Wednesday, November 15, 2006

UCLA Student Taser'd For Not Showing ID in Library

fuck ucla cops fuclaUpdated below

He wouldn't show his ID, and he wouldn't leave on his own. So THEY SHOT HIM WITH A STUN GUN!

23-year-old Mostafa Tabatabainejad is my hero-of-the week. Check it:
"As the officers attempted to escort him out, he went limp and continued to refuse to cooperate with officers or leave the building," [UCLA Police Department Spokeswoman Nancy] Greenstein said.... Tabatabainejad encouraged others at the library to join his resistance. When a crowd began to gather they used the stun gun on him.

The arrest was recorded on another student's camera phone and showed Tabatabainejad screaming while on the floor of the computer lab. The video also showed the student shouting, "Here's your Patriot Act, here's your ... abuse of power..."
Here's the cell-phone vid of the incident posted to YouTube:

Click here for students' reaction in the Daily Bruin.

And more suspended-in-disbelief commentary from Martini Republic, LAObserved, and UCLA LJ forum

I've spent late nights at USC's Leavey Library, and at a certain point, a student worker comes by to ensure that all in the building after 10 pm or so, have a USC ID (the library is 24 hours). But NEVER a COP. And, only because of the PATRIOT act is it deemed necessary, for unexplained reasons, for one to have an actual ID on them -- when normally, in a case like Mostafa's, the fact that he was recognized as a student by peers surrounding him should have been enough.

Is it time to renew my GunControlNow site?

UPDATES:

From the L.A. Times 11/21: Terrence Duren, an 18-year veteran of the UCLA Police Department, tased Tabatabainejad five times. A 2001 UCLA officer of the year, Duren has been the subject of other use-of-force complaints and previously recommended for dismissal. In one previous incident, Duren shot and wounded a homeless man in a University building, a case that went to trial. Duren has stated all of the past allegations against him regarding police misconduct and use of excessive force were investigated by the UCPD and proven false.[8] Prior to joining the UCPD in the late 1980s, Duren was fired from the Long Beach Police Department.

FOUR NEW VIDEOS
The Daily News reports:
four new videos surfaced online Thursday, showing Los Angeles police clubbing two young people as they videotaped the arrest of a third during a [July 8 Minutemen rally] in Hollywood.


taser gun rally LAist UCLA
Henry posted photos at LAist from Friday's rally like this --->

80+ comments on this post at my blog, netZoo

1 comment:

Lewis H said...

It's amazing how everyone's so shocked - all these Facebookers are up in arms, http://usc.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2217613981

Like bad things really do happen....Sasha, a post-doc @ Annenberg Center, told me how another anti-brutality site first posted the video, which no one (including Gootube mentions). I emailed him to find out the name.