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

http://dailybruin.com/news/articles.asp?id=38958

wow twice in a few weeks thats not good.

btw how did i vote for this 4 times its good but dont i only get 1? and the site has been alittle slow for me today maybe that has something to do with it *shrug*

...pussy! Did he not deserve it, from the audio alone, now really!!

*that is the 1st time i've seen that vote glitch!

he didnt comply. what did he expect to happen?

I don't know. Seems like he was asking for trouble. He didn't deserve the tasering, but what's the problem with providing ID and cooperating? Them's the rules, play by them.

On a tangent, this is why police should learn some good grappling (wrestling, judo, BJJ). A simple come-along wristlock or hammerlock would have saved a lot of trouble and pain for all parties involved.

I just don't see it as necessary to taz a guy 5 times for not showing ID. Shouldn't there be a scale. He refused to show ID he didn't hurt anyone, didn't threaten anyone. Shouldn't the levels of force to be applied based on the level of the infraction or level of danger to the officers and public. You should get tazed for minor stuff like this.

*yeah my 4 votes are still there. i'm still not sure what i did to make it do that. I know i have had problems with the site today. Very slow and i pressed the refresh button a few times might have been 3 times that made it 4.

nice power vote. **paging Dr. Leprachaun**

I completely agree Tracon, like I said, it wasn't necessary to taser the guy. However, it was the police's duty to remove the guy for being a disturbance and not abiding by the rules. Since the guy didn't comply with the officers, it's obvious that they needed to escalate slightly and remove him physically, no? It's basically the same situation bouncers are put in; there's an idiot, he needs to be removed physically. Like I said above, I believe all LEOs should be taught the basics of proper grappling, so that they can deal with people like this without having to escalate the level of force beyond basic necessity. A simple hammerlock would have been much less painful and much more effective.

That is so very wrong!
Why the hell are campus police carrying taser's to begin with?

Every single officer there that night should be sacked and someone with enough sense needs to be setting their security protocols.

To keep tasering someone ordering them to stand up when you're sending an electrical current into their body is just a stupid thing to do.

I wouldn't be surprised if those officers were chucked out of some other policing authority because of their methods.

Tasering someone will draw a lot more attention and anger than being a good police officer and defusing a situation.

...hey theneb, get a grip.....have you ever had your nose bro ken, owwwwitch!...it may do ya good....go watch Fight Club.....

anyone figure out how i got the ultra cool "feature" of the random powerx4 vote?

Police officers are dumb shits who always resort to violence first, I've yet to meet an inteligent one.

I hope he recieves a nice settlment from the school and all those rent a cops get fired.

If this were "24" and Jack Bauer was tazing this kid for no reason other than he was pissing him off, I would approve. That being said, those cops are not Jack Bauer and apparently they're too weak and incompetant to remove a college student from a library without excessive use of force. Seriously, what the fuck? You shouldn't be allowed to tazer someone in handcuffs...unless you're Jack Bauer.

We don't know what what happening before the tape starts, do we? The cops certainly did not resort to violence first, Sammy. How many times did they ask him to leave? 50? 100? Cops simply cannot just shrug their shoulders and leave when an obviously unhinged man is running around.

What should they have done that they didn't do?

The news articles that were posted give a pretty good context for the video. The guy was being dumb and uncooperative, and the cops resorted to physically removing the guy.

As to what they should have done...they should have wristlock/armlocked the guy in a come-along hold (hammerlocks work great for this purpose) and removed his butt from the library. The tasering was completely out of line, and smacks of poor physical management training. Using a taser was completely unnecessary considering the other, less violent options.

Why is it only in America do I see this kind of vapid stupid behavior on both sides of the fence?

And why a taser? What happened to the trusty riot baton?

Uh, farhad? Ever heard of Tiennamen Square? And that's just the most obvious, extreme example . . . I can find hundreds more in a matter of minutes if you want them.

Also, they use tasers because tasers don't leave permanent damage (except in extreme, highly unusual cases). Would you rather be tased and be fine in a couple minutes or be bruised for weeks?

In this case, the taser and riot baton are both extremely poor choices. I can't repeat this enough: joint locks are the best way to go.

Viable alternatives to joint locks would be:
1. Swistering the kid's hands and feet, then carrying him out of the libary. It would be annoying because he'd still be able to twist and probably not the best publicity but kinda fun. Also, he'd still be able to scream.

2. Choking the kid out, then carrying his limp body out of the libary. It would be hella fun, less painful for the kid, and much quieter (just 10 seconds or so of gurgling, then silence for the next few minutes), but probably also pretty bad for publicity. On the other hand, NOBODY WOULD FUCK WITH CAMPUS POLICE.

It's funny that Seeknowsage went on a down vote rampage on my queued videos because I offered a differing opinion from the norm. That's childish mate.

First of all don't go comparing Tiananmen Square, where students protested an oppressive Communist regime and were shot at indiscriminately by government forces to a student who refused to leave the premises because he did not have his IDentification in America's paranoid post 9/11 world of Terror watch.

Second of all, I said this was excessive use of force, in terms of the equipment used Tasers are used because they are cheap and don't require extensive training. While I agree with rembar that joint locks would be great, that would require time and training on Jack Bauer levels something I don't think there is funding or initiative for.

Third, it's easy to scream and shout about all these abuses but it's funny how no one ever screams and shouts about how the authority to carry out these actions never garner the same attention. Yeah am talking Patriot Act, Patriot Act II, Heabus Corpus, NSA tapping, CIA prisons and Guantanamo Bay. America has been pushed to the brink of paranoia, I was baffled at the coverage Fox News, CBS, NBC, all of them offered in terms of news event - just pure fear mongering... I mean Killer Africanized Bees, Blades in Apples, Anthrax, Yellow/Pink/Blue alert... Sheesh...

Good going to whoever recorded this. Nothing like transparency. My bet- these security officers are gone. Reading the articles...

1. The guy was a student. Did he not have ID on him, or wanted to make a point? Not sure.
2. 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
3. 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- that's assault," he said.

farhad, that's crap and you know it. If you bothered to look, you'd see I voted up alot of the stuff you'd posted.

With that said, I reserve the right to vote things down that I don't like, just as you do.

Who the fuck are campus police, are they real police officers? I too would refuse to show ID, how dare some trumped up 'CAMPUS POLICE MAN' ask for ID. Oh and why do they have weapons, bloody hell! This is extreme, how can it be condoned? This has truly shocked me. I'm glad I'm a student in the U.K. I know some americans think europeans are pussy's, but at least I don't get electrocuted for the most minor of things. This is very wrong.

@ wallace

"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. "

What he did was not leave imediatly, probobly to log off the computer. I know at my University you have to close all programs and do a force log out or it takes over two mins to get off of your ID.

The cop grabbed him without saying anything, he was right in telling them to get off.

He only yelled at the officers to "get off me" which was justified.

The cops tasered him, and a few more times even though he told the officers that he had a medical condition. If it was a bad heart he would have been dead.

The video starts off after the cop grabbed him, he was being complient before the police overstepped themselves.

@ NickyP

The city gives campus cops the jurisdiction regular cops would have, but they do not train them or regulate them. They are basically a private police force that has the power of public police on campus, as well as any power the university gives them.

"While I agree with rembar that joint locks would be great, that would require time and training on Jack Bauer levels something I don't think there is funding or initiative for."

Sorry, farhad, but that's just not true. I know this because I've trained with law enforcement officers in restraint and violence management techniques. Sure, it requires training, but so does the use of a gun in a combat situation, as does the use of a taser. A few months is all it takes to become decently competent, and by that I mean enough to control a situation such as this without risk of escalation or danger to any party involved. And besides, most LEOs are required to take some sort of physical combat training on a regular basis, why not make it effective and avoid this kind of situation?

The kind of excuses for not training for physical management offered up by paperpushers at HQ are just lame. "Oh, it takes too much time, it costs money, it's too hard to learn." I wonder how much time and money it saves to taser a student and then have to pay for PR people to shine your ass and then the legal staff to protect it in court? Hmmm....

Y'know happened here? The cops didn't know how to respond, they overescalated a physical confrontation to where the entire situation moved out of their control, and were confronted by a large crowd of angry college students. They turned themselves into the bad guys. Basically, the shit hit the fan.

Oh, and yeah, people die from getting tasered. I wonder how better all taser victims in general would have fared if they got shot instead? It was obviously out of line to use it in this case, but there are times when tasers are good. Imagine a situation where a guy brandishes a knife at an officer. Would you rather the officer a) fight him unarmed, b) shoot him, or c) shock the shit outta him and then arrest him? There's a time and place for all things, the taser is just one more tool in the LEO's utility belt, and a good one at that.

And the guy was a student, sure. And he didn't have his ID with him. The CSOs asked him to provide ID or leave. He did not. The police asked him to leave. He did not. Sounds like a dick to me.

Incidentally, I forgot my own student ID going to the campus gym today. I apologized to the check-in staff and asked if I could sign in some way. They said no, so I went back to my room, picked up my ID, walked back, and went into the gym. Guess what? No tasering.

The rule of thumb here is: Act like a bitch, get smacked like one.

"The rule of thumb here is: Act like a bitch, get smacked like one."

My thoughts as well. If you start yelling and screaming at a cop, then the situation probably isn't going to end well for you. Was the cop out of line by grabbing his arm? Yeah, definitely. But in the handful of interactions I've had with the police, responding reasonably and respectfully always gets you through just fine. I wonder how this would've ended if the student had politely said "Sir, I'm on my way out of the building. I apologize for any trouble I have caused." instead of yelling, screaming and acting like a toddler in the midst of a temper tantrum.

We have rights, and police brutality is bad but that doesn't mean we have license to be rude and childish to cops.

HOOORAY FOR REMBAR, AN' SCOTTISHMARTIALARTS, THE TWO MOST SENSIBLE VOICES IN THE MIX....

Not to beat a dead horse, but an actual eyewitness to the event has posted his own version of the story online:

"Okay kids, I'm here!

Yes, I was indeed at Powell Library at approximately 11:30 on Tuesday night, and yes I did see the entire event as it went down.

Let me start off by saying that the guy DEFINITELY was asking to get his ass kicked. He was being extremely rude with the campus patrol guys (who are college students...this was before the real UCPD got called in). He was not complying with their requests to leave the premises, and he was definitely itching for a fight. I actually know the guy and a few of his friends, and I can tell you that he's the kind of guy that loves to make trouble.

Just as a little backstory, one of the quotes the guy has on his facebook (which he now has taken down) was "I like to find the most difficult solutions to the simplest of problems".

He definitely taunted the UCPD into behaving the way they did with him.

Edit: Many people have questioned the fact that the cops tazed him and asked him to get up, and tazed him again even though he shouldn't have the capability to get up. This was not the case here to my knowledge, because the cops were using their "drive-stun" method which administers less of a jolt than normal. I believe this because anyone who can ramble on about this being the patriot act and yell at the top of his lungs should have the capability of getting up."

http://messageboard.tuckermax.com/showthread.php?t=12336

(agree with last comments)

He's probably a rich kid. Spoiled. Or just a dick.

hah, i just noticed farhad pulled an 'ant' and randomly voted against this. awesome.

I was just not going to vote.

@choggie

Who cares if this guy is a complete idiot and was looking for a fight. He was doing nothing more than talking. If talking in your country can get you tazered. I'm glad that I live in Canada. That guy didn't deserve to get tazered, for the simple fact that he was unable to leave it. That was what we call in the law enforcement business as "excessive force" and this is the type of incident that they can be sued over.

Also, if UCLA can't afford rent a cops then I feel sorry for them. I work for a major company that deals with them and parks cars there day in and day out. Yes, I will agree, he is probably an A$$hole and did deserve a shot in the face with a fist, but to have someone shoot a tazer into your body and then do it again and again. That is just too much, Lowest voltage or not, you're still going to lose a lot of usage in your limbs.

I have been electrucuted, which is probably equiveliant to what this Tazer was at, and trust me, it feels none too good, you want to throw up and your whole body vibrates and you feel like your brain is going to explode.

I honestly hope that UCLA gets sued for this incident.

Upvote for all the comments...

I think that yes, this guy does seem like a dick, causing trouble and stuff, but that extreme amount of force was unneccesary. When they got him to the reception, one of the officers says 'all we want is for you to stand up' - which was said while getting tasered - and it shows that they had missed the point of getting him to leave. If he really did have a medical condition (afterall, he may be lying) they should've escorted him out, or picked him up and carried him out.

Man, I'm glad I live in the UK. If I don't have any ID, I wouldn't be able to take out books from the library... I wouldn't get tasered!

Really, they are all dicks here. Cops should get fired, guy should get kicked from the college.

Tasers were designed and are sold as an alternative to shooting suspects. However, they're increasingly used as an alternative to physically confronting or subduing suspects.

This is such a BS story all around.

The cops are Idiots, no doubt. But they have to be there to deal with fools like this student.

Prior to Pepper Spray and Tasers, Choke holds were used. Unfortunately people were being killed quite often, such as in this example.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_7_98/ai_63735777

So In my estimation, he got off easy.
And if he was at USC, campus security would have shot him.

Prior to pepper spray and tasers, guns and choke holds were used in situations when the use of pepper spray and tasers would have been much more helpful. For example, a man with a knife can now be stopped with a taser, while he would previously have been shot. Pepper spray can be used against unarmed assailants. And properly-applied choke holds are useful for subduing assailants without the danger of blunt-force trauma or electrical shock.

Choke holds were resulting in peoples' deaths because LEOs were not being properly trained in the proper application of chokes. There is a huge difference between a properly applied rear naked choke, which cuts off blood supply to the brain by squeezing off the carotid arteries, and a rear forearm choke, which cuts off air supply by compressing the trachea. Blood chokes are effective and can be applied with very little force without the risk of permanent injury or death if they are properly-applied and released shortly after unconsciousness (about 4-10 seconds into the choke). There is a relatively huge margin for brain damage (another 15-20 seconds before it becomes dangerous) with a blood choke. Air chokes can damage the trachea and require a huge amount of force comparatively.

Trained properly, there is pretty much no danger to blood chokes. If you're truly interested, go look up at the mortality rates for chokes being applied in grappling tournaments, like a judo shiai. It's basically 0%, since trained grapplers can easily apply the choke without danger to either them or their opponent.

Fine, the guy is a troublemaker. But the "cops" here are incompetent idiots who should be dismissed (if not sued). They outnumbered him by how many to one? If they wanted the guy out, all they had to do was pick him up and carry him out. No lawsuit, no injury, no riot.

@viewer_999: Yes.

This is the university's fault for handing out tasers to campus police, for God's sake - which I think is a step below mall security.
We can't even get trained people to use tasers properly; when you hand them out to college kids, what did they think was going to happen?

Absolutely inexcusable. They'll be paying that kid's tuition (and more) at USC once he sues and wins. And please don't tell me that situation couldn't have been defused if those Jack Bauer-wannabes (who, I seem to need to remind everyone here, is a fictional character) weren't carrying those bug zappers.

There are no Jack Bauers in the world, kids. Let's not imbue ordinary people with the super-competence they don't possess and realize that crimes and terrorism usually don't get resolved in 24 hours. Jesus.

Rembar,
I too am used to the application of chokes and strangles.
The use of them in Judo tournaments, MMA etc is safe, because the ref stops the fight, and there is medical personnel right there.

This is not the case in police incidents. It is in essence "Real Life" as apposed to a sporting event and there are way more factors involved such as the health of persons being choked, excess adrenaline, malice, poor training etc. That is why the Taser was developed.

Unfortunately they will be banned, and cops will again beat, choke and shoot suspects when pepper spray is not an option. More people will die because of this UCLA incident.

(

Theo47,

Campus Safety didn't have Tasers, UCPD Officers did.

@obscenesimian: What's your ACTUAL experience? What MA do you study, or courses or training programs have you participated in? Do you teach? Do you compete? On top of that, how much LEO experience and/or beat time do you have? If you know enough about judo tournaments and MMA competitions and the like as well as physical confrontations between LEOs and perps, then you should know that the use of chokes and strangles are safe in application primarily because of the knowledge of the fighters competing, and that competitions are the closest thing to "real life" training as possible. Let's take a look at the factors you say are not present in competitions but are present in "real life":

1. The health of the persons being choked: Ok, last time I checked, MMA fighters had no problem choking out opponents who they just finished punching repeatedly from many different positions and angles. On top of that, there are basically no health factors that makes chokes "more dangerous" for any given person than other, although it may make the chokes more effective (in terms of time until unconsciousness). This is as opposed to tasers, which can, for instance, disrupt a pacemaker for somebody with a heart condition.

2. Excess adrenaline: Competitions are high-adrenaline environments. The whole concept of judo shiai and the like is that the competitions mimic the kind of environment of a "real life" situation, in terms of adrenaline rushes and other stress-related anatomical reactions. That's why all good grappling arts train for larger bodypart locks, like keylocks and armbars - people have realized that the adrenaline dump from all the stress causes a lot of loss in terms of fine motor coordination, so it's much better to rely on gross motor coordination.

3. Malice: Last time I checked, judo, sambo, wrestling, MMA, and all other serious full-contact fighting sports have competitions in which the main goal is to throw, lock, choke, and/or beat the crap out of one's opponent. Malice? Oh, yeah.

4. Poor training: Well, DUH. Obviously police need to be trained. You think it would be any different than if police were just handed guns and told, "Ok, safety off, point and pull the trigger"? All combat skills need to be trained to be effective and controlled.

Also, people well-trained in submission grappling arts know the effects of all their chokes, blood and air. Even if the ref doesn't stop the fight, I know the approximate times that my opponent will lose consciousness, will suffer permanent damage, and regain consciousness after the chokehold is released. Without a ref, properly LEOs just choke the perp until he loses consciousness, then release the hold, lay him down and deal with him. And there's no need for medical personnel: the guy gets choked out, you lay him on his side until he regains consciousness, he wakes up without any permanent damage. That's it.

And no, that is definitely not why the Taser was developed. The Taser was developed to reduce the number of FIREARM-related deaths. FIREARM-RELATED DEATHS. That's why it's so ridiculous that a taser was used in this situation. It was completely inappropriate and out of line.

If people were better educated, especially the paper pushers making all the decisions on what LEO training/equipment should be, none of this would be a problem. But this is sadly not the case, which is why we are now all being entertained by a non-threatening but annoying idiot being zapped multiple times by two pissed off cops who don't know the proper methods for dealing with the punk.

Ok Rembar, I thought my previous post might be misconstrued as an attack on MMA Judo BJJ police etc.

First I don't need to lay out my credentials, my points have to stand on their own merits, as well as do yours. The validity of a claim does not follow from the credibility of the source. But I will give my credentials anyway. 4 years of Judo, 2 while in HS, 2 in college, I have competed in several USJA tournaments in San Francisco, lost most of the matches, but I did win a few. My highest rank was a brown belt, and some would say I needed more time in to get that far. I know my way around a choke, from both ends. Beat time? None. Club security, 2 years. And you can get shot, stomped, and stabbed as easily as a cop.

That Said, I did not mean to criticise anything about fighting arts and competitions, just the application of chokes and strangles in subduing citizens. I will attempt to clarify my previous arguments.

1. The Health of persons being choked. The problem is not with the ease of choking, it is the ability to withstand and recover. Your average victim of a police incident is not an athlete, and in many instances is intoxicated. It is unequivocally more dangerous to cause an intoxicated person to go unconscious. In addition for most people, being choked can cause panic, which causes struggling that can lead to injuries not associated with the actual choke to both officers and suspects.

2. Excess adrenaline. I'll concede the point. Both cause much adrenaline to be spent. Although a good MMA fighter can control their emotions, and control the adrenaline to some extent.

3. Malice. What happens in a match when a guy is choked out, knocked out, or his joint is manipulated causing pain and damage? The ref stops the fight or someone taps out. In a police incident, the cop is the Ref. If the cop has malice, lookout, if the suspect gets the cops gun, or has a knife, bloodshed and death may follow. I'll take the malice evident in a controlled sporting event over the malice in a "real world" encounter any day. MMA guys just don't get stabbed, bitten, or shot, eye gouged, fishhooked etc. (ok maybe there has been some biting and fishhooking)

4. Poor Training. Duh right back at ya. The operative word here is POOR. Everyone reading this is not stupid. We know that cops need training in order to do their jobs without causing physical harm unnecessarily. It's a given. When training is inadequate, bad stuff happens. I think that was clear enough without additional comment.

I would like to comment on your points as well.

"I know the approximate times that my opponent will lose consciousness, will suffer permanent damage, and regain consciousness after the chokehold is released."

Really! Okay, the guys you practice with or fight ought to be similar, weight, age fitness. But how quickly will a 190 pound asthmatic college student who snorted meth all week take to pass out, and when will he wake up? Does he have a heart condition, suffer from panic attacks, have schizophrenia? These unknowns caused a french tourist in las vegas to die from a choke applied by metro several years back. By all accounts, the choke was applied properly. The taser is safer for the cop, as far as the suspect, I wouldn't guess that it is any safer.

"The Taser was developed to reduce the number of FIREARM-related deaths. FIREARM-RELATED DEATHS."

It was developed in response to a murder of 2 of the inventors friends as a non lethal weapon that did not classify as a fire arm and thus could be manufactured without the red tape the BATF would require. It was not actively marketed to police departments by taser int. until 1998. It was adopted by police departments as a non lethal weapon to be used to reduce officer injuries AND reduce shootings.

I do not have any arguments with your conclusion.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, obscenesimian. Ok, I was just asking about your experience because I've met a bunch of guys who say, "Oh yeah, I know all about (insert technique here)." Then I really ask them and find out they've spent 4 hours at a seminar on restraint techniques. And I agree about points standing on merit, it's just hard (and pointless) to have a technical discussion without the knowledge base in place.

1. The health of persons being choked. I'll give you that it is more dangerous to choke an intoxicated person. However, in that case the officer should be able to tell that person is intoxicated (and in most other similiar situations). And yes, the panic, adrenaline, etc. are factors, but proper training and competition encompasses all of these factors. And as for the struggling...well, a properly executed RNC should not give room for the chokee to be injured by resisting. In any case, the health of the perp is also a factor when tasers are used. It's a problem, but there's nothing the LEOs can do about it, and it doesn't justify not using the things when the situation calls for it.

3. Malice. My argument is that, without a ref, it is up to the officer to use his judgement as to when to stop. If the cop has malice and cannot control himself, he should not be on the force - I mean, the same applies for a gun, not just a choke, y'know? And as for the suspect, if the suspect has a knife or especially a gun, I'd rather be taking the guy to the ground for backmount or mount and disarming him. Of course the choke will have to be dropped, but it's not a terrible position to start a weapon defense in.

4. Poor Training. I think we can both agree that everything rides on proper training. And I agree that training for LEOs needs to be much, much better than it is now. But that's neither here nor there.

As for my comments about time until unconsciousness and injury, of course there will be mitigating factors, but that does not at all take away from the fact that chokes can be used viably. Average times until unconsciousness will vary in an LEO's line of work, but it's a good starting point to start looking for when combined with a knowledge of how to know when the chokee is out (limp arms, neck muscle relaxation, etc.). And obviously, one of the hugely important things that is looked over in a lot of physical restraint training is knowing when to release the choke. As for your example, I couldn't find the incident online so I can't comment on the facts, but panic attacks should always be taken into consideration for a choke, I don't see how a taser is less dangerous for someone with a heart condition, and I don't see how schizophrenia could have an effect on the choke (maybe the medication or his reactions?).

By all means, the taser is a great thing. But the choke and taser have different purposes and cannot be thought of in the same ways. Tasers and chokes can both be dangerous, but good training and awareness of the LEO will severely reduce the number of related injuries and deaths. It's a sad world where LEOs are required to get the job done but have their toolboxes taken apart bit by bit because people are too lawsuit-crazy.

And thank you for the equally thoughtful re-reply. Its nice when arguments actually clear the air and end in a civil manner. Now GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME! HERES YOUR JUSTICE!, HERES YOUR HABEAS CORPUS!!! >.< Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Yeah, definitely. It's kind of nice to beat that old rule about arguing on the internet. Now COMPLY WITH THE LAW, STAND UP OR YOU'LL GET IT AGAIN.

*

No, poor academy graduation standards and inter- and intra-departmental politics let lazy, chicken-shit, puss cops be cops. Tasers only help.

For what it's worth, if anybody's still interested, check out this article:

http://www.laist.com/archives/2006/11/20/taserhappy_cops_history_was_one_reason_for_tasers_at_ucla.php

It turns out one of the officers who tasered the kid, one Terrence Duren, allegedly tried to choke a fratboy with his nightstick (big nono) and shot a homeless man.

Well, at least he tried to choke a fratboy. >.<
Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Ok - this guys a tool. Period.

If your dealing with a law enforcement at ANY time - you better comply with their requests immediately.

Should he have been repeatedly tased? Yup. Why? Because he did not comply with the officers request. Obviously the kid was not trying to comply. Right after he was being tased he would spout anti-political nonsense that had nothing to deal with the fact he was being an asshole. Although the officers used seemingly excessive force the guy was an idiot for A) Not complying quickly. and B) for trying to cause a riot with his actions. It is the officers first job to protect themselves and those around them - even if the moron students had no real clue as to what was going on with the situation.

If you feel your being unfairly treated - it would be wise to talk with a lawyer AFTER the incident. I have unfort dealt with the LAPD many times in my life. And 99% of the time I was treated just as I should. I was never beaten, tortured, or injured while dealing with them (even though I probably deserved it a few times)

Unfortunately, 1% is not good enough. Sure, it looked like he was being an ass. But that's how he decided to protect himself after being grabbed in the arm to stop when he was *already* on his way out of the place. I don't think it was the smartest, but the reaction from the cops was inexcusable. Moreover, the officer that tasered him, Terrence Duren, is a guy with previous. He's been accused of student harassment, he's shot down homeless, generally not a very complying officer. But the thing that gets me the most is when a student asks the officer for his information and he responded by saying that "you'll get tasered too".


http://dailybruin.com/news/articles.asp?ID=39047

Gross abuse of power, absolutely misuse of power. I live in Boston, and I saw plenty of fights, and rioting controled without the use of Tasers when the Red Sox won the world series (I really don't want to hear any hits on the red sox). I watched as two officers broke up a fight without the use of a single "weapon". Once the group was seperated the police officers used a verbal aresanal to get the crowd to disperse. Sure, they used the threat of the taser, but never once used it. It seems hard to believe that campus police couldn't find another way to handle an individual who wouldn't show his identification or leave the premises. I hate to say this, but it seems like those campus cops got off on showing what bad asses they could be. It's very similar to a technique SS officers used to keep work crews in line in WWII. They would take the offender, or disruptor, and shoot him/her in front of the entire work crew. Fear is the best deterant. I know that analogy is very extreme, but it's kinda what happened here. I'm sorry, but I've been told by state police that if a police officer is ever asked for his badge number and information, he is required to give it.

they were both morons, unfortunately.
i have to agree with pretty much all the posts here in that the student was being a dick, and the enforcement officer was all too happy to use his new toy.

given the history of the officer in question, he should be fired. end of story. really should have happened a while ago.
the student should have been a little more compliant though, and i agree that if he could spout political rhetoric he could stand up, depending on where the barbs of the taser hit. i don't agree that when dealing with law enforcement, you should comply all the time without question. citizen's have rights for a reason.

For those of you still interested, a blogger has posted some info and is saying that the previous article I posted was at least partially incorrect, Duren never worked for the LBPD and was actually named UCLA's Officer of the Year in 2001. Article here: http://blogging.la/archives/2006/11/ucla_taser_incident_just_keeps.phtml

Fight tha powa!

The headline on this video *really* needs to be amended, +10 for the comments though

Looks like the guy is now suing "for unspecified monetary damages, claiming they used excessive force and violated the Americans With Disabilities Act "
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-011707taser,0,6813210.story?coll=la-home-headlines

I'm guessing the disability is "Bipolar Disorder". Reminds me of a guy I tutored in college who got his disability parking permit and 2x time on finals because of "Panic Attacks".

But seriously, if this guy gets millions from the state because his bipolar disorder prevented him from cooperating with the guards, that's an entirely new level of ADA abuse.

*promote

Promoting this classic video back to the front page; last published Thursday, November 16th, 2006 12:15pm PST - promote requested by dotdude.

If cops can't deal with a situation like this without resorting to tasers then you really don't want them as cops.

Secondly, if this happened where I live, those cops would have been set upon by everyone present, and the use of tasers would have been universally condemned.

Thirdly, this is the tip of the iceberg - the use of tasers and the deaths from them seems to be a very serious problem in America in recent times.

Think for yourself and question authority.

Deserves a good taser.

All relent to the Storm Troopers or pay the price.

Too bad ther aren't qualifications to be "law enforcement" other than reading "Mein Kamf". As an example of the fear factor, notice how the cameraperson is always taping from afar. Since when is it illegal to videotape? Also, I wonder what trumped-up charges can be enforced for asking the names of badge numbers of the Storm Troopers?