Opinions fly over Tasing of Phils field jumper

Steve Consalvi isn't getting much sympathy.

He has been called "dumb" and "an idiot," and even his exasperated mother cried while apologizing for her 17-year-old son's antics.

Consalvi is the Phillies fan who was prancing through the outfield during Monday night's game when a Philadelphia police officer fired a Taser into his back, dropping him like a bloop single in shallow center.

Within hours, footage of his arrest had become an Internet and television sensation, sparking a national debate over the merits of shooting a high-voltage weapon into a high school senior in full view of 45,000 people.

Consalvi, of Montgomery County, was the first fan ever to be Tasered on the field in Philadelphia at a Phillies game - and possibly anywhere else.

Mayor Nutter and Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey quickly backed the officer on Tuesday, saying he acted appropriately.

"People need to be concerned about fan behavior. . . . That's the issue," Ramsey said. "You can't jump out on the field. We had, what, 45,000 people there? The other 44,999 didn't run out on the field."

Tuesday night, another fan went onto the field before the ninth inning, but he surrendered to police. Some fans chanted, "Tase him, Tase him."

While few people were willing to defend Consalvi's actions, some questioned the need to Taser a young man armed with nothing more than the rally towel he was cheerfully waving.

"I think it was overkill," said Hector Delgado, a retired Chrysler Corp. worker from Delaware who was watching Tuesday night's game from Section 131. "He was just a 17-year-old boy. Be for real. They didn't need to do that. He wasn't threatening anyone."

Consalvi's mother and stepfather, Amy and Scott Zeigler, criticized their son and apologized for his behavior. But, as for the Taser, "both of us have the same feeling that, at first blush, it seems excessive," Scott Zeigler said.

"He's not a criminal," Amy Zeigler said. "He's very embarrassed, very upset. And he'll write a letter to the Philadelphia Phillies organization to apologize, which is the right thing to do."

Consalvi, bound for Pennsylvania State University's Berks County campus in the fall, crumpled to the ground after being hit but quickly got up and walked off the field. He was not injured, his mother said.

Another person who questioned the officer's choice of tactics was Gov. Rendell, who himself was caught up in a 1989 snowball fight at an Eagles game that later became part of the city's canon of embarrassing sports moments.

"Fans can't be allowed to interrupt the game," Rendell said Tuesday. "But they should have had enough officers to apprehend the kid and not have to Tase him."

Monday night, a Phillies spokeswoman said the organization was discussing with police "whether in future situations this is an appropriate use of force under these circumstances."

Ramsey said that he spoke with Phillies officials on Tuesday but that nothing was decided.

"Do they want our people going on the field, or do they not want our people to go on the field?" Ramsey said. "We can sit down and discuss that."

The officer who Tasered Consalvi normally works in the Center City District. He was posted at Citizens Bank Park for Monday's ball game as part of a rotation, said Ramsey, who would not name the officer.

The officer had been trained to use a Taser so he could work with the department's Crisis Intervention Team, dealing with the mentally ill. Only officers who receive the training are armed with Tasers.

The department does not require officers working at sporting events to be armed with them.

Police Directive 22, which governs the use of force, says an officer can use a Taser to "prevent an escape from arrest" and "overcome resistance to arrest."

Ramsey said Consalvi was eluding the officer and several Phillies employees trying to corral him, making the use of the weapon "within our guidelines."

John McNesby, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, also defended the officer's actions.

"I didn't see anything wrong with that," he said. "I think not only should he have been Tasered, they should have Tasered his parents."

McNesby said the incident would deter future field rushers.

"I bet somebody else will think twice before they do that," he said. "Nobody told him to run out there on the field like an idiot."

Before Tuesday's game, Phillies centerfielder Shane Victorino said officers chasing a suspect on the street would be more than justified in using a Taser.

"Maybe the Taser was excessive, but I look at it as, why are you going to treat the situation different because he's in a baseball stadium rather than a street?" he said. "I've seen guys go out there and juke for 10 minutes and run around and juke five, six security guards."

Hooliganism at sporting events is nothing new, and police in several cities have used Tasers to subdue unruly fans in the stands.

Fans' running onto the field also is a time-honored prank, going back to a busty woman known as Morganna the Kissing Bandit, who planted kisses on players during games in the 1970s and '80s.

Most field jumpers are cornered and tackled without much incident; a few field jumpers at football games have been leveled by players.

A Phillies spokeswoman said the organization does not discuss how many field jumpers there are during the course of a season but said there were very few.

At the ballpark Tuesday night, opinions about the incident were simmering among the fans.

"I thought he deserved to get Tasered," said Tiffany Breen, a 23-year-old student at the University of Phoenix. Breen, who has worked part time as an usher at Phillies games, said people jumped onto the field once or twice a season.

However harmless the pranksters may be, Breen said, one cannot take chances. "He could have had a gun or a piece of broken glass on him," she said.

Since the interlopers are looking for attention, Joe Albano said, the less the media cover these guys, the better.

"I think Tasing will deter people more from running on the field, but I can't imagine watching someone going down, being electrocuted," said Albano, a state worker from Delaware. "Especially with all the kids in the stadium watching, it was maybe not such a good thing."

Ramsey, though, noted that fans have attacked players and coaches before. In one of the most notorious incidents, a father and son jumped from the stands at a Chicago White Sox game in 2002 and pummeled the Kansas City Royals' first-base coach.

"You can't take this thing too lightly," Ramsey said. "After the fact, you can say, 'He's just 17,' but you don't know that at the time. He doesn't have the number 17 stamped on his forehead."