I Am a STUDENT. DON'T TASER ME

[blogslut]

Don't Taser me:

[Horse with no Name]

1. Awesome.

Where were these taken?

[blogslut]

2. UCLA

Here's one of the captions from the AP/Yahoo:

Students and others protest outside the University of California, Los Angeles Police Department after a rally and march on the Westwood campus Friday, Nov. 17, 2006, to protest police use of a taser on UCLA student Mostafa Tabatabainejad in a campus library Tuesday, Nov. 14. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

[Eurobabe]

3. As if students don't have enough to worry about with finals coming up

Now they might be tased in their libraries? Especially if their skin just happens to be a wee bit darker than others?

What happened at UCLA is a fucking outrage. Watch the YouTube video. If you aren't outraged by that....

[Catherine Vincent]

4. That is just awesome!

I am so happy that other students are joining in solidarity to protest what happened to Mustapha.

Left on! :bounce:

[Chimichurri]

5. This makes me proud. I hopeyou force your school to bring those

abusive cops to justice!

[blogslut]

6. cool

But it's not my school. :)

I just believe in the cause.

[uppityperson]

7. k&r, very good

This makes me laugh in a very ironic yet proud way. Go Students trying to study!

[blogslut]

12. reminds me of this

[blogslut]

13. That's my new wallpaper

Link to the site it came from:

http://www.laist.com/archives/2006/11/17/ucla_students_demonstrate_against_ucpd_taser_use.php

[uppityperson]

16. thanks, sent it off to student friends on other campuses.

or would that be campi? (us, i, o, um, o, i, orum, is, os, is. hmm, too many yrs of Latin too many yrs ago)

[Buzz Clik]

49. This is DEFINETLY part of their education.

I hope the cops are starting to get a clue, but I'm not hopeful.

[uppityperson]

8. kick, need 1 more recommendation

blogslut, thanks for the pictures. You might get more people looking if you edit and put the "don't tase me" in the subject line. I do like these pictures.

[tinfoil tiaras]

9. Kicked & Recced

awesome pictures! :)

[WindRavenX]

10. awww yeah

:thumbsup:

Students may be slow to anger, but when we mobilize...watch out!

[Swamp Rat]

11. k&r

[Deja Q]

14. Kind of an irony...

Condi tells the world we need to be open and safely bring in immigrants so they can study everything before getting shipped out because globalization means the entire globe... except for Americans...

Meanwhile the same people are either cald macacas, terrorists, or whatever else.

Forgive me for not being surprised when stuff like this happens. Condi, et al, will not have an easy time trying to pin blame for all the confusion.

[Ilsa]

15. While the majority of the students in these selected photos

are darker with darker features, etc, it is good to see fair-skinned students, of whatever their nationality may be, in solidarity with those most at risk.

I love the signs and the protest.

[immoderate]

17. Mostafa Tabatabainejad will become a household name!

:rofl:

--IMM

[Spinzonner]

18. I forsee a rash of sprained tongues

[file83]

99. !

:rofl:

[Catch2.2]

37. edit

...

[aikoaiko]

19. Honestly, what about being a student should make them immune...

... from the police procedures enforcing university rules.

:shrug:

[Deja Q]

20. Agreed.

Ditto for the previous response saying white guys were getting buzzed too. Everybody's being fried...

[immoderate]

21. How did they ever get the rules enforced before tasers?

Water boarding? Rubber bullets?

I think a refinement of technique is called for here. You have any kids in school?

--IMM

[aikoaiko]

24. Kids in school, nope but I was one and when I was asked to show my id...

...I did because that was the rule of the unviersity I chose to go to. Sure maybe I was singled out becuase I was a long-haired freak with a black leather jacket, but attending my school was my chose and producing an ID was a part of the rules I implicitly stated I would follow.

Before tasers, a student would have been "manhandled" out of the library if they refused to produce an id and then went limp when ushered out. Thats when sometimes shoulders got dislocated, arms broken, bruises to the rib cage, etc.

[readmoreoften]

32. Show me an incident of a student at your university who got a broken arm for resisting

leaving the library. This kid was tased in handcuffs for being perceived to be "mouthy".

[aikoaiko]

42. I can't provide an example of someone being hurt for resisting leaving a library

at my university or any other. I was speaking about cops manhandling people in handcuffs in general. Its often rough and sometimes people get hurt. In other words, not using tasers doesn't guarantee a lack of pain or injury.

I don't know if this adult was tased because he was mouthy or because he was resisting. An investigating will hopefully bear that out.

[readmoreoften]

44. He was tased while on the floor in handcuffs. How could he be resisting?

You can also here him saying "I'm leaving! Please stop! Please stop!" Being tased can cause up to 15 minutes of paralysis. You can't tase someone and tell them to stand up.

[aikoaiko]

47. If he was vigrously yelling, he probably wasn't paralyzed.

I believe taser only paralyze for 5 seconds.

[Ms. Clio]

50. you believe wrong, and clearly have not been reading most of the posts

or you would know that the taser incapacitates its victims from 5 to 15 minutes. So no, he could not move, he could not get up, but that did not affect his vocal cords.

But in the interest of science, perhaps we can tase you and see how vigorously you can yell?

[aikoaiko]

55. with repsect to the previous posts, they dont all agree with news reports

http://subs.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=275&ObjectID=10398769

Taser gives five seconds of complete paralysis

Wednesday August 30, 2006
By Derek Cheng

Constable Mike Smith's body stiffened in an instant, his face grimaced, and he cried out in pain as he fell to the ground like a toppling tree trunk.

He had just had a series of 50,000 volt pulses at low amperage surge through his body - making his muscles tauten, paralysing him - for five seconds by means of a Taser gun.

"I couldn't move. No chance. My body was completely incapacitated from my feet to my head," he said.

But five seconds later, he felt fine.

[mondo joe]

60. And here's a news report about someone who died as a result of taser

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/news/business/071605a5_taser

More than 130 people, including four men in the Phoenix area, have died after police used Taser shocks since 1999. Earlier this week, a 17-year-old boy in Texas died after being shocked three times by police responding to a call that the youth was high on drugs.

Taser International, the Scottsdale maker of the stun gun, maintains that its weapons have never caused a death or serious injury. But an ongoing investigation by The Arizona Republic shows that the gun has been cited by medical examiners in 17 cases.

[Ms. Clio]

65. 152 people according to Amnesty International

The report found that most fatal taser electrocutions involved unarmed subjects who posed no serious threat to cops or civilians at the time of weapon discharge. Many were electrocuted while already in restraints and/or received multiple electroshocks.

The report points to the systematic misuse of tasers by police and in prisons, documenting their utilization on the mentally ill, children, pregnant women and the elderly. It also highlights the widespread policy of using tasers as a routine compliance tool on subjects who are passively resisting or simply not perceived to be complying with orders. Amnesty International has also documented the use of tasers by jail guards and "anti-terrorism" interrogators as a means of punishment, degradation and torture.

(snip)

One study conducted by the ACLU found that 80 percent of departments surveyed had no policies "prohibiting or regulating the use of tasers on passive resisters." This means that subjects who disregard or do not understand police orders may be electrocuted at officers’ discretion. According to a report in the Denver Post, some Colorado police districts, police regularly "shock suspects who do little more than mouth off, pull an arm away from a handcuff, run or refuse to obey an officer’s orders quickly."

The increasingly widespread use of tasers has not produced a net reduction in the use of more lethal force by police departments. Instead, the introduction of taser weapons has served as a vector for the propagating the use of force in routine law enforcement procedures such as arresting and booking suspects. The Amnesty International report continues: "The use of force against suspects in the city of Orlando, Florida, had nearly doubled in the last 14 months since Tasers were issued to police, although they arrested fewer suspects."

http://www.nycny.com/columns/guests/damon03-31-06.html

[Ms. Clio]

63. that WAS the first result on the google

There is no comparison between Constable Mike's carefully-controlled experience and that of this young man who was tasered multiple times in handcuffs.

[readmoreoften]

80. Wrong. And experts are testifying in the case that he could not have complied for the reasons I

stated. Paralyze for five seconds? What a useless device that would be for police if that was the case.

[uppityperson]

85. they can incipacitate your large muscles for longer.

you can yell, and have gross movements, but you cannot stand alone or get up off the floor with, say, your hands cuffed behind your back.

[Buzz Clik]

52. We grew up in different times, but the 60s have returned.

When the national leadership shows no regard for the populace and passes hideous laws and starts immoral wars, the enforcement of that immorality falls upon the jackbooted troops. When I was in school, a cop stopped me and asked me for my ID; he didn't get to see it. This is not the Soviet Union, this is not Nazi Germany -- you are not required to "show your papers" every goddam time some sonofabitch with a billy club, taser, or gun wants to see it.

How the hell do you think this kid got into the UCLA library in the first place? And what possible threat is an AMERICAN student while studying in a library?

No, I'm sorry, but we should never go prostrate for these thugs. When a cop demands to see your ID for no reason, the proper response is "No." When he demands to see it, the proper response becomes "Screw you!" If the incident escalates to the level we saw at UCLA, then that cop will be unemployed and the message is sent.

Enough of this bullshit. Tell these bastards that Americans have rights.

[a la izquierda]

96. At my university you are REQUIRED to show ID...

to get into the library late at night. You don't show it, you don't get in. It's as simple as that. I do NOT agree that he should have been tased, but UCLA probably has rules similar to OU. If they do, he should have just shown the damned ID. I've been asked a hundred times to show mine. I'm as white as they get. I just do it. I don't make a fuss, it's the friggin' rule.


EDIT: sorry, this should have been a general reply, not just to yours. Totally not paying attention.

[Karenina]

101. First, let me C&P this post in its entirety...

I doubt BDB will object...

bluedogbruin (3 posts) Sat Nov-18-06 05:40 AM
Response to Original message

109. Some Backround Info from a Former UCLA CSO

Just to give everybody some background information. I worked as a CSO at UCLA from 1998-2000. In fact I worked that Powell shift many times. To assuage people's Patriot Act fears, the policy of banning people who did not have UCLA IDs after 11 pm has been standard policy from when I worked there. Basically, Powell library is open to the public until 11pm. At 11pm the library closes, and the library staff leaves. The only part of the library that is open is the reading room on the west side of the first floor. It is open to students only so that they have a safe place to study.

Most likely, the student wasn't racially profiled. When I worked the Powell shift, at 11pm I would ask each and every student in the reading room to show their ID to confirm they were UCLA students. This was the UCLA CSO policy in effect at the time, and I'm pretty sure its still in effect.

When I had somebody who said they forgot their ID, I would take a look at their backpack and clothes (most students studying that late are decked out in UCLA sweats and have a UCLA backpack). If I couldn't tell by their clothing if they were a student, I would talk to them about their classes to figure out if they were a student. If I was pretty sure they were a student, I would tell them to bring their ID next time.

If they weren't a UCLA student, and the they were nice to me, and the library wasn't crowded (like during finals) I would inform them of the UCLA policy and then let them stay. Most were students from other colleges who lived in the neighborhood and needed a place to study.

If they weren't a UCLA student, or didn't have ID, and were assholes, I'd enforce the library policy strictly. Out they went. I never needed to call for the UCPD to assist me in my job.

As an aside, you'd be surprised by the amount of criminal activity that takes place in the libraries at UCLA. Mostly theft, but there were always numerous sexually related activities like "mad masterbators" and guys with mirrors on their shoes.

[Ms. Clio]

58. I don't believe you were asked to show an ID to enter a university library

Or any of the rest.

What's that smell?

[aikoaiko]

64. The one who smelt it delt it.

But enough with the juvenile insults. Calling my experiences bullshit just shows how utterly lame you are. Does the truth of what I wrote really surprise you or confound you so much that you have to imply that it is untrue?

I forget how utterly stiffling some people are on DU when faced with a divergent opinion.

[Ms. Clio]

66. I have a great deal of experience with university libraries

So I am not merely implying that what you wrote is untrue.

Yes, I imagine DU is stifling when you have nothing but doubtful anecdotes and a blind belief in "authoritay" and torture to back up your "divergent opinion.

[aikoaiko]

68. Your arrogance is astounding in the context of your stupidity.

I have not said I believe the "authority" unconditionally (but I don't disbelieve them unconditionally, do you?), my experience with university police is true (ask around as other people get their ids checked on universities too), and torture is conversing with you.
;)

good night.

[Ms. Clio]

69. yes, I do disbelieve them nearly unconditionally

when you are older and more educated about life in general, you probably will, as well.

Getting your ID checked if you are in the library after a certain time is different than routinely presenting ID when you enter.

[lostnotforgotten]

22. And How Does Your Question Justify The Police Brutality?

eom

[aikoaiko]

23. Thats not their position -- it doesn't say "don't abuse me"

If the university signed off on tasers, why should they be treated differently?

ps. I am not fot police abuse. and I support the UCLA incident being investigated. But I'm no convinced by the video that it was abuse.

[lostnotforgotten]

25. Handcuffed - 4 Taser Shots - I Would Never Want You As A Witness

In my defense!

[aikoaiko]

26. probably not, since I would want to hear the other side of the story.

and more evidence before making a decision.

[readmoreoften]

33. What's the "other side" of tasing a handcuffed student 4 times? /nt

[uppityperson]

89. reading the "early news reports" vs watching the video.

I would like to hear your question answered also. Why taser a handcuffed tased student repeatedly because the previous tasing has made it impossible for the student to comply with the yelled demand to get up? Why tase a handcuffed student in the first place?

[lostnotforgotten]

40. Supporter Of Clear Police Brutality - We Know Where Your

Sympathies lay - the authorities.

[aikoaiko]

43. Hahaha. Reading is funadmental.

[lostnotforgotten]

51. Does Not Change The Fact That You Support Police Brutality

eom

[aikoaiko]

75. The RIF reference was my way, snarky way as clio suggested,

that I said nothing about supporting police brutality. If I did, please show me. I'm not a grammar or spelling nazi like some people.

[Ms. Clio]

71. er, so is spelling

Gosh, it's right there in your snarky image, can't you READ it???

:rofl:

[aikoaiko]

74. doh.

[Ms. Clio]

76. yeah, doh, you're the one who misspelled "fundamental"

[aikoaiko]

77. thats what I was acknowledging with the "doh"

homer simpson reference.

[Ms. Clio]

78. doh!

got it

[Occulus]

86. Yeah, it is, it's just too bad your shield from being shown wrong is an assumption

that nobody will bother to go back and call you on it.

Your quibbling over the content of their signs leaves out the possibility that tasing anyone who was quietly sitting and studying (and I don't blame him at all for not wanting to stop- when one is studying, one often goes into a zone of concentration that, when ended abruptly by someone else, is very hard to reestablish) IS ABUSE.

And frankly, it doesn't matter at all what you think. The students don't care. THEY see tasing someone who is studying as an abuse; THEY probably think the campus cop should have been able to call it in first and verify that the guy was actually a student. That's another strike against the Holy Authority Figure: easy verification of a student's name and courses was either unused or unavailable; in either case, that is the fault of the police, the school, or both.

The question is not, and never, ever was, whether or not the police should "have the right to _____". There has never been a question that what happened here was quite clearly so very far over the line that someone ought to be outright fired and several policies put under intense scrutiny. Frankly, I think you're laughing at us from behind your screen, that you're "getting us all going" so very much.

I'm not buying what you're selling. An application of common sense to what occurred should unambiguously tell you that IT WAS WRONG and that the student's supposed infraction in NO WAY justifies the actions of the campus cop.

SOMETIMES, saying "we don't know all the facts" is code for something. This would be one of those times. Keep in mind, there were a whole lot of witnesses to this. If they're all saying the same thing, every word of it is very probably true.

[Felinity]

92. So is writing

Perhaps you would like to review your grammar in your previous posts.

Was that an American University?

[Sydnie]

29. What happened to the case where the police had pulled over a car

with an Iraq vet in it and they shot him? Remember that case? Pretty much the same type of situation. The guy in the car identified himself as an Iraq Vet who was with the MP's and said that he would cooperate. They told him to get on the ground and he did. Then they told him to stand up and he stated that they had told him to get down ... and because he didn't respond quickly enough, they shot him.

I don't see a lot of difference in the two cases. They had just tasered this guy multiple times and they ordered him to get up. I am not sure he was physically capable of complying with their request at that moment, so they pulled him up and tasered him again until he went down again.

That, in any situation, is abuse. He was physically subdued but obviously not vocally silenced. That was their issue at that point. He was calling them on their behavior verbally and that was the way they chose to attempt to silence him. That is further supported by the other students who were witnesses who then asked for the officers badge numbers and were threatened with similar treatment.

What ever happened to having enough sense to escort the guy from the building, since that was their original goal, wasn't it? He was, according to reports, attempting to leave when they confronted him and began tasering him. If the objective was to get him to leave, they could have achieved that goal with no violence if they had talked to him most likely.

Wasn't necessary. He was armed with books and knowledge not WMDs.

[aikoaiko]

45. I don't know all the facts of the situation yet and prefer to wait until they are born out of ...

... investigation. But the early reports said the student went limp while he was being escorting out in handcuffs and then the tasering ensued.

If the student was fully complying with the requests and orders of the university police and they tasered him anyway, then that would be abuse. If he was resisting their lawful commands, then it is less clear if it is abuse.

[lostnotforgotten]

56. So Once Someone Is Commanded To Do Something It Makes

everything OK?

PS - Was my grammar sufficiently proper to satisfy you this time?

[Ms. Clio]

73. just deliberately obtuse, or what?

He was handcuffed, on the ground, resisting nothing.

I would so love to see the apologists in precisely the same situation.

[uppityperson]

87. repeatedly tasing someone who was incapable of getting up because he was

incapable of getting up is not abuse?

[Ms. Clio]

79. now he's armed with a good attorney

I hope those bastards rue the day.

[mondo joe]

31. Repeat tasering isn't enforcing university rules. It's torture.

Want to defend it some more?

[aikoaiko]

46. oh you call it torture. oh ok then. that changes everything.

not.

repeated tasering can be appropriate in some situations, in my opinion.

[mondo joe]

48. Repeat tasering of a handcuffed person lying on the ground not resisting

IS torture.

Is that you GW?

[aikoaiko]

53. Glad your omniscient because I really can't make out those details

from the video.

If it does turn out to be judged to be abuse, I hope the popo go to jail, but I'm not jumping the gun as if I know the totality of the situation --- which is what your doing.

I'm not saying I am certain it is or isn't abuse.

[mondo joe]

67. How do you feel about the officer threatening another student with the taser

for asking for his badge number?

Or do you need to wait and see if that's abuse too?

[aikoaiko]

70. Honestly, I don't think the cop should have said that.

The video is unclear but it looks like the incident is ongoing at the time when the student gets very close to it and asks for the badge numbers. This is not a good time to approach cops, in general. The cop seems more concerned with keeping the crowd back than reciting badge numbers.

If the incident is ongoing, then it is appropriate to keep onlookers away. Using a threat to keep someone from seeking information is not appropriate. If the cop thought the question was a ruse to interfere, then it might be more justifiable, but it would have been better to threated with arrest for interfering with police business.

Anyway, while some have judged this situation, I'll wait to learn more before I call it abuse.

[mondo joe]

72. Never saw police abuse you couldn't excuse, I see. n/t

[file83]

100. What else could you possibly learn that would change your mind?

You know the kid was handcuffed after the first tasering.

You know the kid was handcuffed during the second tasering.

You know the kid was handcuffed during the third tasering.

You know the kid was handcuffed during the fourth tasering....

Aikoaiko, if you find yourself unable to judge this situation, do us all a favor, stay away from "judge" as a career choice.

Unless of course your a Freeper in disguise, in which case, NO QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY!!! IMPOSE YOUR IGNORANCE ON EVERYONE!!! WOO-HOO!!!! GO BUSH!!!!! STAY THE COURSE!!!!

[uppityperson]

83. you seriously think they took the handcuffs off and he was resisting?

criminy.

[Buzz Clik]

54. Not a chance.

If you are willing to hand over your rights to avoid having a cop kick your ass for no reason, then perhaps you don't deserve those rights. There comes a time when we must reclaim our Constitution, and the time is now.

[WinkyDink]

81. The student was not VIOLENT! He had no WEAPON. The police

(or were they rent-a-"cops"?) were not THREATENED.

They TASERED a STUDENT over an ID!!!!!!

Good GRIEF!

[Occulus]

88. I'll ask you directly, because it's pretty obvious you're being deliberately obtuse

Was it appropriate to tase the student even once in this situation?

Yes or no. Don't qualify, don't include an "if he had" or "we don't know".

Yes or no.

[uppityperson]

90. Simple question. Was THIS a time when repeated tasering was appropriate?

no "ifs", "perhaps", or "waiting for the evidence to come out", or "early news reports said". Was THIS a time when repeated tasering was appropriate.

[rman]

94. Gonzalez and Bush don't call it torture -

that supposedly changed everything.

Opinions are a dime a dozen, arguments on the other hand...

[file83]

98. Wow, your opinion is so persuasive...

:eyes:

[K8-EEE]

59. Did You See The Tape?

The cops tazered him as he was leaving and then tazered him repeatedly for NOT GETTING UP....you don't taser somebody to get them up, you taser them to get them DOWN!

It's a pretty sadistic scene...and no way called for. What should have happened was he should have been written up and charged for being in there without his ID card.

Police brutality and excessive force are unfortunately very well known "procedures" in L.A. and with the UC cops too. Thank goodness for video and YouTube!

[Buzz Clik]

62. "you don't taser somebody to get them up, you taser them to get them DOWN!"

Damned straight!

Excellent post.

[rman]

93. who says students should be immune?

no-one does, so your argument is a straw man.

[Beelzebud]

104. If university rules say you should use a taser on a student, then fuck the rules...

Pathetic...

[aikoaiko]

106. Well, I'll just reply to myself beause I don't want to direct this to anyone in particular

, but what you all said had some impact on me. I thought about it last night. I'm with you all that the tasering was abuse. I won't qualify it with specifics, but unless there was strong resistance to arrest which no one says happened, they shouldn't have used tasers to make him comply with the commands to stand.

While I resorted to "snarky" comments myself, I sure wish we could converse about things without name calling, personal attacks, or saying that one works for the enemy.

[hedgehog]

27. Were any other students in the area asked for ID?

If not , I think the student involved may face some administrative discipline, but the University is wide open for a Civil Rights lawsuit. Regardless, even if the person involved was not a student and was in the library against the rules, the use of a taser was unjustified. If he had leapt for the throat of one of the cops, maybe; but that wasn't the provocation. He apparently was tasered for being uppity to a cop..

[Karenina]

30. His lawyer has stated

that he was surrounded by white students NONE OF WHOM were carded. Also, IIRC the student in question was working on a computer that required a UCLA PIN to access. Then there's this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2619308#2620853

[H2O Man]

34. Very interesting.

Not surprising.

Thank you for this information.

[WillyT]

28. Right On !!! - This Needs To Go Nation-Wide On Campuses !!! - K & R !!!

:kick::yourock::kick:

[madmusic]

35. K&R

[smoogatz]

36. Just when you think today's college kids are all comatose

from 24/7 Playstation-ism... What I'm trying to say is, good for them.

[Catch2.2]

38. My .02

Personally I think this is being blown out of proportion. I used to work in westwood when I was in school and I must say the cops (who are not rent-a-cops) were actually pretty nice. If the student complied this all would've been avoided. I didn't see anything that showed the incident was racially motivated and I don't think it was. It angers me when people start yelling "Police State" & "Fascists" etc. These officers have been very good & tolerant to that community. I've seen a lot of drunk disorderly students at frat partys etc. that would've been thrown in jail if they were in any other part of the city but because they were students partying in Westwood the cops showed great restraint and just made sure no one got hurt and that no property was damaged. It is unfair to start labeling a whole group because of one incident that we don't even know all the facts. To see people holding signs saying "Cops, Army Recruiters get off our campus" or "Don't tazer me I'm studying" is just ignorant. I don't like being labeled incorrectly and I believe we need to excercise caution before we start saying that the police at UCLA are a bunch of stormtroopers going around tazering innocent students for no reason.

[Buzz Clik]

57. "If the student complied this all would've been avoided." Puke!

"If that uppity darky would have simply used the Coloreds Only bathroom, I wouldn't have cracked his skull with this baseball bat."

You're right. If this student -- guilty of nothing -- would have been a good boy done what massa told him to, he wouldn't have got his wuppin'.

[K8-EEE]

61. They ENJOYED Tasering A Guy Who Was DOWN

how can you avoid THAT? The cops were never physically in danger -- the most they should have done was cuff him, take him in for questioning and make him produce proof that he was a student. What did they think he was going to do to them with cuffs on, that he had to get repeatedly tasered while on the floor??

[uppityperson]

84. This was not a drunk/disorderly student @ frat party.

This was a student who got handcuffed and tased for not showing his id, and then repeatedly tased for not being able to get up with his hands handcuffed behind his back and after being tazed. This was a group of police at UCLA being a bunch of stormtroopers going around tasering a student for no reason.

[justjones]

91. That's interesting....

because I have had the opposite experience of the UCPD on the UCLA campus while a student...they weren't too nice in my opinion.

And thanks for illustrating the entire reason people are up in arms about this....you state that drunk, disorderly frat boys get a free pass from the UCPD. Why would they get a free pass and this student gets tazed for not showing the proper identification in the school library? The answer to this question comes in hues.

[Sydnie]

103. This guy wasn't drunk at a frat party

he was studying in the library. I think there is a BIG difference. We tell our young people that education is important and then we do this to one of them when he is trying to persue that education?

I call BULLSHIT on your post. He wasn't drunk and disorderly. He wasn't armed with anything other than knowledge, or the persuit of such knowledge. There was no "group" situation here, where a mob of drunken frat boys could have gotten out of hand. It was a library!

[Karenina]

105. Had he been a drunken, disorderly member

of a WHITE Greek Society, no doubt he would have been treated more fairly... Tells you a LOT, eh?

[ismnotwasm]

39. Wow

That's almost enough to make me cry.

Thanks for posting.

[Irishonly]

41. The student's lawyer

said he felt he was being profiled. It's become a moot point whether he should have shown ID or not now. Watching the tape enrages me. I don't know exactly what a taser does but some experts are saying he was physically incapable of doing what he was told. I feel the officers should be fired. Not only did they get "taser happy" they were perfectly willing to use it on other students asking for names and badge numbers.

[upi402]

82. Wonderful to see. k/r n/t

[Zodiak]

95. Just remember, my fellow DUers,

that authoritarians are on the left, too. There aren't that many of them, but they are there.

And like Jon Dean asserts, you cannot change their stripes or be able to understand them if you are not an authoritarian yourself.

Making excuses for a clear-cut case of police brutality against an unarmed student is a classic exmaple of authoritarian behavior.

[Bassic]

97. Leave it to students to show their discontent

And the more power to them!

[Jcrowley]

102. K&R

“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But ... the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’” Martin Luther King, Jr.