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.
"If he was leaving then they should have just let him go, sounds like petty tyrants at work here."
Not necessarily. You might be right, but consider that just because he was walking isn't an indication that he was really cooperating. He could have been walking very slowly. He could have been making numerous comments designed to be disuptive to the atmosphere. If such was the care, it would not have been inapproprate to grab his arm to speed up his exit.
When the CSO's asked him to leave, there must have been some comment or reaction from the guy that caused the CSO's to go get an police officer. Perhaps this guy is a known blowhard that has caused problems in the past and would have been expectedto cause problems again - especially if he was saying things or his body language was indicating he was working up to being a jerk. This article leaves a great deal of info out and appears to be slanted to put the officers in the worst light possible. More info, alot more, is needed before we Freepers can say, with clarity, that the officers actions were right or wrong.
Well, in the State of Illinois you do not have any right to resist a police officer, even if you know that their actions are unlawful. I would imagine California has a similar statute. The best was for the loudmouth to handle things would have been to shut his mouth, cooperate, and file complaints to University officals later.
Again, it's not really clear what the shockee did..what his past history with the police is, what he was saying/doing..etc. It's very likely that the officers were very justified in their actions. Time will tell, but I'll support the officers 100% until facts show that they did act improperly.
I am curious as to why they tazored him for not standing up.
Yes, it would have been more sensible to tell him to lie still and see if would cooperate. Especially since repeated shocks mean he may not have been able to stand up immediately. The product warnings on Tazer's site caution against repeated use: "When practical, avoid prolonged or continuous exposure(s) to the TASER device's electrical discharge. In some circumstances, in susceptible people, it is conceivable that the stress and exertion of extensive repeated, prolonged, or continuous application(s) of the TASER device may contribute to cumulative exhaustion, stress, and associated medical risk(s). "
Did you watch the video? They must have told him to stand up a dozen times and he refused. Each refusal is a new misdemeanor. Obviously since no less than a half dozen cops were there by the time he got tazed, he was not cooperating. He was resisting.
Someone who was tazered may not be "refusing" but probably is unable to stand up. And each repeated shock would make it worse. An officer who understood what tazers do wouldn't request that he stand and then shock him again. I have to conclude they didn't understand the effects of the tazer.
And may result in death as has been documented in some cases.
Yes we do, he refused to show ID when asked and then refused to leave when asked by the library security. Due to theft, robbery and rape concerns all students staying in the library after hours must provide ID.
The CSO left and came back some unspecified "minutes" later with the police. Police say he was unco-operative and went "limp" which is when the confrontation escalated. He wasn't tased, the taser was set on drive mode which is painful but doesn't stun.
It doesn't matter what the cops coulda, should, woulda done. They would have been criticized no matter course of action they took, cause they've been made into the bad guys by liberal media and leftist professors for 40 years now.
Yeah, college students are all a bunch of future welfare recipients.
You clown shoes are showing.
If you read the other articles linked to, you will find that the taser was in drive or stune mode, not full mode. He would have been able to comply with the order to stand and not been physically incapacitated.
please repost that link - I don't see it in the original article. Also according to what I've read, drive stun mode describes the delivery mode - direct contact instead of using a dart - not a lesser shock.
From taser's web site: "TASER-induced strong muscle contractions usually render a subject temporarily unable to control his or her psychomotor movements. "
The link is up thread somewhere. I'll see if I can locate it.
And tasers have two modes. Probe mode which is incapacitating/paralyzing and drive-stun mode which is used for pain compliance.
I've seen it happen.
I disagree. In fact my turn toward right wing politics started at UCLA (I graduated a few yrs back).
there are a ton of right wing students at UCLA...but just like national politics, most of them are not power hungry political prostitutes like the commie/socialists who run student govt on campus. most of the conservative students (many of them from immigrant families from asia etc) are busy studying their asses off.
lastly I am as law and order no BS as theey come. But I gotta tell you the campus cub scout/police officers have huge power trips..they are overtly aggressive and dont treat students with due respect.
afterall we want law and order not just to keep scum off the street but to allow regular citizens to live in freedom, free from intimidation from govt thugs...a very right wing position
Thanks for the link.
"I've seen it happen."
Ok. Did you watch the video? The taser in this case was used as punishment for the student's bad behavior.
Moreover, just because a spokesperson for the UCLA campus police states that the tasers were in drive stun mode does not make it true. The spokesperson is merely relating what they were told to say.
Either way, it's not relevent under the circumstance.
If you haven't already, I highly recommend that you watch the entire video. I did. What I saw was a pathetic display of campus police demonstrating their power over students who might forget their ID, and then dare to become somewhat arrogant when challenged.
UCLA students should make a note, remember to comply or expect to be tased.
I agree with you. What I've seen happen is someone in cardiac arrest after being tased.
I did watch the video, although it's unclear if the recording started before the inital taser jolt. In any case, telling him to stand up and tasing him when he doesn't is stupid, since he may not be able to. And while some may think tasing is appropriate for backtalk, I don't.
I spent time (in training) caring for those who were incarcerated. One guy walked in without a mark, mouthed off, and I and a colleague spent the next two hours sewing up lacerations on the guy's head. We weren't very pleased with those officers. Like any other profession, there are officers interested in doing their job, and some who just like to prove how powerful they are.
I recall studying a method we performed on patients suffering various forms of pyschosis...shock treatment.
I guess shock treatment is for everyone now.
Wow, you're a regular john murtha. First you accuse me of killing my own children and then you accuse me of "juvenile insults". Make up your tiny mind.
I already made up mind. Any parent who would taser his child for being unruly has a high risk of killing his child.
So who the hell would tazer his own child?
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