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UCLA student: Tased and Confused (pg. 16)
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| JM |
i say stone him in the square. that'll teach him to break university rules!
>JM< |
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| Groundhog Boy |
| quote: | USAC opposes ‘inappropriate force’
Council calls for suspension of officers involved in Taser incident as well as independent investigation
The Undergraduate Students Association Council voted 9-1 Tuesday night to pass a resolution opposing inappropriate force against students by university police.
The resolution was drafted in response to recent use of a Taser on a UCLA student by UCPD officers. Officers touched Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a fourth-year Middle Eastern and North African studies student, with a Taser in drive-stun mode five times Nov. 15 after he failed to produce a BruinCard when asked to do so and did not comply with officers' instructions in a timely manner. A video of the incident captured by another student has been widely distributed.
UCPD has said the officers saw Tabatabainejad's actions as resistance and acted as they deemed necessary to gain compliance.
The resolution called for the immediate suspension of the officers involved and an independent investigation that includes students.
The resolution further said if the investigation reveals that racial profiling was a factor in the incident, as some have perceived, that USAC supports diversity training for officers.
As per UCPD policy, the incident is currently under internal investigation, and Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams announced that there will be an independent investigation as well.
The resolution was passed after more than an hour of deliberations regarding multiple amendments.
The council addressed several concerns about the wording of the resolution. Members debated references to the video of the incident because some felt it does not portray the entire story.
"(The video) was very startling and disturbing, however, I did take a step back afterwards," said Academic Affairs Commissioner Nat Schuster. "Did this look horrific? Yes. But I am not one to immediately declare that these policemen were out of line."
Councilmembers also debated a clause that referred to perceived racial profiling during the incident and perceived fears of students of color. Eventually, both of those clauses were included.
Some councilmembers also disliked a section of the original resolution that called for the immediate suspension of the officers involved.
Financial Supports Commissioner Shaun Doria said he felt councilmembers did not have the authority or knowledge to make a decision about the suspension of officers.
But External Vice President Tina Park said she was in support of calling for suspension in the resolution.
"As USAC councilmembers, we should be advocating a strong voice and all these amended clauses will weaken (its voice)," she said, adding that the language was determined based on student input.
Homaira Hosseini, a second-year political science and business economics student, presented a petition with more than 1,000 students' signatures stating that involved police officers should be temporarily suspended pending the investigation.
About 20 students and community members attended the meeting to listen and voice their concerns.
"It is an issue of campus safety. I don't feel safe on this campus. When I walk past Powell, I can't even go in," said Combiz Abdolrahimi, a third-year business economics and political science student.
UCPD has maintained that the officers could not have known at the time whether Tabatabainejad was a threat to officers and has emphasized that all individuals in the library after 11 p.m. must be affiliated with the university in order to maintain the safety of UCLA's students, staff and faculty.
Berky Nelson, an administrative representative to USAC, said students should wait for the results of the investigation before jumping to any conclusions.
"Until this is resolved by internal and external investigations, I simply recommend that students wait and see what happens. No one knows exactly what the answers will be. Keep in mind that this is a research institution which teaches you to find the best way you can the absolute truth, but the point is you must do all the research," he said.
"There is no way you can say (the video) was not alarming, but we have to let the process take place."
He added that he was impressed with students' behavior so far.
"I think the students have acted very nobly, honorably and with a great deal of sensitivity." |
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| verndogs |
| quote: | Originally posted by shaolin_Z
Dude, I've been on PDD for a while now. Groundhogboy is far from being prejudiced. |
yeah...GhB is definitely not prejudiced...he just loves to ramble on and on and on and on......
:p |
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| josh4 |
thats that. i figured he was only in it for the publicity. now this incident will slowly fade from the public's memory |
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| Groundhog Boy |
| quote: | Originally posted by josh4
thats that. i figured he was only in it for the publicity. now this incident will slowly fade from the public's memory |
For those of us that don't want to sign up for the LA Times website, can you repost the entire article?
Curious if another attorney will choose to pick this up now... |
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| shaolin_Z |
| quote: | Originally posted by josh4
thats that. i figured he was only in it for the publicity. now this incident will slowly fade from the public's memory |
...which is ing disgusting. |
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| metalgearsolid |
| quote: | Originally posted by shaolin_Z
...which is ing disgusting. |
...which is actually repulsive! |
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| MisterOpus1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Groundhog Boy
For those of us that don't want to sign up for the LA Times website, can you repost the entire article?
Curious if another attorney will choose to pick this up now... |
Here ya go:
| quote: | Taser use limited at most UC campuses
Six of 10 schools have supplied officers with the weapons, but only UCLA police can stun noncombative suspects.
By Rong-Gong Lin II, Times Staff Writer
November 22, 2006
Police officers on six UC campuses carry Taser guns, but UCLA appears to be alone in expressly allowing officers to stun not only violent suspects but those who are passively resisting their orders.
In interviews Tuesday, top officials at university police departments across the state stressed that officers should be given discretion when using Tasers but said they thought the weapons should be used primarily against suspects who posed a physical risk.
"They are not allowed to use it on a passive person," Orville King, UC San Diego's police chief, said of his officers. "It's not to be used on a restrained person unless a person poses a threat of serious bodily injury."
UCLA's police rules allow officers to use Tasers on suspects engaging in passive resistance, which is what police said 23-year-old senior Mostafa Tabatabainejad was doing last week.
Tabatabainejad was repeatedly stunned with a Taser after he refused to show his student ID card to officers, and, according to authorities, wouldn't leave Powell Library, went limp and asked others to join his resistance.
The Nov. 14 incident was recorded by another student on a cellphone camera and broadcast on TV newscasts and the website YouTube. Students held a march Friday to protest the officer's action, and UCLA's acting chancellor has ordered an independent investigation into the incident.
King said that in his department, having a detained person call for others to join his resistance in itself may not be justification to use a Taser.
"If it was simply requesting or verbally inciting others, I'm not certain whether or not that would be appropriate use of a Taser," King said. "There have to be other elements … kicking, jumping, fighting."
Other police chiefs, who like King did not comment on the UCLA incident specifically, said their own department policies focus on using Tasers against combative suspects.
"It can only be used when it appears reasonable under the circumstances … to restrain or arrest a violent or threatening suspect," said UC Riverside Police Chief Michael Lane.
"We're looking at someone that poses some sort of physical threat."
UC Irvine Police Chief Paul Henisey said Taser use is "authorized when facing a violent or potentially violent individual."
At UC Merced, Police Chief Rita Spaur said her officers would not deploy a Taser unless "it was the last means to protect themselves" or other people.
"If the person is self-destructive, dangerous or highly combative, that would be a time to use it," said Spaur, whose 1-year-old department has not yet used a Taser on duty.
UCLA police purchased 16 Taser stun guns two years ago, at a cost of nearly $800 each, said Nancy Greenstein, UCLA's director of police community services. The Daily Bruin, the student newspaper, reported at the time that police said the purchase was made to reduce injuries and prevent lawsuits.
The purchase came about a year after Terrence Duren, the UCLA police officer who used the Taser on the student last week, used a gun in October 2003 to shoot and wound a homeless man who had been in a campus study hall room.
Many law enforcement agencies said they valued Tasers as a nonlethal tool to disable suspects quickly and precisely. Batons don't necessarily disable a suspect quickly and can cause contusions, and pepper spray can hit bystanders and police officers, while a Taser in most cases can quickly disable a hostile suspect without permanent harm.
At other UC campuses, Tasers have been used to disable violent suspects.
In 2004, UC Davis officers used the weapon to attempt to subdue a 26-year-old who, distraught over a breakup with his girlfriend, had brandished a gun at officers. Officers later fatally shot the man, who was not a student, after he fired his semiautomatic weapon at them; their response was found to be legally justifiable.
At UC San Diego, police have used a Taser to stun a drunk driver who refused to exit a vehicle and to subdue a man who had been pointing a switch-blade knife at a woman in a campus parking lot. Police shocked the man after they safely got the woman away from the suspect, King said.
Although UC Santa Barbara police aren't equipped with Tasers, officers with the Isla Vista Foot Patrol, who oversee an adjacent community, carry the devices, and last year used a Taser on campus property after having been called in to help university police subdue someone, according to Sol Linver, a lieutenant with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department.
"With the use of the Tasers, we've seen less serious injuries to the people being arrested and less serious injuries to our officers," Linver said.
UC Santa Barbara Capt. Michael Foster said the UCLA incident and letters coming into the chancellor's office there have caused campus officials to reconsider a year-old proposal to buy Tasers for their police force, which have not yet been purchased due to a lack of funds.
The other three UC campuses, at Berkeley, Santa Cruz and San Francisco, do not use Tasers.
The Santa Cruz campus decided against buying Tasers a year ago. "We've got a pretty mellow campus here," Police Chief Mickey Aluffi said.
UCLA police are allowed to use Tasers on passive resisters as "a pain compliance technique," Assistant Chief Jeff Young said last week. Officers can use the weapons after considering the potential injury to police and to the suspect, as well as the level of the suspect's resistance and the need for a prompt resolution.
Also Tuesday, the lawyer Tabatabainejad hired last week, Stephen Yagman, said he was no longer representing the student.
Yagman, a high-profile civil rights lawyer who has handled numerous police brutality cases, had said he planned to file a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing UCLA police of "brutal excessive force" and false arrest.
Tabatabainejad did not show his ID card to library staff or police because he thought he was being singled out because of his Middle Eastern appearance, Yagman had said. Police have said it is long-standing practice for students to show their ID cards after 11 p.m.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/l...ines-california |
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| Fir3start3r |
The fact that Tabatabainejad's own lawyer dumped him says everything about the case; he had none.
He got attention alright, but obviously not the way he intended.
Now he just looks like the loon he really is... |
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| shaolin_Z |
| quote: | Originally posted by Fir3start3r
The fact that Tabatabainejad's own lawyer dumped him says everything about the case; he had none. |
Hehe. No :rolleyes:. All it shows is that the system has become so corrupt that the lawyer was intimidated/coerced out of it. He had a pretty good case, and lawyers don't generally quit on their client, it's the clients who's funds run out. You obviously have no clue how ed up the system has gotton. The implications of a trial taking place and all the media coverage it would get would be HUGE, and not favourable to the powers that be who're slowly introducing more and more totalitarian legislation. |
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| TheDemon |
| quote: | Originally posted by Fir3start3r
The fact that Tabatabainejad's own lawyer dumped him says everything about the case; he had none.
He got attention alright, but obviously not the way he intended.
Now he just looks like the loon he really is... |
There are other lawyers out there. |
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| Fir3start3r |
The article clearly shows that the officers had the right to do their jobs and you guys still think he had a case?
Pray tell, what lawyer would take such a case? :conf: |
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