This was emailed to me:
“An Iranian-American student at UCLA was tasered on Tuesday by campus police for failing to provide proper identification during a random security check at the school library. The shocking incident was caught on videotape and has created quite quite a controversy in the Westwood campus. Police tasered the student even after he was handcuffed and posed no threat to anyone. Very disturbing.”
Yes very disturbing. I don’t know, but can a person really just stand up immediately after being tazed 4 or 5 times?
In the accompanying article: http://www.dailybruin.com/news/articles.asp?id=38960
“But according to a study published in the Lancet Medical Journal in 2001, a charge of three to five seconds can result in immobilization for five to 15 minutes, which would mean that Tabatabainejad could have been physically unable to stand when the officers demanded that he do so.”
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there are quite a few articles off google news if you search for it
http://news.google.ca/news?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&tab=wn&ncl=http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php%3FStoryID%3D20061116-015646-6449r
I’m surprised more hasn’t come out considering there must have been security cameras in the library, there are plenty of witnesses and considering this guy was a student, I’m surprised campus security or someone with any kind of authority didn’t try to intervene. Its a bit hard to comment since all the facts aren’t out but man is it depressing.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” (Edmund Burke)
I’m surprised campus security or someone with any kind of authority didn’t try to intervene.
If I read it correctly it WAS campus security (UCPD) that tasered him.
I have no idea who did what since everything seems based on this video. I guess I’m also surprised its campus security since at my school I don’t think our security were armed with anything other than walkie-talkies. I remember sleeping in the library during college… 
Our media has delivered so much fear in the form of Bush Administration propaganda against persons of Arab cultures that sadly this kind of response from scared terrorist seeking police officers was predictable.
Let’s see if it get’s the kind of National coverage it deserves (ala Rodney King). My opinion, repeatedly “tasing” a passively non-compliant human being is not the “least amount of force necessary.”
I guess we can add Iranians to Iraqis as those who had nothing to do with the terror attacks here, but are paying the price for our fear.
“Fight on!”
.
“Bush Administration Propaganda”
Please elaborate…
Amazing what people will try to turn into a racial incident. Got a kick out of the guy whining about the Patriot Act. What does that have to do with this? Looks more like a trespassing act to me.
I was just wondering, when the police told him to leave, why didn’t he just do it?
If a white guy refused to follow lawful instructions from the Police, the white guy would get tasered too.
My boys have been well schooled that if you ever have to deal with the police, do not be a smartass, do not make fast movements and comply with what they say. Clearly this young man does seem to know how to shut his mouth or comply.
Yeah that’s right and after he is stunned and handcuffed he should get tasered over and over again? I wasn’t there but according to eye witness accounts he did try to leave when they asked.
Yeah but he’s Iranian. And we all know they are here just to terrorize our women and children.
That is not what CNN says:
“A UCLA police officer shocked a student with a stun gun at a campus library after he refused repeated requests to show student identification and wouldn’t leave, police said.
The student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, was shocked Tuesday at about 11 p.m. as police did a routine check of student IDs at the University of California, Los Angeles Powell Library computer lab.
“This is a long-standing library policy to ensure the safety of students during the late-night hours,” said UCLA Police Department spokeswoman Nancy Greenstein.
She said police tried to escort Tabatabainejad, 23, out of the library after he refused to provide identification. Tabatabainejad instead encouraged others at the library to join his resistance, and when a crowd began to gather, police used the stun gun on him, Greenstein said.”
Next time you get pulled over for speeding, just refuse to pull over or refuse to give your license or get out of the car when directed. You will have an interesting day, even if you are a white guy.
It is undisputed that he refused to leave when asked, so more cops were called over. The kid created an explosive situation. Blame him first. Afterwards, maybe the cops handled it right, maybe not. They didn’t create the situation though, they just handled it as they thought best.
If the kid doesn’t want to live by the rules of the heavily taxpayer supported university, he should go find another university.
I wasn’t there, and it does look like he had an attitude… No doubt he should have left when the officers asked. However, there were many witnesses so perhaps it is worth trying to get the entire story.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15731040/
"When asked whether the student resisted when officer attempted to escort him from the building, the witness said, “In the beginning, no. But when they were holding onto him and they were on the ground, he was trying to just break free. He was saying, ‘I’m leaving, I’m leaving.’ It was so disturbing to watch that I cannot be concise on that. I can just say that he was willing to leave. He had his backpack on his shoulder and he was walking out when the cops approached him. It was unnecessary.”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/16/ucla_taser_incident/
Laila Gordy, “a fourth-year economics student who was present in the library during the incident”, claimed officers threatened to zap her “when she asked an officer for his name and his badge number”.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cellcamera16nov16,0,4794591.story?page=1&coll=la-home-headlines
He continued to refuse," the statement said. “As the officers attempted to escort him out, he went limp and continued to refuse to cooperate with officers or leave the building.”
Witnesses disputed that account, saying that when campus police arrived, Tabatabainejad had begun to walk toward the door with his backpack. When an officer approached him and grabbed his arm, the witnesses said, Tabatabainejad told the officer to let go, yelling “Get off me” several times.
The incident was the third videotape of an arrest to surface in the last week in Los Angeles.
One video showed a Los Angeles Police Department officer dousing a handcuffed suspect in the face with pepper spray as the suspect sat in a patrol car.
Any way you cut it, the guy was handcuffed on the ground and continued to get tasered over and over again. How is a person in that state a threat to the officers? It is clearly excessive force to walk into a library, handcuff a student and taser him over and over again. If not, how many times to taser a passive handcuffed college student would you consider excessive, 10, 20 50 times?
Was it right for the officers to threaten the witnesses when they requested names and badge numbers?
Our media has delivered so much fear in the form of Bush Administration propaganda against persons of Arab cultures that sadly this kind of response from scared terrorist seeking police officers was predictable.
Not to ruin a good slant … but 9/11 did more than Bush “propoganda” ever could in bringing out those feelings and fears … just as Pearl harbor did , toward the Japanese, almost 70 years ago.
You make it sound like, without Bushand the media, people would not have ill will toward people of Middle-Eastern descent. In my life experience, and looking back through history … I don’t see how you can realistically lead on with that statement/idea. A variety of fields highlight human’s irrational fears.
You must not require much sleep.
Repeatedly tasering someone who is handcuffed and laying on the ground is excessive. These officers should be reprimanded.