This video shows a student being shot by a Taser by UCLA police after he failed to show his ID while using the Powell Library computer lab: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3CdNgoC0cE It is difficult to see much what occurs in this video but it is not difficult to hear, and very disturbing.
According to news reports, Mostafa Tabatabainejad did not have his ID when asked to produce it at 11:30 PM. Such ID checks are routine in this library after 11:00 PM, when access is limited to students. Police left and returned soon after as, according to witnesses the student was walking toward the exit. Witnesses report that an officer grabbed his arm and the student asked the officer to let him go. When the officer held his grip the student yelled “get off me!” Police then shot him with a taser, which temporarily disables one’s muscle control. The student fell to the floor, screaming, while an officer repeatedly yelled at him to “Get up! Get up!” The student failed to get up–the point of the taser being, after all, to render one immobile–and police shot him multiple times. Campus police claim that Tabatabainejad refused to leave the library after they requested many times that he do so, that he went limp and fell to the floor as police escorted him out and it was then that they shot him with the Taser, and that he encouraged bystanders to join his protest. Witnesses disputed these claims, which are also not supported by the video. The video does show that when bystanders requested badge numbers from the officers, at least one officer threatened to shoot them with the Taser as well.
Student shot by taser by UCPD officers, dailybruin.com, 15-Nov-06; Sara Taylor, Community responds to Taser use in Powell, dailybruin.com, 16-Nov-06; Amanda Covarubbious and Stuart Silverstein, A third incident, a new video, The Los Angeles Times, 16-Nov-06
Sphere: Related Content
3 Comments
Wow this is very disturbing. I can’t believe the UCLA police would stun a student that many times to arrest a student. I could never imagine the BUPD doing such a thing to a BU student in a library. I wonder would the student be able to file charges against the police officers because he resisted their intial requests? Could he charge them with an intentional tort?
That’s ridiculous. These “cops” obviously have no idea what they’re doing and I wouldn’t be surprised if the student had all kinds of options in law suits, including potential hate crimes because he’s arab.
Almost even worse is the cops complete inability to handle the overall situation, telling other students to “get back or you’ll get tased too.”
I agree with both previous comments. I stumbled upon this video before logging onto this site due to a facebook message regarding it and I was utterly shocked and appalled. I had to turn the volume down because the screaming was so disturbing. I once viewed a video of a taser demonstration, and it basically just immobolizes a person completely, the lady that volunteered to get tased simply just crumbled to the floor in like 1 seconds worth of time. Do these police even know what they’re using, looks like a lack of competence in the job to me if they think a person can stand up so easily after being tased that many times. Maybe they ought to try it out themselves. Clearly this is just a sick sadastic act and abuse of power. What kind of legal action can he take? The race issue is a touchy subject.
Post a Comment