The legality of skateboarding in the Inner Harbor aside, conduct like that from an officer of the law is reprehensible. So is punching teenagers in the jaw and assaulting passers-by while off-duty. Three incidents. Three news stories about police misconduct, excessive force and assault. In two days!

Remarkably, not even a year ago (May 4, 2007), Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon proclaimed that the Baltimore City Police Department had “a 41 percent drop in excessive force complaints and a 29 percent drop in discourtesy complaints” in the first four months of 2007. It seems hard to believe when confronted with incidents like these.

And of these three events, the only incident resolved thus far resulted in a one-year’s probation for the officer in question. Internal-affairs investigations are all well and good, but still, shouldn’t the police be held to a higher standard?