Smart ASP Slapper gets an ASP whoopin\'

Grey Colson

Grey Colson

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Would Grey Colson respond the same if in this officer's shoes? It's hard to say and I don't like playing Monday morning quarterback. But if you ask me, when you are a lone officer on the street, amidst thuggary at large, you have to do what you have to do. From an Internal Affairs standpoint, I think the guy survives the investigation.

There's one thing I know for certain. If I was still a young man, thinking about getting into law enforcement....I would find something else to do. The bad guys are getting worse and more bold by the day.


By Robert Moran
The Philadelphia Inquirer

PHILADELPHIA — On YouTube, it was labeled "Oktoberfest Justice."

A viral video surfaced this weekend showing a man slapping a Philadelphia police officer and immediately getting beaten down by that officer at a South Street beer festival last month.

On the video, John Scrivano, 43, of Essington, is seen yelling at an approaching bike officer as a woman tries to restrain him and screams, "Stop!"

Descriptions accompanying the video claim he was spitting and throwing beer at passersby.

With the officer standing in front of him, and trying to keep him away with his left hand, the bearded Scrivano makes hand gestures indicating that he is daring the officer to do something.


"This is awesome," someone exclaims in the background as the scene unfolds in the 700 block of South Street on Sept. 29, the last day of an Oktoberfest event along the popular corridor.

The video then shows Scrivano slapping the officer in the face. The officer, bald and wearing bike shorts, grabs Scrivano with his left hand and strikes him with a baton in his right hand.

The two tumble into the wet gutter as security men try to assist the officer. Scrivano appears still to be fighting when the officer grabs his baton with both hands and rams it into Scrivano's head seven times.

As the officer, whose name was not released, stands up, Scrivano is seen facedown in the street. The woman who was yelling at him earlier makes her way to his side, wailing uncontrollably. She rolls Scrivano to his side, revealing blood on the street. He appears to be shaking his head to questions she is asking.

Philadelphia Lt. Ray Evers, a police spokesman, said that the incident was under investigation by the Internal Affairs Bureau and that Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey had viewed the video.

"We're fully aware of it," Evers said. "There has been a use-of-force investigation since the day it happened."

Evers did not identify the officer but said he had not been taken off the street.

Scrivano was charged with aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and related offenses. In addition to slapping the police officer, Evers said, Scrivano assaulted a security guard at the event.

Scrivano could not be reached for comment.

At the end of the video, a bystander is heard saying: "Let's get a beer. I don't care about this guy."
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I was with the popo till he hit the guy in the head seven times. However, I prolly would have done it before he did, so... Would Grey have done it? Probably not in his current phase of life...he's retired, and he's seen it all, and he would probably just pushed the guy down face-first or something and went on about his business. But I can see how any cop in his younger days alone on a beat and being assaulted might respond in such a way to repeated actions by a moron. If I were IA, I'd put a letter in his file (is that a reprimand?) and let it go if he was otherwise a sterling officer.
 
I'm pulling the adrenaline card here. Thug clearly challenging officer, clearly wanting it to escalate, and finally slaps officer. I say take him down & charge his sorry butt with assaulting an officer...at least, but a couple of other charges come to mind as well.
 
deewee said:
I'm pulling the adrenaline card here. Thug clearly challenging officer, clearly wanting it to escalate, and finally slaps officer. I say take him down & charge his sorry butt with assaulting an officer...at least, but a couple of other charges come to mind as well.
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Oh, definitely. I was just speaking to the actions of the officer. Grey Colson really is an excellent character who I totally liked. I really do need to write that review. Might help if somebody slid some money into my mailbox. ;)
 
I just wish the officer hadn't been striking the idiot's head with the ASP. That will be construed as excessive force by many; however, I think the punk got what he deserved.
 
Foxmeister said:
I just wish the officer hadn't been striking the idiot's head with the ASP. That will be construed as excessive force by many; however, I think the punk got what he deserved.
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Agreed.
 
That's true. The head is one of those RED Zones that you "try" to stay away from whenever possible. It is VERY possible to cause death by striking someone in the head with an ASP....or any hard object.

What the officer has to be prepared for is being able to articulate the amount of force used in response to the aggression. If the other guy has a weapon or is doing something that is likely to cause serious bodily injury to the officer or a third person, then by all means, swing away. Or better yet, shoot him!

So many factors have to be taken into consideration. Even the size of the officer and aggressor come into play.

We have an IA investigator who had to fight a guy who was resisting arrest. This was a few years ago when he was a fugitive investigator and in plain clothes. The man rolled on top of him, grabbed his neck tie and tried to choke him out. The investigator pulled a knife from his pocket and cut the neck tie, but he would have been fully justified in pulling his gun and blowing a hole through the man's stomach.

It ALL depends on the circumstances.

And you are right. Grey is retired and would have been on the beach. Not on a bike in Philly :suntn
 
I wish the officer, once verifying no other imminent threats, had followed through with placing him in custody a bit faster. It would help his case. The way it presents does leave room for some to say he let it get personal and his goal was the beat down, not suppressing the threat/aggressor.
 
Foxmeister said:
I just wish the officer hadn't been striking the idiot's head with the ASP. That will be construed as excessive force by many; however, I think the punk got what he deserved.
Click to expand...

unionmom said:
I wish the officer, once verifying no other imminent threats, had followed through with placing him in custody a bit faster. It would help his case. The way it presents does leave room for some to say he let it get personal and his goal was the beat down, not suppressing the threat/aggressor.
Click to expand...

I agree with both. 7 times in the head, and not immediately cuffing or calling in, does make it appear as if it became a little personal. Not that the guy did not deserve a beat down, goodness, even his drunk gf was trying to get him away at the beginning!
 
Hard to call without being in the officer's shoes and also seeing just how much injury the man sustained. But the fact is that the bearded guy clearly caused this by acting an ass and striking an officer. With nothing more to go on, I would have to lean toward the officer's side.

However, I do think an IA investigation in these things is a healthy process that helps to keep everyone straight.
 
We saw the office swing a short ASP in close contact, we do not see him actually hit the bad guy in the head. It looks close but I did not see a strike to the head. The blood could be from the fall. Fully justified to me.

But I would have liked to seen hit hit by a taser while laying in the water. That would have lit him up!
 
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