Taser Police Abuse
UCLA Student Tasered Repeatedly by Campus Police in Library
This is the cameraphone video.
If the embed doesn't work, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyvrqcxNIFs
When I first saw this (at neph_politics and other journals).. I was skeptical. It made my stomach turn and made me cry, but I suspected it was a youtube stunt. I thought, maybe the cops are faking it. So I did some research. See below. Read the articles and listen to the interviews. Some of the facts are still unclear, and some will likely continue to be debatable. But it is a compelling and disturbing story, any way you cut it.
Here are a few allegations/facts I'd like you to keep in mind.
- This was a routine ID check late at night at a school library
- The student is named Mostafa Tabatabainejad and alleged racial profiling when he, rather than the other white students around him, were asked for ID
- It's debatable whether he was getting up to leave or refusing to show his ID when the police grabbed him.. (but regardless)
- After going "limp" - he was tasered repeatedly while the police yelled at him to "stand up."
- He was tasered repeatedly AFTER being placed in handcuffs
- There are no allegations that the student was ever violent or threatened the officers. He went limp/prone and did not comply when they ordered him to stand up.
- Other students repeatedly asked the police for their badge IDs and asked them to stop
- One student who protested the tasering was told "Get back over there or you'll get tasered too." (see original video and Olberman report)
LA Times initial report
LA Times article on planned lawsuit
PDF report from UCPD
PDF taser use policy
UCLA newspaper report
Another UCLA newspaper report
Daily Kos writeup with links
Olberman on MSNBC (interview, narrative, video)
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZiIebst4fc
MSNBC interview of Mustafa's lawyer regarding potential federal civil rights lawsuit
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhYCeO67fCs
This is the cameraphone video.
If the embed doesn't work, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyvrqcxNIFs
When I first saw this (at neph_politics and other journals).. I was skeptical. It made my stomach turn and made me cry, but I suspected it was a youtube stunt. I thought, maybe the cops are faking it. So I did some research. See below. Read the articles and listen to the interviews. Some of the facts are still unclear, and some will likely continue to be debatable. But it is a compelling and disturbing story, any way you cut it.
Here are a few allegations/facts I'd like you to keep in mind.
- This was a routine ID check late at night at a school library
- The student is named Mostafa Tabatabainejad and alleged racial profiling when he, rather than the other white students around him, were asked for ID
- It's debatable whether he was getting up to leave or refusing to show his ID when the police grabbed him.. (but regardless)
- After going "limp" - he was tasered repeatedly while the police yelled at him to "stand up."
- He was tasered repeatedly AFTER being placed in handcuffs
- There are no allegations that the student was ever violent or threatened the officers. He went limp/prone and did not comply when they ordered him to stand up.
- Other students repeatedly asked the police for their badge IDs and asked them to stop
- One student who protested the tasering was told "Get back over there or you'll get tasered too." (see original video and Olberman report)
LA Times initial report
LA Times article on planned lawsuit
PDF report from UCPD
PDF taser use policy
UCLA newspaper report
Another UCLA newspaper report
Daily Kos writeup with links
Olberman on MSNBC (interview, narrative, video)
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZiIebst4fc
MSNBC interview of Mustafa's lawyer regarding potential federal civil rights lawsuit
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhYCeO67fCs