The UCLA Community Reponds To The Student Getting Tasered

[Jcrowley]

Community responds to Taser use in Powell
By Sara Taylor
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
[e-mail]

<snip>

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.

<snip>

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."

<snip>

"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

http://www.dailybruin.com/news/articles.asp?id=38960

[NorCalDem]

1. I cringe when i watch this video

I was rooting the whole time for the other students to start rioting and beat those po-lice down. Ahh, that would have been sweet justice... (i'm serious, that would have been justice!)

[Pithlet]

2. Tasers are not only contributing to police brutality

but they are contributing to more people becoming accepting of police brutality. From the very beginning, when these first started showing up on the force, I was afraid this would happen. People argued with me, saying they were an alternative to clubs and guns, and so it was a good thing. But, that was my point. Because they will be seen as less aggressive and less damaging as a gun or a club, the will be more freely used, and our police force will become a more aggressive police force. I felt minorities would particularly be vulnerable. I wish more people had listened to that point of view in the beginning, because now that Tasers are so prevalent, and now that some people are so inexplicably accepting of this, I'm afraid there will be no looking back. Welcome to a more aggressive police force, everyone.

[bobbolink]

3. Good for students for speaking out. And we thought the "free speech"

movement in our day was a big deal...sigh...

When society calmly accepts brutality like this, we know we're in deep sununu!