Posted on 11/17/2006 12:03:43 AM PST by BurbankKarl
The UCLA student stunned with a Taser by a campus police officer has hired a high-profile civil rights lawyer who plans to file a brutality lawsuit.
The videotaped incident, which occurred after the student refused requests to show his ID card to campus officers, triggered widespread debate on and off campus Thursday about whether use of the Taser was warranted. It was the third in a recent series of local incidents captured on video that raise questions about arrest tactics.
Attorney Stephen Yagman said he plans to file a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing the UCLA police of "brutal excessive force," as well as false arrest. The lawyer also provided the first public account of the Tuesday night incident at UCLA's Powell Library from the student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a 23-year-old senior.
He said that Tabatabainejad, when asked for his ID after 11 p.m. Tuesday, declined because he thought he was being singled out because of his Middle Eastern appearance. Yagman said Tabatabainejad is of Iranian descent but is a U.S.-born resident of Los Angeles.
The lawyer said Tabatabainejad eventually decided to leave the library but when an officer refused the student's request to take his hand off him, the student fell limp to the floor, again to avoid participating in what he considered a case of racial profiling. After police started firing the Taser, Tabatabainejad tried to "get the beating, the use of brutal force, to stop by shouting and causing people to watch. Generally, police don't want to do their dirties in front of a lot of witnesses."
He said Tabatabainejad was hit by the Taser five times and suffered "moderate to severe contusions" on his right side.
UCLA officials declined to respond directly to Yagman's statements, saying they still were conducting their internal investigation of the incident.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Opinionated rhetoric.
Look, i think you guys are looking at this incorrectly. They are trying to get a person to submit using the least amount of force neccesary. It might hurt like heck, but it beats accidently killing the guy.
>>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.<<
You think a taser is inhuman? What do you think of guns?
Tasers are tools. They can be used for offense or they can be used for defense or they can be used for torture.
If someone uses a tool illegally they should be punished - the tool isn't the problem.
Dont worry, I am sure there are other cameras that recorded exactly what happened.
He broke several university rules by not identifying himself to the CSO. I would say he broke another rule by committing a protest within the library (specifically prohibited)
He broke the law by not following the police officer's instruction to leave.
The UC police are California statewide police officers with full authority. They often respond to other campuses, and protect the Regents also.
If the student had simply produced his ID and simply cooperated with the police, then he would have not have been tazered. Simple as that.
Tazers are simply harmless. It is just a little shock.
"When police officers use extreme force, it is warranted."
Unless it's a mistake.
167 cases of death following stun-gun use
http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special43/articles/1224taserlist24-ON.html
---They are trying to get a person to submit using the least amount of force neccesary. It might hurt like heck, but it beats accidently killing the guy.---
Exactly! Plus it reduces liability to the taxpayers for injuries suffered both by the detainee and the officers.
Maybe the only card in his pocket was the Race Card.
Update: 8:37am...reader Andrew K. writes in:
I have been a long-time fan of your blog and am presently a freshman at UCLA. Clearly, the recent use of a Tazer by UCPD officers to subdue a student refusing to leave the library has caused quite a stir, and I thought I might provide you with a bit more information on the incident, as well as the zeitgeist of the campus.
First and foremost, I wish to clarify that, regardless of what some might attempt to claim, it is absurd to believe that Mr. Tabatabainejad was targeted based on his race or ethnicity. Random ID card checks are standard procedure in Powell Library after 11 PM, to ensure the safety of students. Furthermore, these checks were performed by Community Service Officers (CSOs), not UCPD officers. CSOs are UCLA students hired by UCPD to aide in security and service activities, and to support UCPD. Thus, Mr. Tabatabainejad was the subject of a very ordinary, very standard ID card check by his own, fellow students. He failed to produce an ID, so the CSOs requested he leave (as they would of anyone without an ID). Of course, the situation deteriorated from there and the chain of events from there is detailed (albeit in a rather biased manner) by the Daily Bruin.
It appear to me that the facts of this case speak for themselves in justifying the UCPD’s actions. In any case, I simply wished to stress that it is wholly fallacious to claim the Mr. Tabatabainejad was the target of racism or some kind of profiling. Regrettably, we have a decided liberal bent here at UCLA, as most colleges nowadays do. This accompanies popular and common anti-authority beliefs which, in some of the more extreme cases, manifests as a bizarre anti-police attitude. Thankfully, these more extremist beliefs are not as commonly held as one might think, and there has not been a violently anti-authority reaction to the incident on campus. Nonetheless, a large portion of students (likely a majority) believes that the officers acted with "unreasonable or disproportionate force," and I have already seen posters and ads for civil rights protests and other associated anti-police nonsense (I'm frankly unsure which civil rights they plan to protest in support of. The right to resist arrest, perhaps?).
If there are no laws, no rules, there is no freedom. We would be free to do as we please whether or not it infringes on other's freedoms.
What is wrong with complying with rules? There is a tacit acceptance of the rule that you don't destroy a library book. If you decide to burn the book, you must pay for it.
There is an expectation that if you come into my home and I ask you to leave as I have something else to do or need to feed the horses...you leave.
If that kid was in your house and refused to leave because he wanted to look in all your rooms or read one of your books, etc., would you or would you not call for assistance to get him the hell out of there? If he resisted, etc. and would not leave, I would hope the police would drag his butt out of there. With or without a Taser.
UCLA Police Chief Karl Ross said the officers decided to use the Taser to incapacitate Tabatabainejad after he went limp while they were escorting him out and urged other library patrons to join his resistance.
Mavrick Goodrich, a chemical engineering major who observed the incident, said Tabatabainejad shouted, "Am I the only martyr?"
Exactly! Plus it reduces liability to the taxpayers for injuries suffered both by the detainee and the officers.
I'm so glad that there a few on FR who get this point. It's amazing to me how few seem to understand use of force and on a conservative forum, no less.
I really think police departments should develop a curriculum on this subject to teach nationwide in 8th or 9th grade health classes or maybe history or social studies.
The poor misunderstood newly-minted victim group is going to get all that they can out of it so that they can get out of responsibility for terrorism.
From your "About Me" page:
"I am an unapologetic independent thinker. I am a strong man but, my heart aches each day I witness the sacred traditions and institutions of the United States of America being assaulted by mentally ill leftist thugs..."
'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.' ~ Edmund Burke
Is someone else using your profile to post today? What you say about yourself, and what you say on this topic don't seem to jibe.
Just askin'.
Amazing how many of these also state "acute cocaine and methamphetamine intoxication."
But let's blame the taser not the drug intoxication that many die of without being tased. Let's also overlook the fact that before tasers, many of these incidents would have ended with a fatal shooting.
Let's also ignore the number of people trying to commit suicide by cop that are now tased instead of shot.
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