The outrageous abuse of power in a UCLA library is about more than just brutish police repeatedly attacking a student with a Taser. Equally important is the catalyst for this confrontation:
According to a campus police report, the incident began when community service officers, who serve as guards at the library, began their nightly routine of checking to make sure everyone using the library after 11 p.m. is a student or otherwise authorized to be there.
Campus officials said the long-standing policy was adopted to ensure students’ safety.
When Tabatabainejad, 23, refused to provide his ID to the community service officer, the officer told him he would have to show it or leave the library, the report said.
Like docile sheep, too many Americans buy these arguments.
On campus Wednesday, many students said they were surprised by news of the incident.
“UCLA is a very peaceful campus,” said Chen Mei, a third-year political science student from Laguna Hills. “I study in Powell Library at night all the time. I’ve seen people without ID cards who are removed. But none of the time has it been this dramatic.”
Karen Jou, a second-year student from Orange, said the campus police “usually are really good.”
“I wouldn’t have thought that would have happened here,” she said. “It’s really odd.”
Julia Newbold, a third-year English literature major from Walnut Creek, said her impression from her limited contact with campus police was good.
“They seem like a peacekeeping force,” she said. “I’m really surprised to hear they had to resort to something like that. It sounds a little too forceful to me to Taser someone.”
HAD TO?!?! PEACEKEEPING FORCE?!?!
All of this, in a supposedly free country.
Afraid of drunk drivers? Please submit to random checkpoints happily … after all, it will keep you safe.
Think you have the right to travel freely within the borders of this free nation? Better be ready to identify yourself when near the US/Canadian border, or if you are within certain areas of the desert Southwest. It’s not an intrusion, NO, we NEED to allow our law enforcement officers to keep us safe from terrorists and drugs! After all, what do you have to hide?
Planning on traveling overseas? You may need permission first, even to take your love on a cruise ship.
As we come closer and closer to requiring national ID cards, as our corrupt political establishment seeks to limit the right to vote, demanding ID cards to carry out the most basic freedom in a democracy, how can we as a people so blithely submit to this growing, insidious encroachment?
We surrender to these demands, empowering people with weapons and badges to enforce greater and greater restrictions on our movements, our civil liberties, our ability to act as free citizens. We surrender to people who often have disturbing histories of abusing their authority, resulting in injury and death when some hapless citizen rouses their ire. We surrender to the watchmen, and then act surprised when they abuse their power. Just ask some of the students at UCLA:
During the altercation between Tabatabainejad and the officers, 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.
He’s keeping them safe, after all, and how DARE you question how he chooses to exercise his “protective” actions?
“I realize when looking at these kind of arrest tapes that they don’t always show the full picture. … But that six minutes that we can watch just seems like it’s a ridiculous amount of force for someone being escorted because they forgot their BruinCard,” said Ali Ghandour, a fourth-year anthropology student.
“It certainly makes you wonder if something as small as forgetting your BruinCard can eventually lead to getting Tased several times in front of the library,” he added.
Edouard Tchertchian, a third-year mathematics student, said he was concerned that the student was not offered any other means of showing that he was a UCLA student.
Whether you’re walking down the street and you happen upon a cop who thinks you might be drunk, or you’re going to the library or driving or using public transportation, you’d better be careful if a man with a uniform, badge and weapon demands that you prove that you have the right to be doing what you’re doing, that you can show who you are. You’d better be especially careful if you’re of middle-eastern dissent, or black, or hispanic, for failing to respond quickly enough, or to have an ID on you rather than forgotten on your dresser at home, or you could be in for a beating, or “non-lethal” torture, or even death.
All of this, here in the land of the free. Show that ID, or else …
That video on Olbermann tonight was so hard to watch.
Something tells me there will be alot more about this story as the details emerge.
yes, it was, very disturbing.
yessir officer, no problem … I’ve got nothing to hide!
Scary.
What country do I live in?
Seriously, I don’t know anymore…
Digby says, “Taser abuse is out of control. Cops are using it to “subdue” people who are not carrying weapons and present no threat. While I understand it is a useful tool in the law enforcement arsenal, police are not supposed to be in the business of meting out punishment nor are they supposed to use excruciating (even if shortlived) pain to make suspects comply with their orders unless they have absolutely no other choice.”
He also links to an In These Times report on Taser abuse and the mounting death toll.
that was disgusting.
I can picture someone not leaving/showing an id right away. When researching, some people just get so into it, nothing else exists…I’m like that. Reference librarian always had to come and usually tap me on the shoulder (same for several others) and let us finish what we could. “We’re closed now.” “Just let me finish this chapter/page, and I’ll be back tomorrow.”
The library staff knew everyone (who was who and who)and were more than willing to cut people some slack.
Safety? Everyone always walked out in groups and would split up. A single woman was always walked to her car or if she lived on campus, home.
What the hell is this?
It’s … America.
Not the one we grew up in, but the one we might well die in.
This is really bothering me. I was studying Ed. Psych/Voc Rehab Counseling, and I remember having to read/reseach a couple books that dealt w/the legalese of social work, such as the Social Secutity Legislation (and a couple others). The books were on reserve in the Education libary, but, you could never get to them, as they were required reading, and there was always a wait.
So I’d go to the Social Security Office get the handouts/booklets, and read the legalese in the law library. All I missed was chapters of repetitive theoretical bullshit that wasn’t important. Knew a law professor who refused to do research in his office or at the law library–said other faculty and students were always bothering him, so he did his research at the Education library. (Was the one who tipped me off to using the law library.)
and how many times a day is this happeneing in America where no one was around to film it happeneing.The cops involved need to be suspeneded immediately….without pay.
invention of the inexpensive video camera. I noticed that some students were using their camera phones as well. It would appear that UCLA students still know their rights. Heads had better roll.
A taser related death occurred near here about a year ago. The victim was a man who was obviously mentally ill, handcuffed and on the floor at the Monroe County, Indiana jail.
the In These Times I link to in a comment above has some chilling stories.
Who is IOZ has some of the same concerns, and puts bluntly how wrong this is:
“None of your goddamn business” is a human right.
Seriously sick.
What year is it? 1984?
In eastern Idaho the cops are regularly pulling people over and quizzing them on what they’re doing, where they’re going, where they came from, even what they do for a living. All with no probable cause and no warning or ticket issued. This is around the Moscow, Idaho area and occurs frequently for those who live there but strangely not for anyone with out of state plates. Most reports I’ve heard happen late at night and it has been going on for more than a year now.
that’s insane, yet I bet a lot of Idahoans like to brag about being rugged individualists even today.
I hadn’t heard that, thanks for the update.