The latest nationally recognized incident of excessive use of force by the LAPD police in Los Angeles (the third this week) came Tuesday night right here on the UCLA campus’ main library. Apparently UCLA has a policy by which they do random ID checks at the library after 11 p.m. That’s all good, since it is for the benefit of student safety. That’s what started this incident:
According to a campus police report, the incident began when community service officers, who serve as guards at the library, began their nightly routine of checking to make sure everyone using the library after 11 p.m. is a student or otherwise authorized to be there…When [Mostafa] Tabatabainejad, 23, refused to provide his ID to the community service officer, the officer told him he would have to show it or leave the library, the report said.
After repeated requests, the officer left and returned with campus police, who asked Tabatabainejad to leave “multiple times,” according to a statement by the UCLA Police Department.
“He continued to refuse,” the statement said. “As the officers attempted to escort him out, he went limp and continued to refuse to cooperate with officers or leave the building.”
Witnesses disputed that account, saying that when campus police arrived, Tabatabainejad had begun to walk toward the door with his backpack. When an officer approached him and grabbed his arm, the witnesses said, Tabatabainejad told the officer to let go, yelling “Get off me” several times.
“Tabatabainejad encouraged library patrons to join his resistance,” police said. “The officers deemed it necessary to use the Taser.”
Officers stunned Tabatabainejad, causing him to fall to the floor. [Link]
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Here is my issue with what I see in the clip. If a person violates a law and you want to arrest him then go ahead. I am certainly not going to argue that Tabatabainejad did not deserve to be arrested. There are legal ways to change a law if you think it is stupid. What I take issue with is the repeated use of a Taser as a punitive measure against a passively resisting citizen that is already on the ground. Passive resistance is a gift given to us by Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. If the officers need to then they can call for backup. A handful of officers shouldn’t have a problem cuffing and carrying a limp, non-compliant man to their waiting car unless he is morbidly obese. The Taser is used here to punish the victim for disobeying authority. Is this what could happen to me if I ever non-violently protest something? And what if this individual was mentally ill or off his meds? Add to this toxic mix the fact that he was Muslim (and I’m guessing that he probably has brown skin).
You will note in the video that the other students in the library are on the verge of rioting against the police. The police start looking like cornered animals as more and more students gather around, ask for their badge numbers, and tell them that they are abusing their power.
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. [Link]
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p>As you might have expected, CAIR is all over this:
The Southern California office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today called for an independent investigation of an incident late Tuesday in which a student at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) was given multiple “Taser” stun gun shocks by campus police.
CAIR-LA was contacted by several UCLA students who expressed their concern about possible civil rights violations by police officers. [Link]
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p>Tabatabainejad got off a few shots of his own as he was being Tasered:
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. [Link]
Thank goodness for cell phone cameras.
Update:
Let the UCLA PD know what you think. Here is what they have to say about it.
How can the dude possibly stand up after the first Taser attack, I mean doesn’t that like numb you for a certain amount of time..
So you’re a provocateur if you object to racial profiling? And if you try to get the police to stop torturing you? Nice.
If someone does a routine ID check and you scream racial profiling, go limp, yell about the Fascist Act and generally act like an ass, then yeah. None of which justifies the frying.
Here’s some more about how it would be more than difficult to stand up after the taser is used on a person
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/13/the_odd_body_taser_stungun/
If someone does a routine ID check and you scream racial profiling
Did this guy know that this was a routine ID check? If he knew that this was a routine check of the ID of everyone in the library and he still thought that asking for his ID was racial profiling then he’s not a provocateur, he’s just insane. The more likely scenario is that he had no idea that they routinely checked everyone’s ID after a certain time and so when the police approached him, he assumed that they were asking him because of his race (which, given what he knew, wasn’t really a bad assumption). Starting from that position and given his apparent , it’s pretty than he was less polite than it was wise to be but there’s a big difference between being rude because you think someone’s racially profiling you and being a provocateur.
go limp
If cops are grabbing you and acting hostile, then going limp is probably a good idea. After all, if you’re just laying limp on the floor then it will be clear that you’re no danger to anyone and so they won’t have any reason to think that they need to hurt you…oh wait.
Not sure about UCLA, but an ID check to enter the library, the gym, dorms, student buildings and so on has been routine at UC Berkeley for more than 12 years. This wasn’t an airport, so his mention of profiling and misapplied mention of the Fascist Act strike me as very off. It seems to me he was trying to make an impromptu political statement (perfectly ok, especially in college) rather than just leaving to get his ID.
Cooperating is safer, but you certainly shouldn’t be electroshocked for going limp.
I was completely appalled to view the undignified manner in which UCLA UCPD treated student Tabatabainejad in the Powell Library Tuesday evening.
UCLA police asked Tabatabainejad to stand up while and after electrocuting him four and possibly seven times (it is a little more subjective to determine acoustically once he is moved into the stairway of the library) for five second durations as observed on the video tape (based upon his screams, the electric sound of the taser and audible reactions from the witnesses).
Officers allege that, when asked to stand, Tabatabainejad refused to comply. But, according to a Taser product description at http://www.safetyenforcement.com/stunguninfo.html, “[a shock of] over three seconds will usually completely disorient and drop an [individual] for at least several minutes and possibly for up to fifteen minutes.”
It was a degrading act for officers to incapacitate this student and then ask him to stand – thus creating a reciprocal cause for their undignified behavior.
Watch the tape and you’ll hear Tabatabainejad being electrocuted – again after 1 min. 11 sec. again, after 1 min. 21 sec. again, after 34 sec. again, after 15 sec. again, after 16 sec. again and finally after 10 sec. How, I ask you, could he possibly stand up?
Numerous students tried to passively intervene. You’ll notice at the very end of the tape, another officer threaten a student in a white shirt with being tased if he did not leave the public area of the library.
I believe that the employment of electro-shock to gain compliance from a non-violent individual when being confronted by security is inhuman and inappropriate.
Below, please find an excerpt from a study on the use of electrical stun weapons by the British Bradford Non-Leathal Weapons Research Project (www.bradford.ac.uk/acad/nlw).
With great concern,
G. Tatum Birmingham, AL
Excerpt: Bradford Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project (BNLWRP) Centre for Conflict Resolution Department of Peace Studies University of Bradford, UK. http://www.bradford.ac.uk/acad/nlw
Electrical stun weapons: alternative to lethal force or a compliance tool? Nick Lewer and Neil Davison January 2006
The rationale behind the deployment of ‘non-lethalÂ’ or ‘less-lethalÂ’ weapons, such as the Taser, is to provide police officers with an alternative to lethal force for dangerous and life-threatening situations they face….
A report from Amnesty International in 2004 found evidence that “…far from being used to avoid lethal force, many US police agencies are deploying Tasers as a routine force option to subdue non-compliant… individuals who do not pose a serious danger to themselves or others.” In other words, the Taser has suffered from mission creep. It is not merely employed against dangerous individuals where the alternative is lethal force, but also against… people passively resisting or simply arguing with the police. In an increasing number of cases it has become a compliance tool for police officers rather than a weapon used to prevent injury or death caused by use of other means.
What is it like to be incapacitated by a Taser weapon? …Upon impact a 50,000-volt electric shock is discharged into the victim for a period of five seconds. Whilst the barbs remain attached this discharge can be repeated multiple times by pulling the trigger again (and again). The immediate effects are debilitating. The current causes involuntary muscle contraction and extreme pain. The victim completely loses control over their body and falls to the floor until the current stops. The whole experience is both painful and degrading. So much so that in 1997 Robin Cook, the then Foreign Secretary (UK), considered electro-shock weapons, including Tasers, amongst equipment “designed primarily for torture”….
Receiving a shock from a Taser is not without its health risks… there are concerns about the increased susceptibility of those with existing heart problems…. Canadian Police highlighted two other safety concerns in a recent report. The muscle spasms caused by the Taser can impair breathing, particularly if a person receives multiple shocks, and this may also contribute to a lowering of pH in the body, a potentially life-threatening chemical imbalance. Also the electric shock does not affect everyone equally. Those with smaller body size and lower weight are more susceptible to potential adverse effects.
Secondary injuries to the head and other parts of the body have occurred since the victim falls to the ground once shocked. Often this fall will be on a hard surface such as a road or pavement, a far cry from the controlled conditions under which some police officers have volunteered to experience a Taser shock (with two officers supporting them under each arm and a safety mat on the floor). The barbs can leave small cuts and burn marks on the skin but worse injuries can result if they hit sensitive areas of the body such as the eye, mouth, neck and groin.
Amnesty International has documented 103 deaths in the United States and Canada between June 2001 and March 2005 following the use of the Taser by the police. In 17 of these cases medical examiners cited the Taser either as a contributing factor or could not rule it out. In many cases the victim received multiple shocks from the Taser. Other factors such as… a condition called ‘excited deliriumÂ’ have commonly been cited as the primary cause of death.
The Home Office and UK police forces have engaged in an in depth review of Taser weapons and participated in some public debate with respect to their deployment plans. Their conclusions are that potential adverse health effects and possibilities of abuse are outweighed by their operational utility. But we would argue that the painful and degrading effects of the Taser, its susceptibility to misuse, and the associated health risks militate against a wider deployment on our streets and could, as the US experience has shown, result in the weapon becoming a compliance tool. Of course we must support the police so that they can carry out, on our behalf, often difficult and dangerous duties, but we are concerned that such a wider deployment of the Taser will further undermine the ethos of ‘policing by consent’ and increase a perception of armed officers ‘policing by compliance’.
Dr. Nick Lewer Director, Centre for Conflict Resolution Mr. Neil Davison Project Co-ordinator Bradford Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project Centre for Conflict Resolution Department of Peace Studies University of Bradford, UK
Bradford Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project (BNLWRP), January 2006.
I saw this video on someone else’s blog, too, and sadly it doesn’t surprise me that things have escalated to such extreme levels. My school (TCNJ) is increasingly becoming a police-state. There are random ID and backpack checks (which is fine) but they actually have pre-written tickets when they pull you over and tailgate closely when you drive around campus. My brother was pulled over because he was 10 miles over the speed limit (he was doing 35 in a 25 zone), to which he politely apologized and handed over his license and registration even before he was asked. However, the officer was incredibly rude and impolite and gave us the dirtiest looks and practically threw the ticket in our faces. We cannot dismiss them, however, because the college is situated in an increasingly dangerous neighborhood and their presence is obviously required.
This in no way compares to the police at UCLA, but I think there’s a general trend in the relationships between college and the police officers that “monitor” them.
manish i think i remember that every person who walks into the “secured” libraries must show an id. at cal they don’t pick and choose who gets id’d and who doesn’t.
also, i don’t pick up the vibe that tabat. is a provocateur. his patriot act commentary make me feel like he is just another angry [insert your targetted social identity here] man. maybe i feel like this because his reaction to being given extra scrutiny is exactly the type of (angry) response my younger brother would have taken….
I think it is a pretty simple proposition…listen to the cops when they tell you to do something. If you want to make a point or partake in civil disobedience, then you need to accept the consequences of your actions. If you want to make a point, then be a martyr and stop crying when you get beat.
Can I taser you 6 times in 3 minutes?
That video was horrific, and even though I am shocked and appalled at the treatment of the student, I will reserve judgement until we know exactly what happen. It’s damn shame that it had to involve a brown brother though.
hey if anyone is interested, LAist has some nice photos of the protest at UCLA today…
Ha! Nice to see the Spartacists are still around. Talk about infantile leftism — those mofos have been discrediting valid progressive causes and events for decades now.
Since when are Persians South Asians?
Kritic,
I believe Abhi posted this because it is relevant to everybody but especially brown folks regardless of their geographic origin. He is drawing more attention to a negative situation and hopefully it will improve as people become outraged and speak out against abuses of power and violence. If you want to get cute about this, you could say that Persians are South Asians geographically.
http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/as.htm
But let’s stop being silly. Why shouldn’t we care about Persians being tasered, Pakistanis being beaten in NYC, the Burmese, the Tibetans, etc. etc.? Get with some love, man!
Since I have really nothing more to add, some good ol Chris Rock humor for y’all…
Yes! Yes!
My head is exploding with overjoy. You da man, you da man.
More about the Spartacists here. Did you know that there’s a SYC at the University of Chicago? Talk about passive-agressive =)
Oh, that was just horrible. I could not bear the screeches of that person.
I did see the whole video(Kudos to the person who shot it! Great job!)
I could not see the initial tasering closely but I agree thay there is no reason to use the taser if the person is not physically dangerous If he is protesting non-violently, there is no reason , no reason at all that the law should act violently against him.
C’mon, Police here is known for their secular attitude and efficiency. What happened to them here?
He was asked to show ID. He refused. He was asked to leave REPEATEDLY, he refused. He ONLY began to leave when the second tier security arrived. One of the officers attempted to stop him by securing his arm probably to ask him questions like; Who are you? Why did you refuse to leave? What’s in your backpack? Questions you’d definitely want to know from a guy who ONLY decided to leave once the police arrived. The same individuals here who are in an upraor about this situation being unnecessary are the very same individuals who would be railing against the officers if this individual had a gun or a bomb. All of this would be a non-issue had he simply either showed his ID or left.
He was mentally aware enough to claim “abuse of power” to the cops, and when they told him to stand up, he said “F** you.” Screw the little punk. All he needed to do was what was asked off him. But no… idealistic little college pri.ck has to do what comes so instinctively to a college kid (not all of them of course): Rebel. Protest. March. Demonstrate. While those traits were noble in that they were used effectively to combat and cure such social injustice as civil rights, and war, this was nothing but a big mouth smartass who refused to follow the rules.
This is a classic case of taking on the bull and getting the horns. He had to know, even if it’s in retrospect, that he was dealt a losing hand, here. And he dug his own grave. I don’t like pain, and feel for anyone who suffers pain; but I can’t go with a defiant student. I look at it like this: he just earned a few stripes towards rank in the real world.
Yes, because we know that Persian & Pakistani blogs would have 100s of sympathetic posts if an Indian or Sri-Lankan was tasered or abused…
i see job as bolly khan for this hysterical chutiya
why did he refuse, and what were those around doing…hmm American dream gone bad.
It’s not that simple, the link you quoted made no distinction between 2 year degrees, 4 year degrees, associate degrees, etc.. my statement was limited to 4 year degrees, which is what UCLA primarily offers.
Another dangerous criminal subdued with a judicious and completely neccesary use of the taser
Latest news about the incident. Officer in Taser case identified The UCLA police officer videotaped last week using a Taser gun on a student also shot a homeless man at a campus study hall room three years ago and was earlier recommended for dismissal in connection with an alleged assault on fraternity row, authorities said.
I recently heard about the incident and after viewing the entire video and the comments on this site and youtube; I think the student was just trying to prove a point which went wrong. Here’s a simple thing: 1) If I study at an institution AND I know that after 11 p.m., some guys might come and check for ID’s AND I have a problem with that; I should probably not be there after 11 p.m. 2) If I have an ID, but I feel that they are targetting me because of my skin color; there are other ways to protest against that (I don’t know what ways so don’t ask me) 3) If I DO NOT have an ID, but refuse to show the (non-existent) ID to the Comm Officers; they have reasonable doubt to call in additional help. 4) Lastly, if someone was asked to leave once (without force) and then again (with force), and he chose the latter; I would be making sure that he took everything he came with. And I don’t care what color he is. If I see a suspicious person, that’s all he is for me; suspicious.
Simple fact: We ask you to leave and you dont. We get the cops and all of a sudden now you are anxious to leave? Well that is acceptable as well, but if someone just touched your hand; and you wanna be all “get off me”; sorry dude, you lost that right when you decided to behave “smarter than others”.
Regardless of what happened in the video, I think that the officers should have thought about what they were doing. Frankly, I would not have tased him again and again; and also would not be repeating the “stand up” phrase over and over. And the last threat to the t-shirt-clad dude, was frankly unnecessary.
All in all, it’s easy for all of us to say that the police acted brutally (which they did), but that is not taking into their interpretation of what the incident could have turned into. Tchau, chanakya
Am curious if the student got pulled over by police while driving, for what he perceived to be no fault on his part, whether he would have refused to identify himself, claiming profiling and driven away.
i couldn’t watch the whole thing . . . too painful . . maybe I am old, but this kind of %&%^& did NOT happen when I was in college (six years ago)- this country needs to get a clue and stop persecuting people whose only crime is being brown. (and therefore “suspicious”) . . . .
If this student who was Tasered was “just making a point” as some people suggested- he’s brave. And if he was suspicious, don’t you think he would have allayed suspicions by showing some ID? If he was really trying to pull off a secret crazy plot, he’d have some fake ID. And if he was innocent- as so many of us are every day— we’re with you brother. We know that pain, that humiliation.
I got followed home by a cop the other day . . .who decided to “run my plates” for no apparent reason . . . and then started yelling at me because he didn’t know “whose car it was” that I was driving. Um, not my fault you can’t pronounce my long south asian name, idiot. . . . He also stated that he ran my plates “just because” he could. I pointed out that I have never had a speeding ticket, moving, or parking violation. I think he was shocked when I spoke to him in fluent American English . . . . and then I thanked him for keeping the community safe, introduced myself, shook his hand, asked his name and went into my house. He was dumbfounded. 🙂
Yo Vikram and Manju,
If you happen to be in NJ area, give me a holler. We’ll do lunch in some Iranian or any other restaurant. 🙂
anyone hear anything new/resolution in this case?