Posted on 11/16/2006 4:57:59 AM PST by radar101
UCPD officers shot a student several times with a Taser inside the Powell Library CLICC computer lab late Tuesday night before taking him into custody.
No university police officers were available to comment further about the incident as of 3 a.m. Wednesday, and no Community Service Officers who were on duty at the time could be reached.
At around 11:30 p.m., CSOs asked a male student using a computer in the back of the room to leave when he was unable to produce a BruinCard during a random check. The student did not exit the building immediately.
The CSOs left, returning minutes later, and police officers arrived to escort the student out. By this time the student had begun to walk toward the door with his backpack when an officer approached him and grabbed his arm, at which point the student told the officer to let him go. A second officer then approached the student as well.
The student began to yell "get off me," repeating himself several times.
It was at this point that the officers shot the student with a Taser for the first time, causing him to fall to the floor and cry out in pain. The student also told the officers he had a medical condition.
UCPD officers confirmed that the man involved in the incident was a student, but did not give a name or any additional information about his identity.
Video shot from a student's camera phone captured the student yelling, "Here's your Patriot Act, here's your fucking abuse of power," while he struggled with the officers.
As the student was screaming, UCPD officers repeatedly told him to stand up and said "stop fighting us." The student did not stand up as the officers requested and they shot him with the Taser at least once more.
"It was the most disgusting and vile act I had ever seen in my life," said David Remesnitsky, a 2006 UCLA alumnus who witnessed the incident.
As the student and the officers were struggling, bystanders repeatedly asked the police officers to stop, and at one point officers told the gathered crowd to stand back and threatened to use a Taser on anyone who got too close.
Laila Gordy, a fourth-year economics student who was present in the library during the incident, said police officers threatened to shoot her with a Taser when she asked an officer for his name and his badge number.
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."
Immediately after the incident, several students began to contact local news outlets, informing them of the incident, and Remesnitsky wrote an e-mail to Interim Chancellor Norman Abrams.
officer approached him and grabbed his arm, at which point the student told the officer to let him go
Why resist? Sounds like a spoiled brat who resents authority to me. If a police officer grabbed my arm I'd cooperate fully with them. How about "what's the problem, officer?"
The student did not exit the building immediately.
Why didn't he leave when asked? Was he authorized to be in the library? Why give the officer lip when confronted?
I don't have much sympathy for brats who resent authority. I hope this jerk learned something that his parents obviously didn't cover when raising him.
And if you pay tuition to said or any other university, you're paying for campus security.
Campus security POLICY in this instance was to announce that ALL patrons to the library were to have ID's checked at that point in the evening.
ID's are checked to ensure the safety of other said students.
This gent was repeatedly asked for his ID and refused to show it.
In your opinion - should campus security have just left him there?
What if he wasn't a student? What if he was just Joe Schmoe waiting to follow your daughter out the door?
"The guy was a student at the university library.
He couldn't prove it and instead of cooperating and leaving when asked, he gives the authorities lip.
No sympathy from me. The guy sounds like a jerk.
You can make up a story that fits your agenda, but it has nothing to do with the case being discussed here. The article clearly states the student was leaving. He wasn’t leaving fast enough to satisfy the CSO. He didn't refuse to leave as in your fictional story. He was leaving as instructed when he was grabbed by a UCPD cop.
The student wasn’t committing any crime. At worst he violated a school rule. There is a difference between violating a rule and violating a law.
The cop on the other hand violated the law by committing battery on the student. When the student objected to the crime he was brutalized by that cop and another one.
Either we are a nation of laws or we are not. If we allow cops to break the law with immunity we are no longer a nation of laws. Cops should be prosecuted when they break the law just like everyone else.
Now your confusing people with logic and facts.
We need to stick with knee-jerk hysteria. It's becoming the American way.
He resisted arrest. That arrest may have been a mistake but it doesn't change the fact he resisted.
You said it all. Don't resist when authorities try to stop you and don't give lip to those trying to do their jobs. This so called student's (although he was unable to prove it) behavior is so typical of the mindset that one must resist all authority and one must never cooperate with authority. I hope this jerk learned a lesson.
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.
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.
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.
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=nation_world&id=4767414
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If I pay for something, it's mine by right. I don't pay for privileges that can be taken at whim. The kids mistake is that he couldn't prove he had the right to be there, but it was his RIGHT nevertheless."
No, when you pay for the university facilities it is contingent upon you following the rules. By your reasoning getting a passing grade is a right based on your paying tuition.
The kid violated the 'rights' and safety of all the OTHER students in the library. He lost his 'right' when he became disruptive and broke the law when he refused to leave.
Keep reading, there's more to the story.
"No sympathy from me. The guy sounds like a jerk."
I have to agree with you. His behavior was very disruptive and comments were indicative of someone with a chip on their shoulder.
I don't think they errored in tasoring him as he was resisting arrest. I do think they errored by tasoring him for not standing up.
"Try to keep up."
Which amendment in the Bill of Rights covers your 'Right' to uncontrolled and unfettered use of public property? I pay lots of taxes, should I be able to do anything I want on the roads? Do I have a right to drive 150mph on public streets? I pay for them, don't I?
He was leaving when he was assaulted. Up to the point the cop committed battery no crime had been committed.
So I agree with you that he broke the rule about haveing his student ID with him when using the library and he should face what ever the school's prescribed punishment is for that infraction.
The cops committed crimes. They should be prosecuted.
We are a nation of laws. No group should be above the law.
One of the more ignorant things I have seen posted today. You seem to be up there in the ignorance dept often. Rode the short bus to school?
It just so happens that I've been doing quite a bit of research on campus security these days, as dtr #1 is a senior in high school.
Neither the posted article, nor the one you gave a link to claims he was placed under arrest before he was assaulted.
My taxes pay for the University of California Livermore Nuclear weapons laboratory. I suppose I have an unfettered right to go in and use their facility anytime I want?
Sheesh. I cannot believe that freepers can be so naive and ignorant.
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