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.
This is pretty fucked up. The police were lucky they did not create a riot.
edit: we really need to be able to edit our descriptions, because this one makes me look retarded.
16 Nov 2006, 08:20 PM
Finch
lol, idea
16 Nov 2006, 08:35 PM
stormy
I hope they get fired. I hate police officers on power trips.
16 Nov 2006, 08:36 PM
station82o
I want those officers fired, charges pressed, and this incident to be made widely known so shit like this never happens again. Fucking infuriating to watch.
edit - apparently the victim's name is Mostafa Tabatabainejad. I wonder if this might be looked into as possible racial profiling.
16 Nov 2006, 08:42 PM
Compass
WTF? Are you kidding me? The jackass wouldn't identify himself, refused to leave, then went limp when they tried to drag him out. Fool had some tasering coming AT THE LEAST. Cops aren't allowed to do anything anymore without a bunch of bleeding-hearts bitching about it.
16 Nov 2006, 08:44 PM
station82o
Read the story again bro,
"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."
They could've simply escorted him out - you know, grab him and walk him out - there's more of them than him, was it really neccessary to taser the dude? Probably not. Student vs a couple cops, who's going to win that shoving match? The cops were right in doing their job telling him to get the hell out, but tasering crosses a line, and threatening other students who are asking for badge numbers with tasering as well? How the fuck can you defend that?
16 Nov 2006, 08:47 PM
Grave
Quote:
Originally Posted by Compass
WTF? Are you kidding me? The jackass wouldn't identify himself, refused to leave, then went limp when they tried to drag him out. Fool had some tasering coming AT THE LEAST. Cops aren't allowed to do anything anymore without a bunch of bleeding-hearts bitching about it.
This might be one of the most idiotic things I've ever seen posted on TNL. That's saying a lot.
16 Nov 2006, 08:51 PM
Compass
Quote:
Originally Posted by station82o
Read the story again bro,
"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."
They could've simply escorted him out - you know, grab him and walk him out - there's more of them than him, was it really neccessary to taser the dude? Probably not. Student vs a couple cops, who's going to win that shoving match? The cops were right in doing their job telling him to get the hell out, but tasering crosses a line, and threatening other students who are asking for badge numbers with tasering as well? How the fuck can you defend that?
Please, the story is very likely embellished bullshit. It's spin is to make you hate the cops. And his lame line about the Patriot Act tells me he may have even planned the whole thing. Anyway, I'm going by the video in which it's clear he was resisting, and had his ass tasered for it. That's what I'm defending. And bravo for it.
16 Nov 2006, 08:53 PM
station82o
We'll see what happens in the investigation I suppose
16 Nov 2006, 08:53 PM
Nomi
Quote:
Originally Posted by Compass
WTF? Are you kidding me? The jackass wouldn't identify himself, refused to leave, then went limp when they tried to drag him out. Fool had some tasering coming AT THE LEAST. Cops aren't allowed to do anything anymore without a bunch of bleeding-hearts bitching about it.
While I agree that yeah, he could have been more cooperative, you have to be fucking kidding me if you think those cops were justified tasering him THREE TIMES, especially after he said he had a medical condition. You can't fucking shock somebody two more times without finding out if that's true or not, he wasn't doing anything! Cuff him and let him sit there and call a supervisor for the love of god, what if he really did have a heart condition and that's why he was down or something?
Those cops are shitheads. They wouldn't respond to bystanders wanting their badge numbers, either, isn't that illegal for them to do?
