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 ...
I have a unique perspective here. My Uncle was killed 11 years before I was born as a police officer trying to bust a drug dealer. I also graduated from UCLA this summer. My cousins grew up with no father. My brother is also a police officer. When police officers use extreme force, it is warranted. It is an absolute rule that all people in Powell library past 11pm must present ID. This person resisted arrest and provoked the situation. I feel that the UCPD acted as they should and any protest otherwise is compromising the ability of the police to act as they are tasked.
Many students treat the library as a de facto hotel. I sickened as people slept in chairs as I wanted to study for finals. He was lazy and now regrets his actions, Remember that a week ago, a swastika was drawn on a UCLA toilet stall door, in the building where the muzzies gather.
Cite online source for this statement.
Mostafa Tabatabainejad? I think he was singled out because he is an A**!
This is worth a, "Bush's Fault" comment. LOL!
How about 156 deaths??? Freak.
Illinois Teen Shouting for Jesus Dies When Police Taser Him
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
JERSEYVILLE, Ill. — Authorities are investigating the death of a 17-year-old boy who died after officers in this St. Louis-area community shot him twice with a stun gun while he carried a Bible and cordless telephone, shouting "I want Jesus."
Roger Holyfield died Sunday night at a St. Louis hospital, a day after the former Jersey Community High School's confrontation with police.
In a statement obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, police in this community about 40 miles north of St. Louis said Holyfield would not acknowledge officers who approached him, continuing to yell "I want Jesus."
Holyfield became combative when officers tried to calm him, then was shot with a stun gun after ignoring their warnings to comply with their commands, police said. He was shot a second time when he continued struggling, police said.
Holyfield vomited at the scene and was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, then was flown to St. Louis' Cardinal Glennon Hospital, where he died shortly after 8 p.m. the next day, police said.
An autopsy was planned for Tuesday.
While expressing sympathy by Jerseyville's mayor, city commissioners and police to Holyfield's family, the police statement said the city and officers would not discuss the matter further.
Messages were left Tuesday with Jerseyville Police Chief Brad Blackorby, whose department, according to its statement, has been using stun guns for the past five months.
Holyfield was a former Jersey Community High School student but did not attend that school this year, said James Whiteside, superintendent of Jerseyville schools.
In a report released in March, international human rights group Amnesty International said it had logged at least 156 deaths across the country in the previous five years related to police stun guns.
The rise in deaths accompanies a marked increase in the number of U.S. law enforcement agencies employing devices made by Taser International Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz. About 1,000 of the nation's 18,000 police agencies used Tasers in 2001; more than 7,000 departments had them last year, according to a government study.
Police had used Tasers more than 70,000 times as of last year, Congress' Government Accountability Office said.
Amnesty has urged police departments to suspend the use of Tasers pending more study.
Taser called the study flawed by falsely linking deaths to Taser use when there has been no such official conclusion.
The company has said Tasers have saved more than 9,000 lives because police officers have been able to use stun guns instead of bullets.
Holyfield's death is at least the second in the Metro East calling stun guns into question in recent months.
Nick Mamino Jr. — the 41-year-old son of a former Collinsville police chief — died in April after Collinsville police shot him with a stun gun. Though Mamino's family speculated that the gun might have caused his death, an autopsy report said the weapon was only a contributing factor.
A coroner's jury later ruled Mamino died accidentally when he was hog-tied by police trying to arrest him while he was high on cocaine.
You are obviously among those whose conscience has been dulled.
DAMN!!!! How do I get in on this deal? Have to have Iranian parents? Many Iranians are fairly light skinned. I'd love to see what this scammer looks like. Not to mention he should be grateful he was even allowed to be born here in the first place. Punks like him should be drop kicked back to the "Islamic Republic"
This nation is a free all-you-can-eat- buffet for 3rd world rip off artists and Muslim scam artists
LOL! Bingo....
Completely without merit??? Nice opinion but you know what they say about opinions. My post reflects a growing danger. I sited in another post 156 deaths that have been caused by the use of Tazers. I don't like Marxist college activists any more than you do. I also despise the growing hostility by our law enforcement officials and their tendency to cover up their crimes. The constitution is under assault in so many ways. I am afraid we will all long for the days of the kindly cop. (Go rent "It's a Wonderful Life" if you don't know what a kindly cop is." The state is slowly becoming an enemy of the people. You must realize that this is not an isolated incident. I have watched videos of police using tazers agains defenseless American citizens. It should be used if at all as a last resort. How about calling for back up? How about negotiating? Do you think a little civility from our public servants is too much to ask for? I believe that you will live to see the increase in police brutality and pray to God it does not happen to you. If it does, you'll be screaming from hilltop to hilltop for someone to give you empathy. If the rest of us are like you, you will be left wanting.
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