UCLA Student Tasered by UCPD Police

U of A, Yangtze
[BREAKING NEWS]: Student shot with Taser by UCPD officers.
Incident occured around 11:30 p.m. in the Powell Library CLICC computer lab

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..

Nov 14th, 2006, around 11:30 pm, Powell Library CLICC computer lab, UCLA: student shot with a Taser multiple times by UCPD officers, even after he was cuffed and motionless.

According to eye witnesses, it started when student Mostafa Tabatabainejad did not show a Community Service Officer his student ID. Eye witnesses said the student was on his way leaving the lab when a UCPD officer approached and grabbed him by the exit of the lab. He objected to the physical contact by loudly repeating "don't touch me", and this is the point where the video starts

Video

In the words of one of the police officers themselves, "Stand up, that's all we want you to do". Isn't the whole point of being tazered to constrict someone's ability to effectively control their muscles (IE: running away, etc) for a period of time (~15 minutes) so they can can make an arrest more peaceful? So isn't tasering him, then asking him to stand up immediately after, say a little, counterproductive? Basically they started the tasering when a police grabbed him, and now they're commenting that he "resisted arrest" when he refused to stand up after the fact.

This seems to have brought up new attention on police brutality =o

Here's a little thing:


Derek Hale, a 25 year old marine veteran who served two tours in Iraq and had no arrest record, was sitting on the stoop of a rowhouse down in the city talking to a woman and her two children. It was somewhat cold that day, so he was wearing a hoodie with his hands in both pockets. Suddenly, an unmarked black SUV and an unmarked sedan pull up in front of him and six uniformed officers get out. They all point their weapons at him and demand that he place his hands over his head.

Before Hale is able to comply, one of the officers tazers him. He immediately begins to convulse and his right hand comes out of his pocket, shaking violently. After the first tazer pulse ends, officer again shout order for Hale to put his hands over his head. His body still shaking, officers tazer Hale a second time. He slumps over and vomits to his left while convulsing.

Bear in mind that at this point no officer has made any attempt to approach Hale in order to physically restrain him. Bystanders are appalled at what is occurring. One shouted at the officers that their actions were 'overkill'. The police told him to "shut [...] up, or they'd show him overkill."

After the second pulse ends, Hale rights himself. He is tazered a third time. Violently shaking, both Hale's hands are now visible. He begins to lean forward when the nearest officer decides that Hale is now an immediate lethal threat and puts three rounds of .40 S&W into his chest, killing him instantly. In his pockets they found pepper spray and a swiss army knife.

When asked if Hale ever threatened the officers at the scene, Master Sgt. Steven Elliot replied "In a sense, when he did not comply with their commands..."

Wow. I guess not complying with officer's instructions when they are pumping 50,000 peak Voltage through your body warrants three rounds in the chest. Nothing short of completely fucked up.

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.

TOO BAD. I'd say his impudence was met with pain.

Anyway, some people are dicks, plain and simple, and these officers are doing nothing to make the police look good.

I don't think he was being all that bold...if he was leaving when they came in, I would just assume he had to finish something, and it took him a few minutes or so. He is at a school, and he may have had a large assignment that he was working on. Also it doesn't say how long it was until they came back.

Anyway, yeah...people are fucking stupid. If we are running out of soldiers anyway, why waste another one? And if the Middle East is pissed off at us anyway, why add fuel to the fire? What the fuck?!