Ok - time for this poll. What would YOU do if you were UCLA Student/Taser incident?

[The Straight Story]

Time to put debate to rest and see what we all would have done:

Having been a cop myself at one time, and not now being one, I would have approached them, stated my issue, and not getting satisfaction I would have physically stopped them and took my chances with a jury.

Seeing a fellow citizen tazed like that and doing nothing to stop it would haunt me more than a criminal record for doing the right thing. But I am not you, so I can only say what I would do.

What would you do?

[Kiouni]

1. violence wasn't the answer

and neither would it be a good response.

[The Straight Story]

4. Define violence - wasn't their response violent?

If you were there, would you let someone get tasered repeatedly without stepping in?

What if it were not the cops and avg joe's just doing it?

[Kiouni]

6. Their, being the cops,

response was definitely violent, my response would not be violent. Responding by trying to make a citizens arrest of a police officer would only cause more violence. Recording the event was the best possible response.

[The Straight Story]

12. Give em an inch....A personal story

One night my Sgt came to my floor. He was getting crap from a guy in a cell (we had 10-20 guys in one cell). Me, I just ignored their threats and hate. He had something to prove.

He handed me the keys (yeah, we have real keys, it's not all electronic) and went into the cell. Took off his shirt. He ordered me to lock the door behind him. He was ready to fight the guy.

He was willing to take on that guy and the whole cell, to prove a point. I saw this as wrong myself (especially since these were pre-trial folks and not guilty of anything).

While I saw his actions as dumb and endangering himself and other deputies I got that he was standing up to something. To hell with rules and regulations (which I stood by, and there was an investigation after this incident) he wanted to show certain people that no matter what there needed to be order.

When cops go bad, we need to stand up and stop them. If we cannot trust them to do the right thing, then we are really screwed.

What would I do if I was there? I would have tried to stop them - first with words, then with force. Doing the right thing is not always clear when it comes to the law. But morally, I could not stand there and watch that without doing something more than recording it.

[EdwardM]

2. I'd take a video with my cell phone.

If I tried to attack, I'd get destroyed. Videotape and let the people know who these people are.

[Mythsaje]

3. I think our ability to record things

is a tool and weapon against abuse of authority that's just beginning to come into its own. Nearly EVERYONE, particularly the young, have the means to do this now.

I think they did the right thing, considering what they knew and what tools they had at hand.

Now me, as MYSELF, I might have responded a bit differently. Maybe. But I'm not an eighteen or nineteen year old kid anymore.

Besides--to me abuse of authority is one of the worst crimes I can imagine.

[The Straight Story]

7. Unpopular as it is - I would have tackled em

I would have seen them as thugs, and not cops.

When I was a cop, we didn't have tasers. This guy was cuffed, and not a threat.

I could not imagine myself doing that when I was on the force, unless I was a power hungry idiot. And there were a few back then - which I stood up to.

I remember one night on the 5th floor (the Zoo) I had 12 inmates I was patting down. One in the booth was encouraging them to jump me and inciting a riot. Tasering him would have been easy. But I stood up and told them guys that if they jumped me there would be 30 deputies on the floor in 15 seconds and they would all serve longer sentences. They stood there and let me do my job.

These guys could have talked and worked more for a better solution. They were too lazy to do so, IMHO.

[EdwardM]

9. Thank you for your service.

I'm glad to see there are some cops that realize that a taser is only supposed to be used when there is an immediate threat, and not used to punish people they don't like. I'm also glad you stood up to the jerks. I wish there were more cops like you!

[Mythsaje]

10. I have issues with it for another reason...

I can pin and hold someone my own size with little problem, by myself. Of course, I've been trained in pressure points and joint locks and holds since I could walk.

Someone who thinks a person who's handcuffed and on the floor is ANY kind of a threat is too chickenshit to be allowed a badge in the first place.

My wife was a C.O. some years back and she's with me on this. We've seen other, similar videos, and we can never understand how trained people can go so far and justify it.

She ended up leaving the job after she decked a friend who came up behind her in a club. The job had just made her too jumpy and she decided it was time to move on.

[Nostradammit]

5. I'd have started throwing books at them

The big ones, dictionaries and encyclopedias and the like.

If that didn't work, I'd yell, "on the count of three, everybody runs to and hugs a police man - hard. 1,2,3...AAAAUUUUUUUGGGGHHH!!!"

I'd probably get my nuts tasered off, but I'd have the satisfaction of knowing that I didn't stand by and watch an attempted murder take place.



I wonder if some government stooge somewhere isn't making a note of these comments.



Hey Agent Mike! You got the tasers, but we got the numbers.

[Kiouni]

8. throw the book at them!

I love it

[Skittles]

11. I am with you

there is no way I could just watch something I considered abuse - no way, cops or no cops - I would be absolutely incapable of doing nothing.

[angry_chuck]

13. drop the hammer

If we don't fight the campus cops and security guards how will we build the confidence necessary to fend off the feds and their national rfid tag for us?

You hadn't heard? Oh, sorry...but it's coming!

NEVER surrender the teeth of liberty! DROP the HAMMER on INJUSTICE!

[xchrom]

14. i think you have to step in and do someting.

i'm far from certain about the outcome -- however an interruption may make them realize they had gone too far and there was going to be a problem.

[Warren Stupidity]

15. "Force" but not physical assault.

I think the correct response would have been for the people in the library to have surrounded and protected with their own bodies the individual under assault by the police. "Taser him only by tasering all of us." I am not saying that this would have been easy to do, just that it would have been the best thing to do.

[MGD]

16. I wonder what would happen if someone tazed those cops in return?

Or pepper sprayed them? I imagine they would be shot.

[The Straight Story]

18. True enough

Makes one wonder. Good question.

[blogslut]

17. I applaud the students

For videoing the incident and making their objections clear to the officers. The fact is, the students almost did swarm the cops. They came thisclose. I hate to think what would have happened after that. I'm glad that the situation did not escalate into a riot.

I can't say what I would have done in that situation. My hope is that I would have used my theatrically-trained big girl voice and started a chant:

Officers! Stand Down!
Officers! Stand Down!
Officers! Stand Down!
Officers! Stand Down!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

19. I'd like to think I'd have tackled one or two of them.

But I probably wouldn't have.

[Crandor]

20. If the students had taken action...

we'd all have read articles titled "UCLA Students Attack Cop" and such, and the taser abuse that led to it would have been swept under the rug.