Taser 'Em All

[question everything]

Taser 'Em All
Written by Alan Mittelstaedt
LA Weekly

The Iranian-American punk who provoked — yes, provoked — the taser attack at UCLA should be expelled for momentarily distracting the entire world from more meaningful thoughts. Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a.k.a. Mad Mr. T-14 for short, is a U.S. citizen — so we can only boot him out of school. But he must understand that the last thing the public consciousness can handle is another case of a whiny videotaped wannabe–brutality victim seeking a multimillion-dollar verdict from an embattled public institution.

We want so badly for him to lose, bigtime. Not because Officer Terrence Duren, who needlessly and recklessly tasered him five times, acted like anything closely resembling a responsible cop. Duren, who had been fired from the Long Beach Police Department nearly two decades ago, probably never should have been hired. But we can’t wait to hear the jury chortle when they hear what Mad Mr. T-14 said as officers moved in to arrest him: “Am I the only martyr?”

Ladies and gentlemen, this was not a Martin Luther King Jr. moment at the UCLA library at 11 p.m. on November 14. Mad Mr. T-14 was merely asked to show his ID as part of the security measures to ensure that students were the only people using the library late at night. Big deal if the asshole cop thought he looked like a terrorist.

(snip)

Our advice to Mad Mr. T-14: We’ll call off our demands that you be expelled, if you call off all of the campus protests by your idealistic classmates, who are lucky there isn’t a draft. Fire your lawyer — you won’t be needing one anymore — and get back to the library to study up on the role of real martyrs in American history. Also, you might want to get a necklace and place your student ID in plain sight 24/7 for all of the ill-trained, reactionary campus pigs to see.


(snip)

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 21 November 2006 )

http://www.laweekly.com/news/la-sniper/taser-em-all/15068/

[Eric J in MN]

1. Police have no business demanding ID of someone using

...a public library and going about his business.

When I was in college, there weren't any police patrolling the library, let alone police bothering students working on papers.

The concept is PROBABLE CAUSE: police shouldn't bother anyone unless there is reason to suspect him of a crime.

[AlamoDemoc]

2. I would agree...

Indeed, students would normally volunteer to work at the library. As was when I lived in university dormitory, Student rarely carry ID, but never show it...unless there was student from other dormitory sitting at the entrance desk. A supervisor would be intermediately of all conflicts...normally someone with scholarship or senior RA from a dorm. If it came to conflict the housing authority within the university would get involve, before university police are called to the scene.

[ixion]

3. "Big deal if the asshole cop thought he looked like a terrorist."

well, actually, that IS a big deal. 'Looking' like something is not the same as actually BEING something, hence there was no reason for the altercation to begin with, much less so for the tasering that resulted from it.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. And you can bet your bottom dollar

if real terrorists are planning anything to happen here, the people carrying it out will be blue eyed and blond, and not "look like a terrorist".

[happyslug]

8. And have a Valid ID and present it on demand to any Officer

Terrorist don't want to be caught so they almost always meet whatever is the legal requirements. Look at the 9/11 bombers ALL were in the US legally, all had valid legal forms of ID. They tended to be clean shaven so to better fit into America. No Beards, No Arab looking outfits (Shirt and Jeans were worn instead). While they paid cash for the tickets, they also presented valid ID upon request.

[indepat]

4. The assholes who support pre-emptive wars but never serve are the ones lucky there is no draft .

Moreover, a rogue element is alway present among law enforcement officers and these types will especially abuse their power when they perceive police-state tactics/torture are liked and encouraged by those at the head of government.

[nebenaube]

6. whoever wrote this is a prick!

The cops have demonstrated beyound a reasonable doubt that they are unqualified to interpret the physical signs of distress caused by these devices. They seem to enjoy using tazers for torture.

[oustemnow]

7. Argh; for some reason, the LA Weekly decided

That they needed a "dissenting voice" to balance their generally liberal coverage (never mind that they already have Marc Cooper). So they scraped this knuckledragger from the bottom of some rock.