Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Because Margaret Miller can't raise a kid right, she sues the police.

So what we have here is a case where some single mom lets her little crotch-fruit run wild with a skateboard and no manners until he runs up against a police officer in Baltimore. And when the officer gives her baby boy a bit of a lesson on how to interact with adult authority figures--a lesson that Margaret Miller should have taught her own child years ago--she sees dollar signs and runs down to the courthouse, shyster lawyer in tow, and files a lawsuit demanding that her and her little precious be given a bag of cash because her boy's feelings were hurt. That's right: hurt feelings. He wasn't arrested, he wasn't injured--he was just scolded. but in Margaret Miller's world, no one can ever scold her little darling. And if someone does, she wants cash.

Fortunately a judge just tossed her frivolous lawsuit out.
BALTIMORE, Md. - A civil lawsuit filed by the mother of a defiant skateboarder who was berated and grabbed by a Baltimore police officer while skating near the Inner Harbor has been thrown out by a judge.

"The family is incredibly disappointed, and feels wronged," attorney William P. Blackford tells WTOP. "They've had their day in court taken away."

Blackford filed the suit on behalf of Margaret Miller, and her son, Eric Bush.

Three weeks before the civil case filed against Salvatore Rivieri - a 17-year-veteran - was to go before a jury, Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Evelyn Cannon granted a defense motion to have the case dropped.

Rivieri had been suspended, but was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.

A Baltimore police spokesman tells WTOP Rivieri has been back on patrol for several months.

Blackford says Judge Cannon's decision essentially trumped another Circuit Court judge's decision to allow the civil case to go forward, even though it was filed more than 180 days after the deadline.

Blackford had argued Maryland's law was unclear whether a juvenile's complaint can be held to the same 180 day standard.

"The family has the right to appeal, and I believe has a very strong case for appeal," Blackford says.

The 2007 exchange between Rivieri and the then 14-year-old Bush had been surreptitiously videotaped by one of the teenager's friends. It showed the officer pointing at the teen while lecturing him.

"First of all you disrespected me, this badge, and my department. You understand me? When I'm talking to you, you shut your mouth and you listen," Rivieri said.

"Obviously your parents don't put a foot in your butt quite enough, because you don't understand the meaning of respect."

The teenager's quietly mumbled responses were barely audible. Rivieri took offense to how he was being addressed.

"I'm not 'man.' I'm not 'dude.' I am Officer Rivieri."

In the defense's pretrial statements. Rivieri's attorneys said the teen "held his skateboard in a threatening manner," prompting Rivieri to push Bush to the ground, before seizing the board.

Blackford says it's unclear whether Miller, a single mother, and her son have the money to pursue an appeal to Maryland's Court of Special Appeals.

"The city has thrown up every roadblock in this case," Blackford says. "They should have just issued an apology, and that would likely have made this go away."
Fine, you want an apology? I'm sorry that William Blackford was ever admitted to the bar of Maryland or any other state. It's lawyers like him who give the profession such a bad reputation. I'm also sorry that Margaret Miller was even allowed to have a kid since it appear from his attire, his haircut and his demeanor that he's nothing but a little slacker with a future in fast food employment ahead of him. What's more, I apologize because this society that I'm a part of has devolved to the point where slovenly, rude kids are accepted and tolerated.

When I was a little kid, we were taught that adults were always "Sir" or Ma'am" and any teacher, neighbor, church member or police officer them had as much authority over any kid in the absence of the kid's actual parents as the parents did. If any adult saw me doing anything wrong, not only could they chastise me for it, but when they told my parents--and they usually did--I got it that much more from my dad when he found out. It wasn't acceptable to be a "bad kid" and bring disrespect upon the family, and punishment was sure and serious when I or my friends erred in that fashion.

But now we've had a couple of generations of single moms raising broods of little slackers who can do no wrong in the eyes of their mothers and who have never had a man in their lives to teach them what respect is, including the need to show it to others. It's because of things like this that our crime rate is rising, our scholastic achievement scores are dropping, and Democrats who support a "if it feels good, do it" policy are ruining our country by lowering the bar even further on behalf of the underachievers who vote them into office. And it all begins on a micro scale with kids like this punk, Eric Bush, and his layabout mom Margaret Miller. So my advice to Margaret is simple: Put down the bag of chips, turn off Oprah, get up off the couch, and start teaching your kid how to behave. Because you, Margaret Miller, are bringing down my country by raising bad kids and also by making things harder for countless other mothers who actually do their jobs and try to raise decent kids.

Hell, when I get to be President, I'm deporting Margaret Miller and her kid, probably to France, because one more surly kid and indifferent mom wouldn't even be noticed there.

9 comments:

  1. I agree with how the officer handled the brat because I understand the need to give him a good scolding. I had to do that very thing with a neighbor who had been doing things to us and his attitude was the same. I can see this his attitude needing some adjusting too. And there would be no way I would have apologized and to think they wanted this officer to apologize?! NO. The officer did a good job.

    And you're right about kids having no respect. I see it more and more and that's one thing I won't tolerate from any kid. I don't care if the parents are nearby or not, the kid's going to know some adults won't put up with that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. These scumbags come to you when the kids they failed to raise properly are too much for them to handle. Then, when you have to step in on your own, they bitch and moan. Ya gotta love this job, raising kids that shitbag parents can't raise on their own.....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Zachariah5:37 PM

    I see kids like this around my town...they tend to get picked on a lot by the other "kids" that work. Of course teens with small time jobs like breaking horses and hauling hay is more of a majority around here. Rural Oklahoma is a great place......

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7:18 PM

    This little scumbag is a candidate for the department of correction.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous8:02 PM

    Great post, this is what the age of entitlement has come too. Kids that have no respect for authority, police, fire and our armed forces. I pray the young parents are now teaching them values, this is a country that has lost its moral compass and its values.

    ReplyDelete
  6. He should have pitched the little brat in the harbor...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Amen! Preach it brother! :) lol.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Another generation of job security for Law Enforcement ! Kids aren't your friends , they are your KIDS. They are incomplete human beings who have neither the right nor the privilege to disrespect or defy any authority.

    My youngest is 19 , a legal adult by any standard but certainly is still learning and maturing into a young adult.

    If people are going to allow their kids to go out in public they better teach them how to act and react in the proper manner.

    I have made it through 23 1/2 years of LE and although the THREAT of a lawsuit is repeated over and over during that time...it has NEVER come close to happening.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous2:23 PM

    And we wonder why the courts are clogged? We wonder why everything cost so much? We wonder why juveniles get into so much trouble?

    Kid got his feelings hurt? Why that's destroying his 'feel good about himself' feelings!!

    There is a big difference between 'feeling good about onesself' and self-respect. This kids parent(s) taught him the former when they should have taught him the latter.

    Good work officer. Sad they have to use you to straiten out their own kid.

    ReplyDelete