UCLA student tasered by campus police for not showing ID

[koleah]

UCLA student tasered by campus police for not showing ID
Video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=W3CdNgoC0cE

Story:

http://dailybruin.com/news/articles.asp?id=38958

Somethings seriously wrong. Yes you can argue he should have left, he should have had his ID, etc. And no, obviously one story about what happened won't give the full extent of his actions with the officers before the tasering. But he was headed out.

Did the police really need to taser him? Especially more than once?

Please check it out for yourself.

[koleah]

CNN article:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/16/student.stunned.ap/index.html

Mostafa Tabatabainejad was the guy. I wonder if he would have been tased if he'd been John Smith.

Anyway, its interesting to compare the events in the Bruin article to the events in the CNN article.

Kolea

[Glickman]

i say they didnt taser him enough <_<

it seems that he was walking out until an officer grabbed his arm where he stopped in his tracks and wouldnt move.

seems like something exactly a 5 year old would do...

people with disrespect for the people that one day may save their lives or the lives of their loved ones should have a good one upside the head.


its like the problems i see people giving the TSA nearly every other weekend when i fly. people give the screeners a hard time for no purpose other than just to give them a hard time. they are they're to protect your sorry *** so let them do their job, and be thankful we have a program like TSA in place.

[chip08]

What kind of camera phone is he using? Its got pretty sweet resolution.

I would have tazed him, he pitched a fit, and was non compliant.
And he cried...

[RabidFuzzle]

Coming from one who has been on the recieving end of a taser I would have to say that the UCLA cops were way out of line. Especially due to the fact that their reason for the later taserings in the video was that he wouldn't stand up. I sure as hell couldn't satnd up on demand for at least a good 5 minutes after I was hit. Now don't get me wrong here. I support the use of tasers as a substitution for deadly force and have been a bit disgusted at the lawsuits coming from people that have been tased. They should be happy they were tased and not shot for resisting the officers in the first place. In this case however the abuse is blatant.

Fuzz

P.S. If you have rude or derogatory things to say to me about my opinions please feel free to e-mail me as there is no reason to expose the forum to that kind of trash.

[SCpoloRicker]

Good.

/Trojan

[Lohman446]

Life lesson

The people carrying tasers may not deserve respect (I think they do) but you dang sure better give it to them.

[beam]

Gordy was visibly upset by the incident and said other students were also disturbed.

"It's a shock that something like this can happen at UCLA," she said. "It was unnecessary what they did."
-------------------------------------------

No kidding it's a shock.

[geekwarrior]

so um, why wouldnt he leave? i don't think he should have been tasered more than once, but why not listen when your told to do something?

probably the best thing that will ever happen to him though, seeing as he'll probably win millions. I would take a couple times being tasered for a couple million. Although I would rather go the route the firefighter did here in CA. Couple of his buddies put dog food in his dinner as a prank(his nick name was big dawg) and he sued the city for 10 and settled for 2.7 yay tax payer dollars.

[beam]

I couldn't watch the video earlier because I was at work, but now having seen it...that just ticks me off.

The guy "played to the crowd" and as soon as he saw they were on his side, he wasn't going anywhere.

Why would anyone scream at the top of their lungs like that at the authorities? Especially in a computer lab?

[koleah]

Why would anyone scream at the top of their lungs like that at the authorities? Especially in a computer lab?

10's of thousands of volts coursing through one's body? Lots of pain? Being told to get up after being tased? Repeatedly? Frustration? Anger?

K

[beam]

10's of thousands of volts coursing through one's body? Lots of pain? Being told to get up after being tased? Repeatedly? Frustration? Anger?

K

No. The screaming happens long before the tasing begins. In fact, the first words in the video are "DON'T...TOUCH...MEEEEEEE!"

[grEnAlEins]

What other options did the officers have? They could not deploy their OC Spray (or CN or Triple Action, depending on what their department issues) because they were in an enclosed area. Deployment of deadly force is out of the question. They could have deployed ASPs... Given that they were in a crowd, which was likely to become unruly (this was in LA after all), the officers needed to gain control of the situation as quickly as possible. Suspect was non-compliant, so he got tased, end of story. Would you rather see the suspect beaten with ASPs? I think not.

EDIT: They could have utilized a choke hold too... not really though. They could have physically subdued the individual, but that would be seen as far more brutal. "Six officers jumped him, cry, complain, etc"

/"I fought the law and the... law won"

[Pacifist_Farmer]

You can't tell much from the movie, although your right it does have really nice quality. It seems he was Tasered 3 times, the whole time he was being instructed to stand up. I see two reasons, one unfamiliarity with their tools, and the fact that they had 30 or 40 college students surrounding them complaining of abuse of power. Standing up after being "incapacitated" seems unrealistic. I would never want to be in either the kids shoes or the Policemen's.

We can only speculate that he deserved it, I would definitely say that the kid in the white shirt at the end deserved to get shocked, Police officers have more important things to worry about in those situations than what a bystander thinks of someone else's civil rights being/or not being violated.

He will get lots of money.

[grEnAlEins]

It seems he was Tasered 3 times, the whole time he was being instructed to stand up. I see two reasons, one unfamiliarity with their tools, and the fact that they had 30 or 40 college students surrounding them complaining of abuse of power. Standing up after being "incapacitated" seems unrealistic.

1) Officers do need to get certified to carry the Taser, most departments do mandate extensive training before an officer is allowed to carry.

2) The taser hardly incapacitates. Watch any training videos and the officers are able to get right back up. I have not been tased yet, I go through the academy either next year or the year after depending on what I wanna do school wise, but everyone I know who has been hit says it hurts like heck, but you are able to regain composure and control of yourself after the current is stopped. Granted they did not ride a full five second cycle, they only went till they dropped plus a little more (around 2-2.5 seconds is what I was told).

I would never want to be in either the kids shoes or the Policemen's.

QFT, but for some reason I am trying to place myself in the officers' shoes

We can only speculate that he deserved it, I would definitely say that the kid in the white shirt at the end deserved to get shocked, Police officers have more important things to worry about in those situations than what a bystander thinks of someone else's civil rights being/or not being violated.

I wouldn't say he deserved it outright, he just left the officers no reasonable means to regain control of the situation barring the deployment of the Taser. As far as the other kid goes, he should have been taught respect during his upbringing. It looked to me as if the officer exercised a great degree of self control there. That situation was handled with the utmost profesionalism, or at least it looks that way from where I sit.

He will get lots of money.

Gosh I hope not, but you've likely hit the nail right on the head here... :(