UCLA Tasered Student

[Surfitall]

UCLA Student is tasered when he refuses to show his ID at the UCLA library

This makes me really angry.

Here is a link to a blog with the video of the incident. (Warning, this is not for kids, and not to play when you are at work. Lots of screaming when he is being tasered. You can't really see anything, but it is disturbing.)

Blog with video

I'm just going to quote from the blog, because they sum it up perfectly. "In America we don't taser people for not having IDs in a school library. We don't taser people for civil disobedience - i.e., sitting on the floor when you ask them to leave. We don't taser people for simply being a jerk. Civil rights exist for a reason - they exist to protect you especially when the authorities think you're being a jerk. UCLA just embarrassed itself in front of the entire world. How the administration responds to this incident will affect its reputation for decades to come."

[Ares24]

[chef]

he deserved it. The guy was looking for that reaction.

He had no ID, then started being whiny, loud and agressive.

[Raptor2k]

^and you're full of it.
_________________
"I accepted their challenge. I accepted the doubt of everyone who spoke on my downfall and used their words as fuel. I have a franchise to resurrect, a city of fans to uplift."

[Ted]

I was waiting for the cop defending screw your constitutional rights people to invade this thread.

[Mr. LakeShow]

[Ted]

And being "loud, whiny, and aggressive"- if you want to call going limp being aggressive- gives the pigs no right to taze someone when they're in HANDCUFFS,

[Flight]

Why the (bleep) was he screaming like a baby in the first place?

He doesn't have a library card. So he should have just left, instead of causing a scene.

I know it doesn't come close to warranting getting tased, but why was he acting like that in the first place? Just weird..

[Socks]

We can't see how this all started, which is a big part of the issue.

IMO, if he was not obeying the PD at the outset, he probably deserved to be tased. If you're any sort of law enforcement officer, you just don't know what kind of people are out there and you don't take chances. If you ask a guy for his ID, he doesn't show it, and isn't leaving then he's a threat to you and the students you are charged with protecting. You give a warning, then you take action. Take the guy out with non-lethal force so he's no longer a threat.

After this guy was cuffed the tasing should've stopped. At the point where he was cuffed he was no longer a threat - clear and simple.

It appeared that they were tasing him simply because he was yelling and refused to get up. That isn't deserving of tasing and they should've just got some guys to grab him and carry him to a paddywagon rather than continue tasing him.

[The_Lakers_Show]

[Flight]

[MIMLaker]

I have to agree with Socks. I ahev not read the article as I type this, but we simply do NOT know the full facts here. If anyone has reports or other information, I would encourage you to put them in here, to help foster discussion.

I went to UCLA for 7 years -- undergrad and law school.

Community Service Officers -- essentially, unarmed student volunteers carrying walkie-talkies connecting them to Campus Police, emergency medical services, dorms, and other open-at-night facilities -- have patrolled campus buildings at nightfall for time immemoriam. When situations escalate into potential physical confrontations, they are instructed to contact Campus Police.

IIRC, it's been standard procedure to walk up and down the libraries at night -- except during Finals Week, when EVERYONE is seemingly in the libraries -- and ask people to present IDs. Simply put, non-students and non-faculty are typically not allowed in campus facilties at night. People without UCLA IDs can't enter the dorms at night without being signed in by a resident. They aren't allowed into laboratories at night, etc., etc., etc.

Granted, not everyone is caught, and not everyone is escorted out, but it has happened. I've seen it happen to people of all races and varying appearances. It's a hassle, but I've never seen that kinf o incdient escalate to this degree.

I do not know the circumstances leading up to the tasering and attempts to carry the individual out.

However, as an attorney who has represented a number of private security organizations like the ones you see at sporting events, shopping areas, office buildings, etc., allow me to say this: in a potentially hostile situation, security personnel/ police are not just going to hand over their badge number to any bystander who asks for it.

You don't know if the bystander coming up to you is going to attack you, interfere with arrest, harm a suspect, reach for your weapon, or whatever.

So if anyone claims that the cops should have paused to give their ID info during an arrest in progress, and by failing to do so this implies some measure of guilt or legal cuplability, I would hope they would reconsider such a position and not perform snap judgments on either the police OR the individual.

By the same token, I would very much like to know WHY this individual was selected for ID check. Was it at random? Was he being disruptive to others? Was it due to skin color or ethnic appearance? Were the officers verablly or physically abusive BEFORE the cellphone footage was recorded?

The clips I saw on MSNBC last night were unclear and in shadow; I could not tell the individual's appearance.

As an alum, I am quite troubled by these events. I love my school, and am proud to have graduated from there.

If our campus police were in the wrong, I want them punished administratively and criminally, as appropriate.

If the student was in the wrong, then that must also be brought to light.

In any event, there MUST be a clarification of rules and procedures for everyone involved, at all levels -- from students to faculty to security to administration, to avoid such events in the future.

MIM
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[Raptor2k]

The latest in a recent spate of cellphone videos documenting questionable arrest tactics surfaced Wednesday, this one showing a UCLA police officer using a Taser to stun a student who allegedly refused to leave the campus library.

Grainy video of the Tuesday night incident at UCLA's Powell Library was broadcast Wednesday on TV news and the Internet, prompting a review of the officers' actions and outrage among students at the Westwood campus.

The footage showed the student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, falling to the ground and crying out in pain as officers stunned him.

According to a campus police report, the incident began when community service officers, who serve as guards at the library, began their nightly routine of checking to make sure everyone using the library after 11 p.m. is a student or otherwise authorized to be there.

Campus officials said the long-standing policy was adopted to ensure students' safety.

When Tabatabainejad, 23, refused to provide his ID to the community service officer, the officer told him he would have to show it or leave the library, the report said.

After repeated requests, the officer left and returned with campus police, who asked Tabatabainejad to leave "multiple times," according to a statement by the UCLA Police Department.

"He continued to refuse," the statement said. "As the officers attempted to escort him out, he went limp and continued to refuse to cooperate with officers or leave the building."

Witnesses disputed that account, saying that when campus police arrived, Tabatabainejad had begun to walk toward the door with his backpack. When an officer approached him and grabbed his arm, the witnesses said, Tabatabainejad told the officer to let go, yelling "Get off me" several times.

"Tabatabainejad encouraged library patrons to join his resistance," police said. "The officers deemed it necessary to use the Taser."

Officers stunned Tabatabainejad, causing him to fall to the floor.

The video shows Tabatabainejad yelling, "Here's your Patriot Act, here's your ... abuse of power," the Daily Bruin reported, adding he used a profanity.

"It was beyond grotesque," said UCLA graduate David Remesnitsky of Los Angeles, who witnessed the incident. "By the end they took him over the stairs, lifted him up and Tasered him on his rear end. It seemed like it was inappropriately placed. The Tasering was so unnecessary and they just kept doing it."

Campus police confirmed that Tabatabainejad was stunned "multiple" times.

By then, Remesnitsky said, a crowd of 50 or 60 had gathered and were shouting at the officers to stop and demanding their names and badge numbers.

Remesnitsky said officers told him to leave or he would be Tasered.

Tabatabainejad declined to comment. He was arrested Tuesday night and cited by campus police for resisting and obstructing a police officer and was released.

The incident was the third videotape of an arrest to surface in the last week in Los Angeles.

One video showed a Los Angeles Police Department officer dousing a handcuffed suspect in the face with pepper spray as the suspect sat in a patrol car.

That video came to light Monday, just days after the LAPD and the FBI launched investigations into another videotape showing a police officer hitting a suspect in the face several times after a foot chase in Hollywood.

UCLA Assistant Police Chief Jeff Young said Wednesday that he had viewed the video of the campus incident on the Internet and would view any other videos that were shot.

"We will gather as many samples as we can find, from different sources," Young said. "We'll use it for our own administrative investigation."

UCLA Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams said in a statement that university police are investigating the incident and the officers' actions.

"The investigation and review will be thorough, vigorous and fair," he said, adding that compliance with the ID policy is "critical for the safety and well-being of everyone."

Young said Tasers, which discharge an electric current to incapacitate a suspect, are seldom used by the campus police department.

On campus Wednesday, many students said they were surprised by news of the incident.

"UCLA is a very peaceful campus," said Chen Mei, a third-year political science student from Laguna Hills. "I study in Powell Library at night all the time. I've seen people without ID cards who are removed. But none of the time has it been this dramatic."

Karen Jou, a second-year student from Orange, said the campus police "usually are really good."

"I wouldn't have thought that would have happened here," she said. "It's really odd."

Julia Newbold, a third-year English literature major from Walnut Creek, said her impression from her limited contact with campus police was good.

"They seem like a peacekeeping force," she said. "I'm really surprised to hear they had to resort to something like that. It sounds a little too forceful to me to Taser someone."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cellcamera16nov16,0,4794591.story?page=1&coll=la-home-headlines
_________________
"I accepted their challenge. I accepted the doubt of everyone who spoke on my downfall and used their words as fuel. I have a franchise to resurrect, a city of fans to uplift."

[Tark the Shark]

Without knowing all the facts, I'd fault the kid. I've been to UCLA before to visit friends and at night they ask you for ID. I didn't have one, so they always kicked me out. I'm a minority, but I didn't take it personally. It was just a guy doing his job. You don't want strangers on campus committing violent crimes, so I understood. It doesn't matter whether they were rent-a-cops or real police officers. The kid should've shown his ID.

[Freakout]

Authorities are becoming taser happy. After he was in cuffs there was no reason to keep tasering him. That (bleep) hurts like hell and then they expect him to standup and walkout nicely? He was stupid for refusing to show his ID but the campus police took it to a whole nother level.

[rracer99]

When (bleep) hits the fan, people are people and proper protocol will not be followed some times.

This kid was putting an unbelievable amount of energy into making this as huge a spectacle as possible. There were probably dozens of incidents where a common sense fair minded person could have diffused the situation and tension.

The campus police probably should have tazord him once and then physically (dominate physically) dragged his ass out of there.

Instead the campus police played right into this kids theatrics, allowed him to put on the braveheart display, and the crowd ate it up like candy.

Sure, in an ideal world the cops would be professional and merciful and handle this better. Perhaps he has mental illness and needs to be "protected" from himself by society. However people need to wake up and accept the fact that cops also have their "excuses", stresses, and problems, and if you float your (bleep) out there long enough, something bad is going to happen.

When you leave your front door in the morning, I recommend not focusing on your "constitutional rights" and instead think about common sense and avoiding trouble, it'll probably do more for you.

[LakerLanny]

Just another yo yo who thinks the rules everyone else has to follow don't apply to him.

What a whiney little geek. Nice to see he has already retained an attorney, my guess is he was looking to provoke an incident to sue right from the start.
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Love, Laker Lanny

[postandpivot]

[Bergamotichek]

He was repeatedly warned of the consequences, yet still refused to follow the direction of the officers.

He got what he deserved.

I hope the courts don't reward him for it.

[chef]

[Ares24]

hard to get off when you been tazed and you are handcuffed.
trust me i been tazed before and its hard to move after it. now being cuffed and tazed cmon now. i would undertand if they tazed him once and carryd him away,but they kept on doing it.

[Ted]

I think the guy was at fault for acting like an idiot, and he should've complied with the officers at first regardless of whether or not he suspected racial profiling. But according to some reports I've read, witnesses said that he was walking away when the cops grabbed his arm. I don't know the whole story, but what I do know is that once he was handcuffed, there was absolutely no point in tasing him repeatedly. They should've dragged him out of there, that's they're job, they do this repeatedly night in and night out. Why did they choose to resort to the tazer in this specific case?

I'll give the cops the benefit of the doubt prior to the handcuffs, but after that it became excessive force. You guys can scream liberal or hippie or all that non-sense, but this sh-- happens everyday by police who go on their little power trips, I'm glad this was caught on tape. What's clear from the videotape is that after being cuffed, he was tased at least 2 times for no reason other than him refusing to stand up. I didn't know that was grounds for tasing.

In the end, excessive use of force, rent a cops will get fired, and the kid will get his $$$.

[ocho]

should he have shown his id? yes.

should he have left immediately? yes.

should he have been tasered? maybe.

should he have been tasered multiple times after already being placed in handcuffs? hell no.

i know a guy who mouthed off to the cops a couple weeks back while being arrested. now granted the guy is an idiot and he said completely innapropriate things to the cop but they beat the living snot out of him and the aftermath of it was not a pretty sight.

once the cuffs are on this guy, pick him up and take him out of the library. there's no need to keep electrocuting him and yelling at him to get up when his muscles are temporarily paralyzed. its excessive force and they should be punished for it. not excusing the guy...he should face consequences for his actions as well. however the force used was not necessary.
_________________
14-5-3-12

[Flight#24]

The guy should have just left instead of making a big scene out of it. He didn't have his ID, and should have just left when they refused to let him in. Simple as that.

However, the cops shouldn't have used a taser especially after he was ALREADY handcuffed. That is abusive power.

Everything depends on the context or situation. This was a mere disturbance at a library. The police could have easily handled this situation in a different way and using the taser was completely unnecessary. Those cops should be punished for their actions.

[Surfitall]

[DELETED]

(You have repeatedly been told this is not a political board, nor is political discussion an open topic. - JD)