El oficial Rivieri

Salvatore Rivieri is a Baltimore, Maryland, police officer. A 17-year veteran who joined the Baltimore Police Department in 1991, he was suspended with full pay following the release of a video on YouTube of mistreatment of a 14-year-old boy for using a skateboard at the Inner Harbor tourist area, where skateboards are prohibited. In the video, the officer is seen berating and manhandling the boy. The story received national news coverage.

Also in February 2008, WMAR-TV (an ABC News affiliate in Baltimore) reported that a second video also involving Officer Salvatore Rivieri emerged. In the new footage, Rivieri confronts a local artist who was videotaping "The reactions of passersby to a box he was moving with a remote controlled car." During the confrontation, the officer "is seen kicking the box off of the car and then kicking the car."

In April 2008, The Baltimore Police Department made wholesale changes to the leadership of the unit that patrols the city's Inner Harbor in the wake of the incident. A new lieutenant and a new sergeant took command of the 12 officers charged with patrolling the area from the edge of Federal Hill to the Fallsway, near Pier 5. "Given the extreme nature of that incident, we thought it was important for the officers to brush up on their interpersonal skills," said Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for the city Police Department. After the video surfaced, Rivieri was assigned to administrative duties and his police powers were suspended. As of March 2009, the internal investigation on Rivieri is ongoing.

The mother of the boy filed a suit against Rivieri in April 2008, two months after the video was widely circulated, seeking $6 million for assault, battery and violation of rights. The city sought to have the suit dismissed, because, among other things, such claims must be filed within 180 days of the incident; but the family's attorney argued that the statute of limitations did not apply to a minor. On December 11, 2008, Baltimore Circuit Judge Marcus Z. Shar ruled that a lawsuit brought by the family of the skateboarder could proceed despite being filed 10 months after the July 2007 incident.