Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Scolari's "Cop Beating"

A couple weeks ago I posted about an incident at Scolari's. I actually regret posting that now. I was asked to look into the incident, for the possible inclusion in my Local's Only column for the week. After talking to a few witnesses and getting wildly divergent versions of what occurred, I didn't feel there was anyway to adequately represent the story. Apparently SDIndyMedia and The Reader are covering the story, and I'd just like to post the information I got in a kind of experiment...to see if they cover the story in a "fair and balanced" way, or if they take a side ("Cops Suck" vs. "Drunk idiots shouldn't swing at cops")

The original post included information from Alia, a friend of the "victim" who was outraged at the "police brutality" acted out on her friend. Her version of the story really started outside the bar. She says she heard that the singer of Royal Trux, Jennifer, was punched by the doorman, so Jennifer, in turn called the cops. When they came and were taking statements, the cops were telling her she should leave and "go sober up."

According to Alia, Chris Bloss got between the cops and Jennifer. The cops told him to get back and he complied. Still, the cop pushed Chris Bloss, telling him to "step the fuck back" and then the cops took him down to the ground, face down. A female cop sat on top of him with his arms tucked under his stomach so he was unable to comply with their request to put his arms behind his back. He was screaming, "Get the fuck off me!" and they took this as resistance, and he was maced (or pepper sprayed) twice. The cop dismounted since she was now inhaling said spray. The cops pulled out their nightsticks and beat him repeatedly with it. They also threatened to taze him. Alia then ran toward them screaming for them to "get the fuck off him" and to "stop fucking hitting him". They told her to back off and she did. When all was said and done, Chris was beat and bruised and arrested for interfering with police business. He has a sprained thumb and was held with $10k in bail, which was paid. Chris has a January court date. Alia and Chris are looking for the people who were taking pictures of the incident and witnesses to what went down.

But then there's always two sides to every story. BearPaw was there and has a very different version of what happened (BearPaw posted this on The Punk Board and gave me permission to use it.)

Her [Jennifer of Royal Trux] and her boyfriend showed up wasted as fuuuck. Toni served them one drink before they played. Chandra refused to serve them after they played because they were wasted and so the chick tried to climb over the bar but Donny pushed her off. Then big tattoer Tom picked her up and took her outside.

So she was trying to claim that Scolaris was trying to steal their equipment ( the last band was using some of their gear) which was untrue because the 3 non-wasted dudes in the band were allowed in and out of the bar, no problem.

So they sat in the van until the last band was done and the chick and her boy tried to rush the door but Tom was right there waiting for them. They got tossed out again, she couldn't stand on her own. So Donny calls the cops and she kept yelling how they had a sign contract for a $100. So the cops show up and start taking statements.

One cop was talking to the band and another was talking to Donny and Tom. This dude [Chris Bloss] kept getting in between one cop and band while the cop was taking their statement. The cop told him about 15 times to step away because he wasn't in the band nor worked at the bar. Finally the duder said, "Fuck you, cop." The cop turned around and told him that he needs to step away or he is going to jail. Then the duder took a swing at the cop.

Needless to say the cops took that dude down hard. While the cops were dealing with him, the band took off down in the street. They got pulled over around 31st. While they were pulling a way, the chick kicked out one of the side windows of the van.

BearPaw also added that between Chris screaming "fuck you" at the cops, he attempted to take off running, so he was actually grabbed and tackled in front of the furniture store adjacent to Scolari's. He also said that T-Bone (of Scolari's) was the one who said that the band was arrested over on 31st. Those charges are unknown.

The real reason my conscience got in the way of this story was because getting info from SDPD was a more daunting task than I had time for. There is no doubt in my mind from hearing versions of the story that Chris Bloss was roughed up by the cops. What I do doubt is that the cops were not justified in their actions. If someone swung at me, I'd kick their ass too. I'm jus' sayin'.

Anyway, I only got two versions of what happened, but it surely left me with questions, so I'm salivating at the way the Reader is gonna cover the story. Check their site at noon to find out.

1 comment:

milsom said...

Phew. I thought of checking this show out, as I had been a Royal Trux fan for a while. RTX is a pile of crap, though, so i skipped it. Pathetic.