According to the article, the students in the library say he was already leaving when the police arrived and grabbed him.
That would be right after he revealed the bomb on his chest and yelled, "ALLLLALALALALALALALALAAL!!!!!!" And TJ, I know you get off on this stuff so here's a video you might get a kick out of (includes violence) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxi5kxzx3V0
Ok.. i'm sure somebody else finds this statement to be one of the most offensive things they've ever read on this board... comparing some UCLA student who refused to leave a library with a cold blooded international terrorist.. just because of their middle eastern sounding names? seriously trader, that's a new low.
Nice try. Obviously that was not the comparison I'm making. The comparison relates to physical pain. Again, nice try.
It said in one story that they round up everybody and check their papers after 11pm because the library is off limits to non-students after those hours. So they were trying to ascertain if he was a student by asking for ID.
So you think he should be "rendered" at Guantanamo for not showing his ID? Are you serious? Do you shoot small dogs for fun?
If that's true, then they should end up in jail. I'd definitely try them. What they've done looks like abuse of power, and if there's more to this story, it'll come out.
According to witnesses, yes witnesses!!!!.....he was leaving when he got checked at the door. Tasering a guy multiple times when he is already handcuffed??? And repeatedly asking a guy to stand up when you keep tasering him and possibly immobilize him for couple of seconds. Sounds like these officers were MORONS!!! What is their collective IQ?? They deserve to be fired, and UCLA will probably have to answer some questions.
I'm sure I would comply, too, but there's so much we don't know about this and since I.D. checks are often used to harrass minorities in some locales, I'm always skeptical when anyone is taken into custody based on a "Failure to I.D." rap. The thing is, the student never committed a crime in all of this, so it's difficult to justify the detention at all, let alone the Tasering. And given that we don't know how this policy was applied - maybe they I.D. everybody, maybe they take the student's word for it most of the time, maybe they only ask for I.D. from the minorities, who knows? - we don't know how reasonable it would be to not show I.D. when asked. Plus, we're told he "refused" to show I.D. as if it were a defiant act. For all we know, the student simply didn't have the I.D. with him. The police would still describe this as "Failure" to produce identification. And for all we know, students routinely forget to bring their I.D.s and every other night, the student says "I forgot it" and the officer says "well, bring it next time". We really just don't know. But here's what I think is getting lost in all of this. The policy of closing the library to non-students after 11pm is a fine one, but it's also one that could be handled any number of ways beyond requiring I.D. proof and accepting nothing less. The student had a legal right to be in that library. If he simply didn't have his I.D., there should be a way besides forcibly removing him to handle such situations. Whenever there's a rigid rule, something's going to eventually break. I mean, in the end, they Tasered a guy repeatedly who was in a place he had every right to be in.
By the way, it appears to me that the police Tasered the wrong guy. The story from the Daily Bruin: Student shot with Taser by UCPD officers Incident occured around 11:30 p.m. in the Powell Library CLICC computer lab UCPD officers shot a student several times with a Taser inside the Powell Library CLICC computer lab late Tuesday night before taking him into custody. No university police officers were available to comment further about the incident as of 3 a.m. Wednesday, and no Community Service Officers who were on duty at the time could be reached. 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. UCPD officers confirmed that the man involved in the incident was a student, but did not give a name or any additional information about his identity. Video shot from a student's camera phone captured the student yelling, "Here's your Patriot Act, here's your ****ing abuse of power," while he struggled with the officers. As the student was screaming, UCPD officers repeatedly told him to stand up and said "stop fighting us." The student did not stand up as the officers requested and they shot him with the Taser at least once more. "It was the most disgusting and vile act I had ever seen in my life," said David Remesnitsky, a 2006 UCLA alumnus who witnessed the incident. As the student and the officers were struggling, bystanders repeatedly asked the police officers to stop, and at one point officers told the gathered crowd to stand back and threatened to use a Taser on anyone who got too close. Laila Gordy, a fourth-year economics student who was present in the library during the incident, said police officers threatened to shoot her with a Taser when she asked an officer for his name and his badge number. Gordy was visibly upset by the incident and said other students were also disturbed. "It's a shock that something like this can happen at UCLA," she said. "It was unnecessary what they did." Immediately after the incident, several students began to contact local news outlets, informing them of the incident, and Remesnitsky wrote an e-mail to Interim Chancellor Norman Abrams. If the library is closed to non-students after 11pm, what the hell was this guy doing there? I don't know if the second quote I bolded is borne out by the video, but if true, it certainly doesn't help the case. Though I guess if you don't comply with not asking an officer's badge number, you really should be Tasered.
Just because you think that obeying the cops is dumb, doesn't mean they aren't going to tase you. Maybe one of these days people are going to learn to stop throwing rocks at soldiers.
Maybe it should be mentioned again that the guy was leaving when he got grabbed and tasered. If the reason they asked him to produce ID was to make sure no non-students were using the computers, then it seems like the problem was solved once he intended to leave the building - what was the point in tasering him then? Also, it should be noted that the guy actually was a student. Sure, if he didn't leave immediately, he was probably being an ******* (maybe he forgot his ID, had a paper due, etc.,), but seriously - tasering the guy repeatedly for it?
thanks for adding to the discussion by having inane points. just because you aren't obeying the cops by not standing up while being immobilized doesn't meanyou should be tased.
I don't think obeying the cops is dumb, I think cops making illegal requests is something that should be resisted. I also think there's probably a middle ground that would've verified this student's legal right to be in the library without Tasering him multiple times as he tried to comply with the officer's request to leave. And we have a report that at least one of these officers was willing to break the law during this incident (threatening a person who asks for a badge number is assault in the state of California). What's to say the entire incident wasn't a violation of the law? Plus, a lot of the witnesses say the student (who had every legal right to be in the library) was complying. He was on his way out of the library and was prevented from doing so by a police officer. That sounds to me like the police officer was causing an escalation in the situation, creating a situation in which the student could not comply and potentially committing battery against the student's person. Not to mention that none of the witnesses nor the video seems to confirm the police report, meaning the officer may have filed a false report, which I'm pretty sure is a crime. So, it sure looks like the real criminals here were the cops, not the kid who had every right to be in the library.
Insane, you know, with most cops, its a power trip thing. Its like someone mentioned, they say jump, they EXPECT you to say how high. I can understand if he had weapon on him or he was about to hurt or threaten himself or someone else. But come on, an ID. Way overboard.
I wonder how many other students there did not have ID? Why was he *so Special*? I bet the others where sh*tting bricks until they Realized Well . . chances of me getting carded are slim because I don't have THE NAMe or THE LOOK So . . .. If you went all out on this guy Did they start Randomly Checking IDs everywhere. . or was he singled out my question is WHY HIM? Why not several others in the Crowd? Why pick *this* guy out? Rocket River
