mom of the YouTube skater speaks out.

A few weeks ago, we showed you the YouTube video of the skater kid who got roughed up by a police officer.

This week, Mom•Logic spoke with Eric's mother, Peggy, about her reaction to this video.

Mom•Logic: What exactly happened?

Peggy: My 14-year-old son, Eric, and some of his friends were skateboarding when I got a phone call from him. Eric is diabetic, so when something isn't right, he has a cell phone to call me. As Eric was talking to me, a police officer took the phone and said my son was being rude and disrespectful. The officer asked if he could take my son's skateboard. I said no, and asked him to put my son back on the phone. I told Eric to stop what he was doing, and to leave the area immediately. When he got home, he and his friends showed me the videotape.

Mom•Logic: What did you notice on the videotape?

Peggy: When the police officer told the kids to leave the area because they weren't allowed to skateboard there, Eric didn't hear the officer because he was riding his skateboard while listening to his iPod. On the tape, you can hear his friends yelling at him to turn his iPod off. The cop put him in an arm hold and Eric hit his head on the cement and broke his iPod. Eric was in shock. Eric said, "Dude, what's going on?"

Mom•Logic: As a mother, what was your reaction to this?

Peggy: Truthfully, I wanted to punch the guy out. The cop was verbally abusing my son, yelling at him and saying "I'm not your father!" When you're watching a video of someone attacking your son, you're like, "What are you doing?" My son is a child, and he's a full-blown diabetic. My son has never even gotten into a fistfight in school. If I got a hold of this cop... I wanted to attack him. I told Eric he handled this situation so well, and I was so proud of him because of the way he handled himself. He didn't respond back by using the F-word, he didn't hit the officer, and that's the way I am trying to raise him.

Mom•Logic: What kind of kid is Eric?

Peggy: Eric is the quiet one in school. He is laid back, and I never get calls from his teachers or anyone. Teachers say it's hard to get Eric to speak up in class, and that he's shy. He's a good kid. He struggles in school because of his diabetes, but he's a nice kid and has friends. I've been in touch with the Baltimore Police Department but they never got back to me. I did hear the officer in question has been suspended with pay. Now I've hired an attorney and I'm handing the case over to him. We need to get on with our lives. I am just trying to get Eric back to normal.

filed under: family

| Bookmark | Permalink |

Email | Comments (11)

11 comments so far | Post a comment now >>

I am sorry that this happened to your son,Peggy. I used to get harassed like that by cops when i was 15. I got arrested for standing on a public sidewalk for talking to my friends. I was not causing any trouble and the officer searched me roughly, handcuffed me to 2 other people and took me to juvenile hall. Not only was it humiliating but I was scarred out of my mind what a juvenile record would do to my future. How lucky for your family there was a friend there who caught it all on tape. There were no tapes for me. It will take a while to recover from this but kudos to you for going after this cop. May his badge be taken and he never be able to use the law to harass another kid again!

- Stephanie

Posted 02/26/08 01:02 PM

This is ridiculous. This cop has serious issues. Kudos to his friends for taping it. This must be why my mother always told be to be quiet and only speak when spoken to by a cop.

- Rae

Posted 02/26/08 01:34 PM

Peggy, I agree. If that was my kid, I would want to kick that guy’s behind. I hope you reported him, because he seriously needs to be fired.

- RealMomsHaveCurves

Posted 02/26/08 03:34 PM

You’re kidding me, right? That kid was rude and disrespectful and very typical of today’s urban teenagers. There are signs that say NO SKATEBOARDING, so maybe, just maybe, they should not have been there. Maybe you should have your kid learn a little about the English language and stop calling everyone dude for two seconds and learn how to be a decent citizen instead of skateboarding on public areas and disrespecting our police officers.

- YoureKiddingMe

Posted 02/27/08 11:48 AM

YoureKiddingMe (comment above) is clearly either the officer or someone closely related to him. There have been posts like that all over the internet on message boards re: this subject. Anyone in either their right mind or not trying to do damage control for office Rivera (or whatever his name is) can see the kid did nothing wrong. Don’t ease up on this Peggy, take it all the way. I hope your son recovers from this soon. Pathetic bullies like this officer don’t just need to be unemployed, but behind bars.

- I'mOn2U

Posted 02/28/08 12:16 PM

I live in Baltimore City and I am appalled by this tape. Honestly, this boy and his friends did nothing wrong, other than skateboard where it is not allowed. By no means is an adult allowed to lay their hands on a child like that, especially a police officer when nothing is happening. If I were you and the other people of this board and the many others who support this mother and son, I would be calling that department everyday insisting that something be done as punishment for this officer. He basically just got a vacation with pay. That’s nothing. Something has to be done.

- Alix

Posted 02/29/08 12:11 PM

I’m a teenager (no, I’m not a mom, I just stumbled onto this website by accident), so to think that a cop could come up and badmouth me for no reason is freaky. Sure, maybe your son wasn’t allowed to skate there, but everyone makes mistakes, and that is absolutely no excuse for a cop to be acting this way, especially to a fourteen-year-old.

- Alyssa

Posted 03/02/08 06:05 PM

i saw this from a friend of one of my boys ( i have 4 and 3 of them have skated for 13 yrs). and i must say that this happens many times to kids who skate !!!!! these kids are usually good straight kids that don’t cause problems. if these kids had a place to skate then maybe they would not be on the streets of baltimore. but the city or state does nothing to fix this !!!! i think that this cop should be out of work without pay, i tell ya if that was me or you and we put our hands on a 14 yr old we would be in jail and losing our pay. if this cop ever put his hands on my child like that…. i would be the one in jail for beating his you know what !!!!! the would have to peel me off him!!!! you know i see things everyday that i don’t understand drugdealers, drug addicts, prostitutes,and gang members can be in plan view of offficers on streets and public places soing illegal things and officers look the other way and do absolutly nothing !!!! but let a kid skatesome where and they want to beat the you know what out of them an take their boards, what’s wrong with this picture??!!! you know these boards aren’t cheap and these kids work hard for them and some go one to be professionals… i had one that did and lived around the corner from me. so just think officer rivera( you poor excuse for a police officer let alone a man) what comes around goes around!! you will see. i wonder is this piece of work a father ????

- skateboarders mom

Posted 03/04/08 11:45 PM

The police will have you believe that it is somehow illegal to “disrespect” them. There is no such law. Their job is in fact law enforcement, but they want it not only both ways but every way. This is a big problem. Regardless of the fact that these kids may have been violating some local ordinance, it did not require the hooligan response of this thug. I can tell you this, if had been my son it would be a whole different situation! Also, if the police refused to take action when the mother came to them, then anyone responsible for such inaction should be dealt with harshly and severely as well.

- Michael Fisher

Posted 03/09/08 07:31 PM

The kid was out of line. He WAS disrespectful, didn’t sit when the policeman asked him to, repeatedly called him “dude” when the officer asked him not to, wouldn’t shut his mouth when told to. The officer didn’t hurt the kid. If I were that kid’s Mom, I would have frog-marched him down to the police station to apologize to the officer and then taken away his skateboard privileges for some time. He also needs some safety lessons in why it isn’t a good idea to blare the iPod when you’re skating. Mom doesn’t make him wear a helmet (her “full-blown diabetic” child), yet she’s infuriated when an officer makes him sit down on the pavement? The kid is obviously a spoiled result of a bad divorce. Mom blames the police for “roughing up” her disrespectful teen??! Good luck with that.

- Val

Posted 11/28/08 09:56 PM

wow, being a cop gives you the full power to anything, maybe they won’t do their laundry anymore and force some passer-by to do it instead or arrest anyone innocent or not. Hoping to become the king of the world someday (a.k.a cop)

- The Meanest Mom

Posted 04/22/09 07:50 PM