UCLA tasers student

[Robert Sharp]

http://prisonplanet.com/articles/nov...61106taser.htm

This story is odd....apparently, you have to have your ID in the library at UCLA (maybe just after 11pm...not sure). So anyway, security decides to check IDs, including the ID of a middle eastern descended student. He fails to show it (I think he had it, but refused). He then decides to leave the library rather than show the ID. They stop him, and he goes limp (classic civil disobedience move). Instead of arresting him, they tell him to get up. When he refuses, they taser him...repeatedly. They ask him to get up, he stays limp, they taser him.

Sounds like torture to me. Anyway, I heard about it today on the Michelangelo something or other show on OutQ radio (Sirius). It's an interesting story about where our nation is heading.

[Stroker Ace]

Hey, at least it wasn't in AL!

[skedastic]

Sometimes I wish I could Taser my students.

[Flowers]

I thought UCLA was supposed to have a good film school.

[MatthewF]

Someone posted the video of this in EE. Other students tried to invervene, and the cops repeatedly threatened to taser them if they got any closer. A girl who asked for badge numbers was also threatened with being tasered.

[Stroker Ace]

Hopefully Qt3's resident LA cop will be by soon to scare us out of our PJs!

[Glenn]

He was refusing to follow orders.

Always follow a policeman's directives.

Seriously, how hard is that to figure out?

[Stroker Ace]

"I want you to touch yourself, right there. No, lower."

[MikeSofaer]

Someone posted the video of this in EE. Other students tried to invervene, and the cops repeatedly threatened to taser them if they got any closer. A girl who asked for badge numbers was also threatened with being tasered.

So? They can't actually taser everyone. And if they do, that video would have been WAY more funny. So call their bluff so I can watch the results!

[MatthewF]

Themselves.

[Glenn]

Hopefully Qt3's resident LA cop will be by soon to scare us out of our PJs!

It says a lot about the Never-Neverland that you inhabit that your more afraid of corrupt cops than actual criminals.

[Stroker Ace]

Who said I was afraid of cops? I just want Marcus to come give us some dirt. Stop projecting, there's no one in your bushes.

[LesJarvis]

He was refusing to follow orders.

Always follow a policeman's directives.

Seriously, how hard is that to figure out?

Agree, my sympathy for this guy = zero. He was not being asked to do anything even remotely unreasonable, and it sounds like he was basically just being a prick about it.

[Hawkeye Fierce]

It sounds like he may have started it by being a prick, but it also doesn't sound like it was a very proportionate response.

[Flowers]

"I want you to touch yourself, right there. No, lower."

But this building only has one floor!

[MikeSofaer]

Resisting the temptation to lay the hurt on someone who is making a pretentious ass of himself, but is not otherwise in any way dangerous, should be a job requirement for a university police officer.

[Tim Partlett]

I don't think a taser is enough punishment for someone being a prick. They should cave in his head, rip out his spine and deliver it to his mother on a platter. That'll learn 'em.

[LesJarvis]

It sounds like he may have started it by being a prick, but it also doesn't sound like it was a very proportionate response.

Oh, definitely not. The police were pricks too, but is that really news? I'm not saying he deserved it, I'm saying there was a very easy way for him to avoid the entire situation, but he was too much of a prick to choose that option. As such I don't have any sympathy for him.

[Steve Canyon]

Agree, my sympathy for this guy = zero. He was not being asked to do anything even remotely unreasonable, and it sounds like he was basically just being a prick about it.

I am glad nobody tasers me everytime I act like a prick!

[Shadarr]

I fail to see how this guy was being a prick. You have to show ID to get into the library. He didn't show ID, and left the library. That should be the end of it.

Also, any cop who refuses to give his badge number should be fired. The original guy may have been refusing to comply, but the bystanders complied with the police request and then asked for a badge number. That's exactly what you're supposed to do when police start over-stepping their authority.

[Raife]

I am glad nobody tasers me everytime I act like a prick!

We're working on that one, Tim. We'll be taking shifts.

[Ben]

AFAIK, the actual facts make the tasering more reasonable. The dude was asked to show ID, refused to do so, was asked to leave, refused to do that either. The library security guard called the cops to remove him, and then based on who you believe he either refused again or started to leave but then freaked out when a cop grabbed his arm. There are also conflicting reports of when he started doing the limpness thing and if he got tasered after being handcuffed, etc. etc. The camera video shows very little actual action and there are all sorts of unreliable eyewitness reports.

The cops didn't stop him as he was trying to leave, though, they were trying to remove him.

I have absolutely no sympathy for the guy(when a cop tells you stand up or get tasered again, stand the fuck up!), but the cops could've handled this like a million different better ways.

Edit for shadarr and others:
You have to show ID to be in the library during a certain time period at night, during the day you don't need it. He was already in the library and refused to leave.

[Robert Sharp]

I have absolutely no sympathy for the guy(when a cop tells you stand up or get tasered again, stand the fuck up!), but the cops could've handled this like a million different better ways.

Edit for shadarr and others:
You have to show ID to be in the library during a certain time period at night, during the day you don't need it. He was already in the library and refused to leave.

Yes, your edit is right. However, the first thing I quoted here is a bit disturbing. Are you saying police should be able to taser anyone who peacefully refuses to comply? Wouldn't arresting the guy make more sense? You can handcuff him, even subdue him, without tasering him if he is not being violent.

[Flowers]

Oh, definitely not. The police were pricks too, but is that really news? I'm not saying he deserved it, I'm saying there was a very easy way for him to avoid the entire situation, but he was too much of a prick to choose that option. As such I don't have any sympathy for him.

See, I told you that if you watched the Live Aid Dvd around the holidays, you would be all out of sympathy before you knew it. Did you listen? No. Had you not hugged all those orphans last thursday, you know, the ones with the missing face disorder, you wouldn't be in this predicament. But you went, and you did, and now you here you are.

Used to be, in this town, a man'd pace himself, apportion his sympathy in a careful yet kind manner. I don't know what happened, but ever since them celebrity concerts for farmers been gettin' held, seems some folk'r all sympathized out.

I swear, what's regular folk gotta have happen to 'em these days to get a little sympathy? Ain't it enough to get violated unwarranted by a peace officer's truncheon, or your dick raped clean by a panther? It's like people get rid of all their sympathy as soon as they can, worryin' about the troops, tastin' a delicious dinner and wishin' somebody in Darfur could sit next to them at the table, providin' they was dressed properly. Then when people like old Mostafa come around, and get their rights shat upon, in deerect contraventions of the United States Constitution, fellers are willin' to let the episode pass with out so much as a, "Sorry, bud."

Now, I kin understand gettin' all teary eyed at the prospect of a girl havin' her genteels mutilated unrequested, but that's one of them world-wide problems. Them girls got sympathies pourin' in from as far as Red China. Hell, some of them ladies even wind up gettin' full ride scholars to Ivy League Universities at the behest of Ms. Oprah Winfrey herself. I must admit, sometimes, when I think of the trouble Old Willy gets me into, I'd be hard pressed, durin' my weaker moments, not to trade at least some of the good times me and Willy had for some fancy book learnin' on a rich lady's check.

Well, I went a bit adrift here, I guess. The moral of the story is;

Tasering somebody for tellin' authority to take a hike is Unamerican, and supporting those types of transgressions against what it means to be free with your silence is the same kind of behavior that gets little girls' bits cut off and trampled in the dirt. I don't like it when little girls' bits get cut off, and neither does Miss Oprah Winfrey, and speaking for her, we are both sorry that you do.

[Steve Canyon]

We're working on that one, Tim. We'll be taking shifts.

And you wonder why I use an alias!

[Ben]

Are you saying police should be able to taser anyone who peacefully refuses to comply? Wouldn't arresting the guy make more sense? You can handcuff him, even subdue him, without tasering him if he is not being violent.

Well, I do believe the police should have the legal authority to taser people who are peacefully refusing to comply as I can imagine a hypothetical where that's acceptable. This doesn't appear to be one of those situations and I do agree that the police were out of line. We don't see the beginning of the incident, but it seems like the police went straight to tasering from asking nicely without ever trying to physically force him to leave. You'd think they could tackle, handcuff, and carry him out.

My lack of sympathy for the dude doesn't mean I'm condoning the police action.

[Jasper Phillips]

Agree, my sympathy for this guy = zero. He was not being asked to do anything even remotely unreasonable, and it sounds like he was basically just being a prick about it.

WTF? What if he didn't have his ID with him? When did we become such a police state that you're required to have a valid ID to be in a public place?

The correct response to police over reaching their power is to not stand for it -- civil disobeidence, exactly as this guy did. Especially in the case where it seems the police motivation was based on racial profiling. If they thought they had enough to arrest him, they should have done it. I rather suspect they didn't have enough to arrest him.

It's like when the police knock on your door, and ask to come in. The correct answer is not to meekly comply, but instead to ask them if they have a warrant. Sure, they still might kick in the door and taser you -- but that is not within their power under the law, and you can follow up their abuse in court.

[Matthew Gallant]

I have absolutely no sympathy for the guy(when a cop tells you stand up or get tasered again, stand the fuck up!), but the cops could've handled this like a million different better ways.

Ridiculous. Tasers are to be used to protect police officers, not as cattle prods. A person who refuses to be arrested should be tased. A person who just refuses to move shouldn't. You just cuff hands and feet and pick them the fuck up.

[Ben]

What if he didn't have his ID with him?

Then he has to leave.

When did we become such a police state that you're required to have a valid ID to be in a public place?

He wasn't in a public place.

Especially in the case where it's obvious the police motivation was based on racial profiling.

This is completely unsupported by anything. The police were called by the library staff.

[Robert Sharp]

It was a random check, wasn't it? What do you mean called by the staff? Is UCLAs library not open to the public? Some (many) university libraries are open to the public, though only students can check out books.

The details on this incident are sketchy, but apparently the student was tasered multiple times. That's at least excessive. I'd say once was probably unnecessary.