Questions raised about safety, regulation of Tasers( UCLA YouTube Idiot )

When university police officers were called to Powell Library on Tuesday night to escort a student off the premises, they used weapons which are unregulated and have largely unknown effects on the body.

Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a 23-year-old UCLA student, was hit with a Taser at least four times after he was unable to produce his BruinCard during a random check of all people in the CLICC Lab and did not leave the building promptly upon request.

UCPD said in a statement that the officers resorted to the use of the Taser because Tabatabainejad refused to comply with officers' requests that he leave and encouraged other library patrons to join in his resistance.

But when it comes to an appropriate use of force, especially when the weapon in question is a Taser, the regulations are not clear.

Sharon Dolovich, a UCLA law professor and expert in criminal law, said the use of force by a police officer is usually governed by individual departments' policies.

"These policies are sometimes very flexible," she said. "The officers have to use their best judgment."

Though UCPD and several other California university campuses have adopted Tasers as an alternative to more forceful weapons, the devices remain largely unregulated because they are not considered a firearm.

The regulations regarding Taser use are left up to states and local police departments. California allows the use of Tasers by law enforcement officials, but seven other states have banned their use and one state has restricted them, according to multiple state penal codes.

A report compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union found that many police agencies have vague or nonexistent policies regarding Tasers.

"Out of the 54 agencies surveyed, only four agencies had any language whatsoever in their policies warning against or prohibiting multiple shocks," the report read.

UCPD has yet to publicly release official department guidelines regarding the use of Tasers, but Nancy Greenstein, director of police community services at UCPD, said the officers are trained to use the weapon by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and there are state training standards for the use of weapons and force.

Tasers are considered one step in a series of progressive actions police can take to use force.

On Tuesday, UCPD used the "drive stun" setting, which is one of two possible settings that can be used.

According to a report prepared by the Stanford Criminal Justice Center, the drive stun setting of a Taser is intended for "pain compliance" in close range.

The drive stun setting, in which police touch the device to a person's body, has less serious medical consequences than a regular Taser stun, in which a person is shot with two metal probes that pump electrical currents through the body.

But the report found that there can be "permanent ... dermatological impairments associated with the use of a Taser in (drive) stun mode." The report also emphasized that drive stun shocks are not fatal and the long-term physical implications are not serious.

While Tabatabainejad was on his way to the CLICC Lab door at around 11:30 p.m., university police officers approached him, and following an apparent confrontation, he was hit with a Taser by UCPD officers at least four times.

State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, said she hopes the incident will be investigated.

"I was on campus when the LAPD came during the anti-war demonstrations. (The video of the Powell incident) was eerily similar because they went into the libraries and cleared them out – they were hitting people and it was really inappropriate, and this video reminded me of that era," she said.

Another point of contention is when and how Tasers should be used during an interaction between an individual and a law enforcement official.

"Other groups against whom police should never use a Taser are those who are already restrained (i.e. handcuffed)," the report read.

Video evidence suggested that Tabatabainejad's wrists had already been restrained by the third time he was stunned, which eyewitness reports confirmed.

UCPD Assistant Chief of Police Jeff Young has said that during Tuesday's incident, officers likely had no way of knowing whether Tabatabainejad was armed, and said the force was used based on Tabatabainejad's uncooperative behavior.

But Dolovich said it often takes more than strong language on the part of a suspect to justify use of force by police.

"Given the setting, given that you have Powell Library, unless there's some evidence that the student was more than just verbally belligerent, it would be hard for me to believe (that police had no other way to restrain him)," she said.

According to Daily Bruin archives there was significant debate about Taser use and effectiveness when UCPD bought the weapons in 2004.

And in April 2004 the Daily Bruin reported it was unlikely UCPD would purchase Tasers due to the additional cost and training as well as the potential of officers to mistake them for real guns in a heated situation.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With reports from Julia Erlandson, Bruin senior staff.

Another Bruin article......

An incident late Tuesday night in which a UCLA student was stunned at least four times with a Taser has left the UCLA community questioning whether the university police officers' use of force was an appropriate response to the situation.

Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a UCLA student, was repeatedly stunned with a Taser and then taken into custody when he did not exit the CLICC Lab in Powell Library in a timely manner. Community Service Officers had asked Tabatabainejad to leave after he failed to produce his BruinCard during a random check at around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.

UCPD Assistant Chief of Police Jeff Young said the checks are a standard procedure in the library after 11 p.m.

"Because of the safety of the students we limit the use after 11 to just students, staff and faculty," Young said.

Young said the CSOs on duty in the library at the time went to get UCPD officers when Tabatabainejad did not immediately leave, and UCPD officers resorted to use of the Taser when Tabatabainejad did not do as he was told.

A six-minute video showed Tabatabainejad audibly screaming in pain as he was stunned several times with a Taser, each time for three to five seconds. He was told repeatedly to stand up and stop fighting, and was told that if he did not do so he would "get Tased again."

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Tabatabainejad was also stunned with the Taser when he was already handcuffed, said Carlos Zaragoza, a third-year English and history student who witnessed the incident.

"(He was) no possible danger to any of the police," Zaragoza said. "(He was) getting shocked and Tasered as he was handcuffed."

But Young said at the time the police likely had no way of knowing whether the individual was armed or that he was a student.

As Tabatabainejad was being dragged through the room by two officers, he repeated in a strained scream, "I'm not fighting you" and "I said I would leave."

The officers used the "drive stun" setting in the Taser, which delivers a shock to a specific part of the body with the front of the Taser, Young said.

A Taser delivers volts of low-amperage energy to the body, causing a disruption of the body's electrical energy pulses and locking the muscles, according to a report by the American Civil Liberties Union.

"It's an electrical shock. ... It causes pain," Young said, adding that the drive stun would not likely demobilize a person or cause residual pain after the shock was administered. Young also said a Taser is less forceful than a baton, for example.

But according to a study published in the Lancet Medical Journal in 2001, a charge of three to five seconds can result in immobilization for five to 15 minutes, which would mean that Tabatabainejad could have been physically unable to stand when the officers demanded that he do so.

"It is a real mistake to treat a Taser as some benign thing that painlessly brings people under control," said Peter Eliasberg, managing attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.

"The Taser can be incredibly violent and result in death," Eliasberg said.

According to an ACLU report, 148 people in the United States and Canada have died as a result of the use of Tasers since 1999.

During the altercation between Tabatabainejad and the officers, bystanders can be heard in the video repeatedly asking the officers to stop and requesting their names and identification numbers. The video showed one officer responding to a student by threatening that the student would "get Tased too." At this point, the officer was still holding a Taser.

Such a threat of the use of force by a law enforcement officer in response to a request for a badge number is an "illegal assault," Eliasberg said.

"It is absolutely illegal to threaten anyone who asks for a badge â€" that's assault," he said.

Tabatabainejad was released from custody after being given a citation for obstruction/delay of a peace officer in the performance of duty.

Neither Tabatabainejad nor his family were giving interviews Wednesday.

Police officers said they determined the use of Tasers was necessary when Tabatabainejad did not do as they asked.

According to a UCPD press release, Tabatabainejad went limp and refused to exit as the officers attempted to escort him out. The release also stated Tabatabainejad "encouraged library patrons to join his resistance." At this point, the officers "deemed it necessary to use the Taser in a "drive stun' capacity."

"He wasn't cooperative; he wouldn't identify himself. He resisted the officers," Young said.

Neither the video footage nor eyewitness accounts of the events confirmed that Tabatabainejad encouraged resistance, and he repeatedly told the officers he was not fighting and would leave.

Tabatabainejad was walking with his backpack toward the door when he was approached by two UCPD officers, one of whom grabbed the student's arm. In response, Tabatabainejad yelled at the officers to "get off me." Following this demand, Tabatabainejad was stunned with a Taser.

UCPD and the UCLA administration would not comment on the specifics of the incident as it is still under investigation.

In a statement released Wednesday, Interim Chancellor Norman Abrams said investigators were reviewing the situation and the officers' actions.

"I can assure you that these reviews will be thorough, vigorous and fair," Abrams said.

The incident, which Zaragoza described as an example of "police brutality," left many students disturbed.

"I realize when looking at these kind of arrest tapes that they don't always show the full picture. ... But that six minutes that we can watch just seems like it's a ridiculous amount of force for someone being escorted because they forgot their BruinCard," said Ali Ghandour, a fourth-year anthropology student.

"It certainly makes you wonder if something as small as forgetting your BruinCard can eventually lead to getting Tased several times in front of the library," he added.

Edouard Tchertchian, a third-year mathematics student, said he was concerned that the student was not offered any other means of showing that he was a UCLA student.

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