Don't press play on the video below unless you're ready to watch, and hear the screams of, an unarmed college student repeatedly dragged around and tasered by UCPD "officers" on the UCLA campus. His crime? Not having his ID card at the library. At this point I'm sure you're asking why, as am I. I imagine his name may point us in the right direction, but I'm not sure. His name? Mostafa Tabatabainejad. There are some other new posts below this, so even if you don't want to watch this video, go ahead and scroll down. It won't start playing unless you click play. I just thought this was an important video to show what's going on in some parts of this country today.
Labels: cell phone video, library, police abuse, Taser, UCLA
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12 Comments:
Digusting. Absolutely disgusting. I hope all of those officers are severely punished for this.
And while part of me wants to say that the student didn't help his case any by being combatative and not following the officer's commands, there was still no excuse for the officers to continue tasing him after he was already handcuffed.
Especially for such a minor thing as forgetting your student ID.
It really is disgusting. I've read today that before he was tased he was on his way out of the library when the "officers" started pushing him around, which led to him yelling "Don't touch me" or something like that at the beginning. Then, after he'd been tasered a few times, he was having a hard time standing but they were still yelling at him to get up. I really commend the student who took the video for doing so, and I only wish that he could have gotten a better view at points during the incident. Kudos for the students who were asking for their badge numbers, as well. They continued to ask for the info even though they were told to stay away. I am non-litigious by nature, but I hope this kid sues the crap out of the "officers" and probably the university as well.
great post, i just saw this on CNN an hour ago. I think i will write something on this too. CNN said that he refused to show his ID card b/c he thought he was being racially profiled. Even if he was wrong with not showing his ID card he did not need to be dragged and tasered like that. Lawsuits are already being filed....
CD, I've heard that just tonight as well. He simply asked if the police would check the IDs of a couple of the white guys sitting around him as well as his own, and that's what he got instead. Horrible.
And yet, doing more reading on this, due to the late hour it supposedly isn't unusual for the on-site cops to do "spot checks" on the IDs of folks in the library to make sure that they actually had a reason to be there.
Which makes the guy refusing to show his ID look a bit like a whiner. I disagree with racial profiling to a large extent, but dude, if they ask to see your ID just show it already.
Again, not saying the guy deserved to be tased as much as he was, but sheesh.
I don't understand why someone would have to show an ID at the library. Because they might steal books? I just don't get it. I could understand if he had been near a bank that had just been robbed or some other crime, but allowing police to spot check ID's for no reason is wrong. There should at least have to be some suspicion that there was a crime.
I can understand that if they asked to see his ID, it might be easy for all of us to say, Just show it." However, if you're an Iranian student, and there's a library full of white kids, I think it's acceptable to ask them to ID a couple of the other people there, too. The fact that they walked right through a fairly crowded library and went straight to the Iranian kid makes me think that no matter what he did they were going to give him a hard time.
No matter what he did, though, it didn't justify the response.
Well, he certainly did get the attention he obviously was going for, didn't he? This happened because he decided he was the victim of racial profiling? He certainly is a good screamer. Oscar nominations should be coming up soon.
Rhoda, he yelled because they were starting to beat him up, and he figured he be safer if people were around and watching. I'm sure you'd do the same. You'd probably continue yelling if you were tasered, as well.
I've seen this incident reported on several blogs. I'm glad it's getting some coverage. I think the MSM finally picked up on it, probably because they didn't want too many bloggers beating them to it.
This was inexcusable, and the "Patriot" Act will just make incidents like this more common.
Reading and hearing about this, I can feel the anger welling up inside me. I cannot believe what is going on in this world right now. Suddenly, being a muslim is a crime. When are these westerners going to understand that all the muslims in the world aren't a part of Al-Qaeda or Lashkar-e-Toiba.
I should know. I'm a muslim. To these people, even an Indian is an Arab terrorist. I cannot emphasize enough how different Arabs and Indians are. Just recently, I read about a Sikh (East-Indian) who got killed in the US just because he was mistaken to be an Arab muslim. The Sikhs are symmetrically opposite to muslims.
An incident like this should not be taken lightly. Take the ID card and library out of the equation and what you have is a generic incident happening all over the US. Folks, Its high time people got to know their Geography and Religion well.
As a side note, terrorism is the result of a highly localized radical group masquerading in the name of Islam. Ask any well-versed Muslim and he will tell you that Islam is a religion of extreme non-violence. God help us...
Tom, the more coverage the better. Incidents like this just shouldn't happen at all, and the best way to make sure they don't is to get them out in the light for everyone to see.
Infekted, I couldn't agree more. Everything you said is right on, and I've had the arguments with many people, MANY times over the last few years about Islam and whether or not it's a violent religion. People are having it beaten into their heads that it's violent, and it's simply not. Americans have a hard time understanding that other people around the world don't always think like they do, and people generally fear what they don't understand. Unfortunately, at the moment, most of that fear and anger is pointed at a certain group of people. I sincerely hope that we pass through this time of unease without any more major incidents, but I'm afraid that's wishful thinking.
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