Straight-up Jackbooted Thuggery

I think you're right. It's not getting enough attention, police and military have different functions, and maybe there is a connection between the military type units and observed (and filmed) actions. Would the answer be a separate paramilitary unit distinct from the police force? I don't know, but we do not want the actual military of the U.S. involved in civil actions. Anyway, I don't.

The video and sound are horrifying. Whatever the seeming provocation, the treatment was (imo) way out of control.

Yack, that's my school, and I've studied many hours in that library.

Seems out of the blue, too, relative to some comments about the sense of the campus police up to this time.

Here's the LA Times article on it this morning -

A third incident, a new video
A cellphone camera captures UCLA police using a Taser on a student who allegedly refused to leave the library Tuesday night.
By Amanda Covarrubias and Stuart Silverstein, Times Staff Writers
November 16, 2006

The latest in a recent spate of cellphone videos documenting questionable arrest tactics surfaced Wednesday, this one showing a UCLA police officer using a Taser to stun a student who allegedly refused to leave the campus library.

Grainy video of the Tuesday night incident at UCLA's Powell Library was broadcast Wednesday on TV news and the Internet, prompting a review of the officers' actions and outrage among students at the Westwood campus.

The footage showed the student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, falling to the ground and crying out in pain as officers stunned him.

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.

For the Record: In a earlier version of this article, a quote from Mostafa Tabatabainejad read: "Here's your Patriot Act, here's your use of power." The corrected quote reads " "Here's your Patriot Act, here's your ... abuse of power."


Campus officials said the long-standing policy was adopted to ensure students' safety.

When 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.

The video shows Tabatabainejad yelling, "Here's your Patriot Act, here's your ... abuse of power," the Daily Bruin reported, adding he used a profanity.

"It was beyond grotesque," said UCLA graduate David Remesnitsky of Los Angeles, who witnessed the incident. "By the end they took him over the stairs, lifted him up and Tasered him on his rear end. It seemed like it was inappropriately placed. The Tasering was so unnecessary and they just kept doing it."

Campus police confirmed that Tabatabainejad was stunned "multiple" times.

By then, Remesnitsky said, a crowd of 50 or 60 had gathered and were shouting at the officers to stop and demanding their names and badge numbers.

Remesnitsky said officers told him to leave or he would be Tasered.

Tabatabainejad declined to comment. He was arrested Tuesday night and cited by campus police for resisting and obstructing a police officer and was released.

The incident was the third videotape of an arrest to surface in the last week in Los Angeles.

One video showed a Los Angeles Police Department officer dousing a handcuffed suspect in the face with pepper spray as the suspect sat in a patrol car.

That video came to light Monday, just days after the LAPD and the FBI launched investigations into another videotape showing a police officer hitting a suspect in the face several times after a foot chase in Hollywood.

UCLA Assistant Police Chief Jeff Young said Wednesday that he had viewed the video of the campus incident on the Internet and would view any other videos that were shot.

"We will gather as many samples as we can find, from different sources," Young said. "We'll use it for our own administrative investigation."

UCLA Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams said in a statement that university police are investigating the incident and the officers' actions.

"The investigation and review will be thorough, vigorous and fair," he said, adding that compliance with the ID policy is "critical for the safety and well-being of everyone."

Young said Tasers, which discharge an electric current to incapacitate a suspect, are seldom used by the campus police department.

On campus Wednesday, many students said they were surprised by news of the incident.

"UCLA is a very peaceful campus," said Chen Mei, a third-year political science student from Laguna Hills. "I study in Powell Library at night all the time. I've seen people without ID cards who are removed. But none of the time has it been this dramatic."

Karen Jou, a second-year student from Orange, said the campus police "usually are really good."

"I wouldn't have thought that would have happened here," she said. "It's really odd."

Julia Newbold, a third-year English literature major from Walnut Creek, said her impression from her limited contact with campus police was good.

"They seem like a peacekeeping force," she said. "I'm really surprised to hear they had to resort to something like that. It sounds a little too forceful to me to Taser someone."

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I would like to know if there are any cops that post here, get their view on this matter. Armchair cops & generals always seem to know what it's like to serve.

More details in the Daily Bruin -

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


Community responds to Taser use in Powell
By Sara Taylor
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
[email protected]


An incident late Tuesday night in which a UCLA student was stunned at least four times with a Taser has left the UCLA community questioning whether the university police officers' use of force was an appropriate response to the situation.

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.

UCPD Assistant Chief of Police Jeff Young said the checks are a standard procedure in the library after 11 p.m.

"Because of the safety of the students we limit the use after 11 to just students, staff and faculty," Young said.

Young said the CSOs on duty in the library at the time went to get UCPD officers when Tabatabainejad did not immediately leave, and UCPD officers resorted to use of the Taser when Tabatabainejad did not do as he was told.

A six-minute video showed Tabatabainejad audibly screaming in pain as he was stunned several times with a Taser, each time for three to five seconds. He was told repeatedly to stand up and stop fighting, and was told that if he did not do so he would "get Tased again."

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."

The officers used the "drive stun" setting in the Taser, which delivers a shock to a specific part of the body with the front of the Taser, Young said.

A Taser delivers volts of low-amperage energy to the body, causing a disruption of the body's electrical energy pulses and locking the muscles, according to a report by the American Civil Liberties Union.

"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, which would mean that Tabatabainejad could have been physically unable to stand when the officers demanded that he do so.

"It is a real mistake to treat a Taser as some benign thing that painlessly brings people under control," said Peter Eliasberg, managing attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.

"The Taser can be incredibly violent and result in death," Eliasberg said.

According to an ACLU report, 148 people in the United States and Canada have died as a result of the use of Tasers since 1999.

During the altercation between Tabatabainejad and the officers, bystanders can be heard in the video repeatedly asking the officers to stop and requesting their names and identification numbers. The video showed one officer responding to a student by threatening that the student would "get Tased too." At this point, the officer was still holding a Taser.

Such a threat of the use of force by a law enforcement officer in response to a request for a badge number is an "illegal assault," Eliasberg said.

"It is absolutely illegal to threaten anyone who asks for a badge â€" that's assault," he said.

Tabatabainejad was released from custody after being given a citation for obstruction/delay of a peace officer in the performance of duty.

Neither Tabatabainejad nor his family were giving interviews Wednesday.

Police officers said they determined the use of Tasers was necessary when Tabatabainejad did not do as they asked.

According to a UCPD press release, Tabatabainejad went limp and refused to exit as the officers attempted to escort him out. The release also stated Tabatabainejad "encouraged library patrons to join his resistance." At this point, the officers "deemed it necessary to use the Taser in a "drive stun' capacity."

"He wasn't cooperative; he wouldn't identify himself. He resisted the officers," Young said.

Neither the video footage nor eyewitness accounts of the events confirmed that Tabatabainejad encouraged resistance, and he repeatedly told the officers he was not fighting and would leave.

Tabatabainejad was walking with his backpack toward the door when he was approached by two UCPD officers, one of whom grabbed the student's arm. In response, Tabatabainejad yelled at the officers to "get off me." Following this demand, Tabatabainejad was stunned with a Taser.

UCPD and the UCLA administration would not comment on the specifics of the incident as it is still under investigation.

In a statement released Wednesday, Interim Chancellor Norman Abrams said investigators were reviewing the situation and the officers' actions.

"I can assure you that these reviews will be thorough, vigorous and fair," Abrams said.

The incident, which Zaragoza described as an example of "police brutality," left many students disturbed.

"I realize when looking at these kind of arrest tapes that they don't always show the full picture. ... But that six minutes that we can watch just seems like it's a ridiculous amount of force for someone being escorted because they forgot their BruinCard," said Ali Ghandour, a fourth-year anthropology student.

"It certainly makes you wonder if something as small as forgetting your BruinCard can eventually lead to getting Tased several times in front of the library," he added.

Edouard Tchertchian, a third-year mathematics student, said he was concerned that the student was not offered any other means of showing that he was a UCLA student.

With reports from Jennifer Mishory, Julia Erlandson and Lisa Connolly, Bruin senior staff.

That's not how they serve on the show Cops, when they know they're being videotaped.

Martial law could kick in anytime "bin Laden" decides.

It sounds like it was good use of force. They warned him and he didn't comply so they followed through with the warning.

Now, you believe that it is appropriate to taser someone who refuses to stand up, whom you've already shocked the hell out of? 6 times in total?

It's appropriate to threaten other citizens who aren't doing anything inappropriate at all?

Just want to be clear here

Cycloptichorn

I'd love to see some of these "I support our troops/cops" people react to a like situation that cops & GIs face every day. It's easy to sit behind a keyboard & gripe & bash, their butts aren't on the line.

I started out on the cops' side as I read the beginning of the Times article. There is a real need for campus police and I've had a generally neutral to good view of them at UCLA; though I've not been on the main campus as a student for a long time, I was employed there in different capacities over some years.

After the articles and video, I very much question that it was a good use of force.

Poor production.

If we were really in the era of jackboots, the cops would have sprayed the library with automatic weapons fire before entering, or at least spread eagled everyone and confiscated this tape.

As for some fresh people asking for badge numbers etc., everybuddys a lawyer.

As for yelling about the Patriot act, way to know your audience.

It is all laughable, if it did not mean that Cy is now not going to get ANY sleep, having discovered youtube.

You wouldn't think it was laughable while the boot ground your face into the dirt, Paul.

That's the biggest problem many have with situations like this; they always think 'It'll never be me.'

Cycloptichorn

I avoid boots in face by following orders, and not playing to the crowd.

I thought the funniest part were the Patriot act references and the pre law shouts for badge numbers.

No dirt in libraries btw, but I know what you mean.

Having replaced cheap nightsticks for more humane tasers, this is what you get.

I do not see that you supported your point about the "militarization of the police", at any rate. True jackboots would have terrorized the witnesses and taken the taped evidence.

As for lonestar, cheers. I wonder how cy and osso get anything done, having spent so much time in the day givng us their take on things. 10-15 posts a day for years..................geez.

The film was shot on a cel phone camera, so there is a good chance that the coppers didn't know they were being taped at all.

You say you 'follow orders.' What are you going to do the day when some cop gives you an order that he doesn't have the right to give? Just shut up and do it, every time? Maybe you'll have a kid someday (or already have one) and they will look at a cop wrong. You want them treated like this?

You say 'pre-law shouts for badge numbers.' Why pre-law? Any citizen has the right to ask who a policeman is and by law they are supposed to identify themselves. Yet they often do not.

It is opinions like yours which allow the rise of thuggery - a combination of 'it won't happen to me' and 'it's funny to see people be harmed by other people' and 'just shut up and mind the cops, they are your superiors.' You find humor in human pain?

Cycloptichorn

Near the end of the video, one cop threatened another student with getting tazed if he "didn't get out of the way".

Paul talks of playing to the crowd....who were the cops trying to impress?
Buncha schmucks.

This guy could have been carted out like a tree hugger in Oregon, but no, they needed to use the tazer 6 times to put on a good show.

Six times? You don't have to be a butcher to recognize balogna.

I won't go so far as to say the Campus Police there as a whole are thugs. I think one fellow was way out of line (have to go back and check, was it one or two?). The problem might not be system wide, though there shoud be in-place efforts to keep this kind of lack of control out.

Are you a cop? Are you sure of what you'd do given the same circumstance? Do you even know for sure what the circumstanes were?
Is this another Rodney King show?

The circumstance of a young man in a library not having a student i.d. and being a smartass?