YouTube - UCLA Student Tasered by Police in Library (Warning - Some Profanity in Video)

YouTube ^ | November 16, 2006 | You Tube

[Arec Barrwin]

Mostafa Tabatabainejad, 23, was tasered after he refused to provide ID and would not leave. He starts screaming

"DON"T TOUCH ME! Don't touch-zzzzzzzzzzzt!" "Here's your Patriot Act! Here's your-zzzzzzzzzzt!"

Lesson #1: When the police ask you to do something, do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g7zlJx9u2E

[Ecliptic]

The guy should have complied...but shocked 5 times?? There is a limit on physical force......He was tased, handcuffed and being dragged by 2 cops, how is he going to fight...what about pepper spray?? Cops don't have the right to seriously hurt someone just because they don't stand up...

[SpaceBar]

The later portion of the video sounds exactly like Art Bell's famous "drillhole to hell" audio clip.

[Ecliptic]

There is a long waiting list at most cop jobs.....if it were hard to find people to work for theses wages, they would be paid more.....

[pandoraou812]

they join college police departments and bully respectable people who will not riot. And they came close to having a riot among college kids in the library.
Guess you never heard of campus riots before? As for respectable maybe some of them. I highly doubt the police were concerned over a riot after all they had the tasers. All the moron had to do was show id or leave. Obey the law or carry your id its not such a big deal. I would hope by college age they would have learned enough to understand how to deal with the police and what happens if you don't. Sorry but I really have no pity for the guy. I do think being tasered a few times was enough but the guy didn't seem to get it. Hey maybe he is into pain.

[Kate of Spice Island]

You teach?

[Slings and Arrows]

You teach?

It was that, or play piano in a whorehouse.

Unfortunately, I don't play piano.

[RadioAstronomer]

Right...another student just happened to have a video camera on him or her? They really weren't expecting to have anything to video. Just a coincidence. Smells like a setup to me.

Bull. Pretty much everyone with a cell phone these days has a vid camera built in. Heck I carry one always.

[JLS]

Yeah your Mets story is pretty funny. I try not to let his infantile politics color my view of what was going on. Now if your guy at the Mets had grabbed on to a railing to stop them from removing him, tase away. That did not appear to be the case at the UCLA library.

[Dallas59]

*snicker*

[Binstence]

Liberal, Communist, Christian, Jew or Atheist, the use of tazers is wrong. The wimpy student was no match for the several police officers. The more comfortable the police are with this sadism the more they will use it and want further blood lust. We have lost America. This obviously was no Rodney King and lying on the floor in a peaceable fashion does not constitute resisting police. The LAPD has a history of violation of its power and clearly this act of violence threatens us all. Many innocent people have died from these evil weapons. We are on the slippery slope to a police state. If this video does not trouble you it is time to check your heart and conscience. The culture of death has affected your judgment. The more we witness crimes against humanity and cruel and unusual abuses of power the more desensitized we become to that which is unacceptable. The cops were wrong. I live in NYC where the cops face real threats every minute of every day and they police dept here does not use these inhuman devices. Satan himself is smiling as he watches this sick video. God help our once great nation.

[billybudd]

I don't think failing to show ID should warrant a zapping unless he presents some sort of threat. Who knows if they had cause to believe he was a threat (probably not)?

That said, the kid acted really stupidly, especially making it political by referencing the Patriot Act. That just encourages people to think he's a prick and might have staged the whole thing (also convenient that someone was videotaping his computer screen at that moment).

[Dallas59]

Remember Columbine....

[claudiustg]

Grab the taser from my hand, Grasshoppa. When you can do that, you can say you were only following orders. :^)

[Andy from Beaverton]

If these students are our future, we're f'n doomed!

[Mischi3vo]

To those here who think he shouldn't have been tasered. You have got to be kidding me. First, he was given the option to leave -- what point is there in resisting a campus cop? Second, there is no knowledge of the events that occurred prior.

He wanted to be tased.

[RadioAstronomer]

I don't know if there is a phone that can shoot almost 7 minutes of video, though. I can only get about a minute and a half out of mine.

With a 2Gig card, my NOKIA N93 will shoot close to 90 mins of video.

[Crim]

Hell yeah he did...I smell set up...

I saw jack ass staple his scrotum to his leg...so dont tell me people arent willing to take a few Zots for the "cause"...

and yeah...I watched the whole thing and laughed my ass off...

My other thought...gow what a bunch of wussies....if REAL cops had done that when whenI was in high school there would have been a full blown melee...

They should be fired for damn near starting a riot...

All they had to do was drag him away....

Idiot with taser and badge vs idiot with big mouth and no ID...

I bet a MILLION dollars no one "forgets" their ID again....ever...

*snicker*

[BurbankKarl]

My badge number is Glock 19


hahahaha...classic reply on youtube

[BurbankKarl]

Would your phone be of this quality?

[billybudd]

What about Columbine? Those kids were legitimate students at that school. Having had to present an ID wouldn't have changed anything.

About this UCLA kid, we don't know the full story, which is why I qualified my statement with "unless he presents some sort of threat." But I doubt that was the case. He didn't set off a metal detector, he didn't have a trenchcoat or any unusual baggage/items. A backpack simply isn't a justification since all students have them.

This was a simple case of tresspassing at worst, which could have been handled without a taser.