UCLA Taser Incident - Quoted Dialogue From Video

[TStoneMBD]

sorry if i didnt include the cops telling him to stand up or be tased before the first tasering incident. i did not catch that on the video. ill go back and look for it later.

[claudenm]

[ QUOTE ]
i'm going to say this again:

unless you have been tased yourself (on 'drive stun' capacity), stfu about excessive force. You don't know what you are talking about.

i rather get tased then punched in the face

[/ QUOTE ]

Would you rather get hog-tied and carried out and then placed under arrest than being tased or punched in the face?

[grandgnu]

Having not been there, and the video only showing very little, it's hard to make an accurate determination.

My first instinct upon watching it was:

This kid is a real douchebag, he's been told multiple times to get up, he tells them he's going to leave and then he just goes limp and doesn't respond to their orders, so he got what he deserves.

But then I think about the whole situation. You have multiple officers with a handcuffed suspect. I don't see why they wouldn't be capable of keeping him cuffed and picking him up and carrying him out. I believe I read he weighed 200 pounds. Find, put four officers on him and it's pretty easy to take him out.

I don't know what transpired prior to the video, but it sounds like he was trying to incite a riot by playing the race card and rallying other students to his cause.

Whether he was picked out because of his race on the ID issue I can't say. I think the kid was in the wrong in some ways, in that he was obviously trying to create a disturbance and cause problems for the officers.

But, I can also see that all of that tasing may have not been necessary, given that he was handcuffed and they appeared to have enough police personel to carry him out physically.

I expect he'll unfortunately be rewarded for his stupid behavoir by a jury (or a settlement outside of court) and the rest of us will pay for it. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Mickey Brausch]

If one collects the responses in this thread, this is the recapitulation:

If you don't show ID, you're liable to get tased. If you are a tool, you will get in trouble. If you mostly keep to yourself on campus ("only 9 friends") you might get in trouble with the campus police. If you wanna study in the library in the eraly hours of the morning --instead of frying your brain in a club or sleeping it off in your room-- you are immediately a suspect.

And if your family is of Middle Eastern origin, you're entering a world of pain, Theodore Karabatsos.

[lehighguy]

Is there really any basis to think he was asked for ID because he was Iranian?

It seems like he didn't comply with a policy of the school, was asked to leave, didn't, and the situation occured.

[grandgnu]

[ QUOTE ]
Is there really any basis to think he was asked for ID because he was Iranian?

It seems like he didn't comply with a policy of the school, was asked to leave, didn't, and the situation occured.

[/ QUOTE ]

While it's very possible that he was trying to create an "incident" out of this on purpose, it's not impossible for someone to target him for his nationality.

Believe me, I'm more likely to side with the cops in most situations, since there are plenty of idiots who need a good beating.

But the problem I see here is that he was cuffed and they had enough officers to physically pick him up and carry him out.

The video makes it hard to tell how actively he was resisting, but it did not appear that he was thrashing his body in anyway that threatened the cops.

It did appear he was going prone and not complying with their demands. But that does not justify the use of excessive force.

Granted, they utilized the more "humane" method of tasing, but I still don't see why they couldn't just pick him up and carry him out.

Using the taser did seem uneccessary from what I can make of the videotape.

[dknightx]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i'm going to say this again:

unless you have been tased yourself (on 'drive stun' capacity), stfu about excessive force. You don't know what you are talking about.

i rather get tased then punched in the face

[/ QUOTE ]

Would you rather get hog-tied and carried out and then placed under arrest than being tased or punched in the face?

[/ QUOTE ]

i rather be given the option to walk out on my own power (under the THREAT of tasering), then being hog-tied and carried out.

[lehighguy]

Eh, there are too many unknowns for anyone to make a judgement. The video begins halfway though the incident, you can't see much of anything the whole time. All I can make out is the audio. The kid is screaming about the patriot act, even though it has jackshit to do with the incident here (not that I like the patriot act, but its completely irrelevent). My guess is he was probably looking for trouble, and decided to make a big stink for being asked for an ID. Do you know how often I show my ID for random [censored], it's just the way it is.

Could they have thrown him out, maybe. Would he have resisted, maybe. Who knows.

[Mickey Brausch]

[ QUOTE ]
Is there really any basis to think he was asked for ID because he was Iranian?

[/ QUOTE ]Today it's because he was Iranian, some other day it will be because he looked Iranian. Another day it'll be cause you're looking "dangerous". Cops' call.

Or even because you're a good-for-nuthin', lazy, obnoxious person, a.k.a. a student. IMHO, a good point was made by Randy Renfeld here :

[ QUOTE ]
When I was in college a small riot broke out at the time change and they got help form neighboring jurisdictions. Things got really bad becuse the neighboring jurisdictions had nothing in common with college students and wanted to hit college students.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mickey Brausch

[John Kilduff]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i'm going to say this again:

unless you have been tased yourself (on 'drive stun' capacity), stfu about excessive force. You don't know what you are talking about.

i rather get tased then punched in the face

[/ QUOTE ]

Would you rather get hog-tied and carried out and then placed under arrest than being tased or punched in the face?

[/ QUOTE ]

i rather be given the option to walk out on my own power (under the THREAT of tasering), then being hog-tied and carried out.

[/ QUOTE ]

How about being given the option of walking out under your own power (under the THREAT of being carried out) than being hog-tied and carried out? Isn't that a better choice? Tasering doesn't even need to come into the potential picture: "Stand up and walk out with us, or we're going to carry you out. Your choice." Why isn't that the preferred set of choices offered?

Also, there is no I can see why reason the guy would have to be hog-tied. No reason at all why 4 or 5 officers couldn't easily and safely carry him out merely hancuffed as long as he wasn't actively physically resisting (and even if he were actively resisting, they very likely could, too, but that may be besides the point).