Anthony Rivers

'''Anthony Jordan "A.J." Rivers''' is an Imperial Stromtrooper Captain assigned to the 501st Legion as the commanding officer for the New York Division. Rivers is best known for his alternating attitudes towards suspects.

Early Life
AJ was born at Bellevue Hospital in 1982 (5 ABY). Over time he became a withdrawn child who was constantly teased at school about his parents being in and out of jail. Over time, he became an outcast and loner only enjoying the company of his sister Kelly and her friends.

Felth enters the picture
In 2002 (25 ABY), his sister met and eventually became smitten with Davin Felth's Stormtrooper son Tevin. Tevin began to enlighten the young man to the point where AJ like his sister, joined the reformed Empire that was established under Rommel.

AJ the Stormtrooper
AJ entered the Imperial Academy at Floyd Bennett Field in 2003 (26 ABY) after his sister married Felth. His training commander noted that he was often pushing himself harder and was soon considered for the Stormtrooper Academy. Upon graduating, AJ was assigned to New York as a result of Tevin Felth's string pulling. On the street, AJ began prowling the city's Section 8 housing projects where he racked up an arrest record that soon caught the eye of Davin Felth who wanted the young man reassigned to the 501st Legion. It was around this time that AJ began showing signs of varying attitudes when dealing with suspects. He would be polite with some and uptight with others. He would eventually rise to the rank of lieutenant with his transfer to the 501st.

501st Legion
In September 2006 (29 ABY), AJ would report to the 501st and make sweeping changes to his division's operations. The troopers would no longer be used as parking meter maids in Manhattan's CBD. Rivers also insisted in regular training exercises at Floyd Bennett Field and replaced a fleet of outdated and beatup Jeeps with new Hummer H3s to completment his Ford Intercepter. Under Rivers, the troopers would begin to be used in various work enviroments around the city.

America Airways Flight 937
When America Airways Flight 937 was hijacked enroute from Athens to Rome and New York with both his sister and brother-in-law onboard he insisted that the 501st be sent to Beruit in preparation for the joint US-Imperial operation that was soon to be arriving from Israel. The 501st made its landing during the night and set explosive charges around the city to distract the terrorists responsible for the hijack. It was here Rivers learned that his family was safely holed up in a church and communicating with Israeli agents through the minister. The 501st's presence in the area would result in a safe rescue of all hostages. Reportedly, the 501st caught the terrorists off guard and put up no resistance to the landing forces from Israel as they were more concerned about locating and disarming the 501st's explosives.

Equipment tests
Under Rivers, the 501st was often used to test equipment for possible use by the Empire. This has included TASERs, electronic traffic ticket printing devices, an on-board laptop computer was installed in Rivers' patrol car (this equipment was later installed in Tevin's H2 and all traffic enforcement vehicles), the Dodge Charger and its sister car the Magnum were tested at the 501st before being deployed elsewhere.

It was once reported that he had ordered his troops to be placed on a diet of nothing but Ration Bars which was similar to the diet imposed by Colonel Korek in his prisoners as a result of the growing amounts of garbage left in the 501st's vehicles. This earned him a stern talking-to from Mrs. Mackey who serves as the 501st's Den Mother and frequently cooked for the 501st.

Other Work
In 2018, he and his squad were sent to where they assisted in the take down and arrest of an arms dealer at the  who had made a deal for a number of s with New York City Police Department Detective and Spectres member Jamal Wilkins who was posing as a member of the First Order along with Alexsandr Kallus as part of a mission to recover the weapons which were eventually traced back to Grinta the Hutt. Rivers and his troops arrived at the Docking Bay in time to find the dealer and a pair of henchmen fighting with Wilkins, Kallus, and Garazeb Orrelios. During the brief skirmish, the two henchmen were killed by Rivers' troops while the dealer was taken into custody and transported back to New York City for interrogation by Wilkins and Kallus.

It is unknown whether or not troops from the 501st including Rivers were placed on standby or moved to Michael Piett's Star Destroyer as part of preparations for the Rescue of Ezra Bridger or for a possible role in the Battle of Nar Shaddaa as the ground operation in the first was carried out by the Spectres and the Remnant's Death Troopers in the second. He likely read the report filed by Alex Mackey regarding the incident in which his future nephew-in-law Darius Carpenter used The Force against a group of armed attackers. His feelings towards Landon McKnight's impressive string of arrests is unknown as McKnight and his troops made a number of arrests in open murder cases and even arrested the pirate Hondo Ohnaka along with sleeper agents of the First Order.

Future
By 2030, Tevin has brought up the idea of Rivers (now a General) taking over as head of the Remnant Security Bureau due to the behavior of its agents which cumulated in separate incidents involving Major Hochster screaming at Rivers' grand-nephew Caleb Carpenter, Major Zollet suggesting that he'd even investigate his own family if warranted, and Major Schlager ordering an unarmed civilian be shot by his Death Troopers over what former RSB Major Eric Schuyler who was serving as the Officer On Duty in Philadelphia at the time describes as an attempted trespass

Rivers later brings Mackey into the RSB and seems to assign him to special investigations beginning with an investigation involving a kidnapping and blood diamonds that had been opened by Lucy Carpenter and Eric Schuyler in Philadelphia and later leads to a homicide in New Jersey being investigated by his sister as well as smugglers that were later caught by Admiral Eli Vanto.

Trivia

 * Has used the same car since his arrival in the Stormtrooper Corps. Ford Interceptor #117.
 * Is often hot headed in dealing with Imperial Supply Officers.
 * Serves in a management role in his brother-in-law's wrestling promotion. However he has since left this position and was replaced by Bryan Khayman.
 * Rivers was once reported to have worked over 96 hours straight. During which over 200 cars were towed from Jamaica Avenue under the elevated subway, about 150 drug busts were made, and about 400 taxis and livery cabs were stopped for various traffic violations until Joseph Rodgers managed to stop him much to Tevin's dismay as Rivers had made Jamaica Avenue passable to traffic.
 * His middle name was revealed in 2017 as Jordan and his Trooper ID number was revealed in 2019 to be NY-2187.

Behind the scenes

 * Rivers' attitude was inspired by "Jersey Cop" Anthony Damiano of the Passaic County Sheriff's Department in New Jersey. Other similarities between Rivers and Damiano include the same radio number for their patrol car and first name.
 * Actor Chad Michael Murray had been shown the "Jersey Cop" tape of Damiano on COPS and told to act as if Lucas Scott were a cop prior to starting filming.