Here's your fucking abuse of power
A UCLA Student Repeatedly Stunned by Taser
(some snippets borrowed amelia_eve)
From the UCLA student newspaper:
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.
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. At least one student who asked for the officer's badge and name was threatened with being tasered. When the student cried out and said he'd leave - he was handcuffed and tasered again. And again.
Here is the video. It's grainy, disjointed and hard to watch.
Apparently, he was passively resisting - not getting up when told. Once he was tasered, despite being told to stand up, he probably was physically unable to do so. [link to police training video, where a cop is tasered to experience it.] Despite being labelled as non-lethal weapons, even the manufacturer advises against multiple taserings, and they can be lethal.
While it's clear the student should have left when asked, and should have presented his ID (according to the LA Times, he felt he was being singled out due to his Iranian heritage ), the cops completely failed to control the situation, and adhere to the conventions of escalation of force. Given unarmed, non-violent resistance, they could have simply carried him out if they had to. Instead, they went right for the taser - repeatedly - and allegedly threatened bystanders who asked for their identification.
Other News Coverage:
NBC.
The increased use of surveillance technology, both good and bad, brings to mind David Brin's essay on the surveillance society, where Big Brother is watching our every move - but we're watching right back. Ever since Rodney King, we're increasingly living in a monitored world where the best defense against the abuse of power is video. The Guardian documents other incidents of police brutality caught on tape.AmericaBlog notes that library cameras probably recorded the entire incident, and someone should request those videos. I hope they do get a hold of them, and I hope it sheds more light on exactly how the incident unfolded.
I was discussing it with navraze last night, and she noted that what would have other been a completely minor incident buried in a police blotter or a local paper is now going to be everywhere. I think that's a good thing. Now they actually have to deal with the situation, and reflect on it. Not just as an isolated incident, but as part of a systemic larger issue surrounding the use of force, and the deployment of non-lethal weapons.
(some snippets borrowed amelia_eve)
From the UCLA student newspaper:
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.
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. At least one student who asked for the officer's badge and name was threatened with being tasered. When the student cried out and said he'd leave - he was handcuffed and tasered again. And again.
Here is the video. It's grainy, disjointed and hard to watch.
Apparently, he was passively resisting - not getting up when told. Once he was tasered, despite being told to stand up, he probably was physically unable to do so. [link to police training video, where a cop is tasered to experience it.] Despite being labelled as non-lethal weapons, even the manufacturer advises against multiple taserings, and they can be lethal.
While it's clear the student should have left when asked, and should have presented his ID (according to the LA Times, he felt he was being singled out due to his Iranian heritage ), the cops completely failed to control the situation, and adhere to the conventions of escalation of force. Given unarmed, non-violent resistance, they could have simply carried him out if they had to. Instead, they went right for the taser - repeatedly - and allegedly threatened bystanders who asked for their identification.
Other News Coverage:
NBC.
The increased use of surveillance technology, both good and bad, brings to mind David Brin's essay on the surveillance society, where Big Brother is watching our every move - but we're watching right back. Ever since Rodney King, we're increasingly living in a monitored world where the best defense against the abuse of power is video. The Guardian documents other incidents of police brutality caught on tape.AmericaBlog notes that library cameras probably recorded the entire incident, and someone should request those videos. I hope they do get a hold of them, and I hope it sheds more light on exactly how the incident unfolded.
I was discussing it with navraze last night, and she noted that what would have other been a completely minor incident buried in a police blotter or a local paper is now going to be everywhere. I think that's a good thing. Now they actually have to deal with the situation, and reflect on it. Not just as an isolated incident, but as part of a systemic larger issue surrounding the use of force, and the deployment of non-lethal weapons.