UCLA Student Tasered by Police in Library
This is one of the most disturbing things I have seen in a long time. I am not sure what exactly took place to make this happen in the first place, but the escalation of the entire incident. This student's mother must be beside herself. I would like to hear your thoughts...
17 comments:
The video doesn't reveal much, Ellie. Tasing is supposed to be employed in situations where other measures could be more harmful to a subject or the police. Legally, police can use force greater than that being used against them by someone resisting arrest. Tasing is a safe alternative in many situations.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A UCLA police officer shocked a student with a stun gun at a campus library after he refused repeated requests to show student identification and wouldn't leave, police said.
The student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, was shocked Tuesday at about 11 p.m. as police did a routine check of student IDs at the University of California, Los Angeles Powell Library computer lab.
"This is a long-standing library policy to ensure the safety of students during the late-night hours," said UCLA Police Department spokeswoman Nancy Greenstein.
She said police tried to escort Tabatabainejad, 23, out of the library after he refused to provide identification. Tabatabainejad instead encouraged others at the library to join his resistance, and when a crowd began to gather, police used the stun gun on him, Greenstein said.
Tabatabainejad was arrested for resisting and obstructing a police officer and later released on his own recognizance. He declined to comment Wednesday night.
The incident was recorded on another student's camera phone and showed Tabatabainejad screaming while on the floor of the computer lab. It was the third incident in a month in which police behavior in the city was criticized after amateur video surfaced. The other two involved the Los Angeles Police Department.
Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams promised an investigation.
"The safety of our campus community is of paramount importance to me," Abrams said in a statement.
I don't know all the details, but it sounds like instead of leaving peacefully when he didn't have the required ID, he tried to start a protest or mini-revolt.
He did do a lot of screaming - even before he got tasered.
It also doesn't seem to help matters when the other students rush the police and start shouting at them.
Seems to me it would all have been avoided if he had just left when he was asked to leave.
While I understand that the student should have left. And that the first and maybe even the second tase was called for and the student didn't help by yelling at the officers...the tasing went well beyond nessecary force. The students remained calm for as long as I did. After being tased so many times by the LA police, I would be hesitant, and in a state of shock, and be reluctant to go with them. If you count, I think he was tased 6 times AFTER being cuffed. The second thing that REALLY bothered me was, there was a student demanding the officers names and badge numbers. Under the law they were required to give them to him, instead the officer said if he didn't leave him alone he would get tased too. THAT is illegal. I think that while the student crossed the line, the police also crossed the line and assult charges might not be too far off.
Just my opinion.
Why did it list my comments as "anonymous"? That's messed up.
I can't count how many times he was "tased" after the first, before or after handcuffs. I couldn't see it.
Yes, officers are supposed to give their names and badge numbers, but at that point, they were still dealing with the incident. I suppose you could say that the students demanding their information were interfering with their work just as much as the officers were not providing the information.
It was just a bad situation. I just have to wonder why he didn't leave when the security officers found him with no I.D.
I understand about the interference, but after they left, the one student asked again for the police information and the officer threatened to tase him too.
I wondered why the student didn't leave, but in his screams he said "I said I would leave"
I would like to hear more on what the police, students and the actual student has to say about this.
That really is scary.
It reminds me of the poor fellow that was killed in London after the bombings.
Maybe in that kind of situation, you just panic, instead of cooperating.
Ellie, I posted on the OJ thread, but I don't know if it accepted it or not. Let me know
That kid deserved what he got. The police followed proper protocol and treated the student as any other suspect. All the other students in protest are wrong for doing so. Trying to have a routine situation blow out of control is typical for todays bystanders and amateur footage that do not show the entire scene.
Like I said, I wondered what happened before the video started. I don't think the students uproared too much. I think it was after the 3rd tasing when he was cuffed that the students started protesting. I think both sides were wrong. I think after the 3rd, 4th, 5th, & 6th tasing it became brutality.
I would agree with you Ellie,,, holy shit..
Well, one thing that is interesting is that the students act like he didn't resist. But you hear him screaming something about the Patriot Act and something else on the tape. I find it very hard to believe, with all of those witnesses, that they used a taser without some resistance or provocation.
And you can't actually see if he was resisting or not. You don't see him much at all until the very end.
Ellie,
It took me awhile before I could comment. That really was upsetting. One of worst fears is being mistaken for someone else and being treated like that. Who do you call for help? They are the police.
I think Police have very much less restraint with the use of tasers and are starting to use them less as a last measure deterrent in lieu of a gun and have shifted to using them as cattle prods because they are to lazy to use the training they were given.
Judging by the guys name, and the current atmosphere post 911, this guy may have been just sick of being profiled, especially in a place of learning and higher education. It doesn't justify resisting the police but I can't help but feel he can't be completely blamed.
this is ellie...
imagine if this guy had a heart condition, or had eplilepsy (sp) and these officers tased him the way they did...one officer when he was already cuffed and on the ground, tased the student in the ass.. THE ASS...what kind of F***ed up crap is that. If this kid had a medical condition such as above, they could have killed him, and for what, he forgot his id. Yeah he was probably sick of being profiled...yes he over reacted in the beginning, yes the officers probably had a right to detain him and even escort him out of the building, but in no way were their actions justified after he was already cuffed. They also, under California law, committed illeagal assult for threatening the other student asking for badge #'s and names, with tasing. There is not going to be a pretty outcome when this is all over...
Profiling or not, he was in the computer lab without a proper ID. Everyone is required to have one.
When he was caught by the security guards without it, he should have left. He had no grounds to make a stand on, profiling or otherwise.
I won't disagree that whatever was done after he was cuffed was likely excessive, as was threatening any students after the fact.
I feel so sorry for that poor guy he obviously is a slow learner. The police told him several times in a loud and distinct manner to stand up and he just kept refusing. His mother must be beside herself too I mean paying good money for his education and his vocabulary is so limited.They say college is a place for higher education so I hope this kid learned a lot that day. Just in case he didn't quite get the point I hope his parents teach him the next time he goes home. Being tased would be like a day at the spa.
The U.S.A. is a police state...what's news about that? The fact the police tasered the guy is not new, the fact that students stood by and watched this did. Seems the U.S. Constitution means less and less these days.
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