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November 16, 2006
UCLA Police Tasering Video of Student in Powell Library
On Tuesday night around 11pm, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a UCLA student, was stunned several times with a Taser after he wasn't able to produce his anti-Taser device (his Bruin card) and did not leave the CLICC Lab in Powell Library in a timely manner, the Daily Bruin reports.
The video appears to show that the shocking continued while Tabatabainejad was handcuffed.
As Tabatabainejad was being dragged through the room by two officers, he repeated in a strained scream, "I'm not fighting you" and "I said I would leave." - Daily BruinKudos to Tabatabainejad's fellow Bruins who gave a fair amount of shit to the campus police which may have prevented a few more shocks, but who knows.
The LA Times has even more.
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Seems like a lot of this is going on in CA or maybe it's getting documented better than in other places. It's clear that the student was either not willing to comply with "standing up" or was too disoriented to do that after multiple tasings. At the end of the ordeal he was dragged out from beneath the arms which is what the cops could have done from the beginning. How nice for that bloated cop at the end to then threaten other students with tasing.
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Totally, fucking, sickening.
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I could feel the tensity by just watching that.
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Campus cops are the worst of the lot. They are always exerting their force and their power more than regular cops. Just tryin' to one day be one of them. Campus cops, no matter what school, are the biggest dicks by far.
Sickening.
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I feel shocked after watching this video. The student didn't seem to pose any real physical danger to the officers, so why did they have to Tase him multiple times? And after he was handcuffed? I'm really glad this was caught on video because this NEEDS to be reviewed by authorities.
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Is that what you get for returning a book late now?
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why couldn't the cops pick him up like a sack of potatoes and throw him out?
they are wrong for tasering someone who was not a threat to their safety.
not all cops are jerks, but the ones in this video clearly used too much force for the simple removal of a trespasser.
thank god the campus police at my school only have the ability to give you a parking ticket...
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People wonder why college students are so disillusioned with authority, against the war, against the political leadership in this country - and incidents like this are why. Right in their backyard, authority was misused. This tape made me feel sick to my stomach. Absolutely apprehensible.
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You mean "reprehensible", Sloane. "Apprehensible" is the word used to describe an appendage that's adept at wrapping around something. No, wait.
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come on ucla! for gods sake. when you see this shit going down its your duty to riot and pounce thoes abusive cops.
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He should have just stood up and walked out. Problem solved.
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hfan, i imagine it's kinda like when someone special cuffs your hands behind your back, and then that same special someone demands that you put your hands above your head... and when you CAN'T comply they repeatedly hit you with a taser.
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u fucking redecks he was handcuffed.. it was racist police brutality and that nigger, gook, and WASP cops deserves to be beaten
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I agree with post #11. What the video dosent show is what happened before the handcuffing. If the student? would have left in a timely manner and not been so defiant none of this would have happened. Just like driving without a license you have to have an ID while on campus. The people paid to protect us are caught in a "catch 22", we expect them to keep us safe at all times but most civilans give them the hardest time.
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Post number 14, do you honestly think that if you couldn't produce a license, the cops have a right to taser you? Are you fucking insane? There are any number of a billion things those bullies could have done to diffuse the situation. They took a situation that should have ended in loss of library privileges, or a fine.. or a warning, and made it into national news. Unfuckingbelievable.
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Your hands are cuffed behind your back, your legs are not functioning due to tasering, how the hell are you supposed to be able to comply?
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"People wonder why college students are so disillusioned with authority, against the war, against the political leadership in this country - and incidents like this are why. Right in their backyard, authority was misused. This tape made me feel sick to my stomach. Absolutely apprehensible."
He had a problem with authority from the start! All he was asked to do was produce and ID (he didn't) and then asked to leave immediate authority. College students have always problem with authority because they don't like being told what to do, even when they are in the wrong like this shit head. His whole reason for not cooperating is because he believes he was singled out due to his ethnicity.
Of course those student morons thinks it's brutality. They've lived their entire lives sheltered and finally getting to see a little bit of reality when a guy gets shocked. But how the hell do they know what constitutes excessive force when they probably have never seen what truly excessive force is like in their entire lives?
Any type of force to these cretins students are automatically "excessive" of course they're ones to be able to make the judgement call because they would know exactly how to handle that type of situation.. right?
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"Post number 14, do you honestly think that if you couldn't produce a license, the cops have a right to taser you? Are you fucking insane? There are any number of a billion things those bullies could have done to diffuse the situation. They took a situation that should have ended in loss of library privileges, or a fine.. or a warning, and made it into national news. Unfuckingbelievable."
They didn't taze him because he couldn't produce a ID idiot, they tazed him because he become IRRATE when the one cop grabbed him by his arm and screamed "DON'T TOUCH ME". Which turned escalated the situation. He was the one that raised a scene, because he felt he was being targeted because he was Iranian. Of course of this guy turned out to not be a student and went and hurt someone the cops would have been blamed for not doing their duty. Of course he could have avoid it it all by leaving the first time before the cops got involved. But I guess that little fact goes out the window, when you're too busy placing the blame on the responders huh?
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R-tard, this is the question:
Can a police officer tazer someone who is not posing any threat to the officer or others?
The officers knew from the beginning that the boy wasn't armed. They were two trained police officers who could have managed to control him with bare hands and probably the handcuffs. Even the first time he was tazered is not justifiable for me, let alone the second, third, fourth (and probably fifth) times, when he was incapable of moving and "standing up".
You shouldn't forget that Tazer is gategorized as a "less lethal weapon", not even a non-leathal one. The UCPD officer put someone's life in danger because... bacause of what? Because he simply didn't have his ID in his pocket with him? Because the officer had ordered him to "stand up" and he hadn't obeyed? How does the sentence "Stand up or you'll be tazered again" sound to you?
With a real gun, does a cop have the right to shoot a handcuffed person who's not posing any threat? Remember that tazer is slightly less dangerous than a real gun.
I was totally disgusted and shocked by the video. This was and outrageous act of savagery.
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There sure are a lot of assumptions flying about here. I for one, am curious to find out what really did go on and what happened that made the officers feel the deployment of a taser was necessary in this situation - because that fact is not actually shown in the video.
Though I fully agree that his merely failing to produce an I.D. would not have been justification for the tasing I can guarantee you there is more to this story.
As to the fact that the man was not complying, he most clearly was not. Despite all of the hype and B.S., I have been shot with a taser (as have thousands of others who will attest to the same) and I know from painful experience that the very second the current shuts off (which it automatically does after 5 seconds) You are perfectly capable of standing, walking, or even getting up and running away if you have a mind to (except, in such a case, you'd be almost guaranteed a second shock)
And finally, if it is found that the officers did tase him after the man was handcuffed, thier ass is grass, as we used to say back in the day. But as for me, I'm setting ass-umptions aside until the facts come out.
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"Remember that tazer is slightly less dangerous than a real gun."
This statement is categorically false and spoken by somebody that has no clue what they are talking about. Get the facts before you go about spreading such falsehoods
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Things need to change. Abuse of power is becoming all too real and all too common.
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He should have stood up instead of running his mouth.