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Fledgling Orgiophant
parazel
18 November 2006 @ 11:38 am
Brutality  
Watch This, and Turn Up the Volume:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3CdNgoC0cE

An article on the incident:
http://dailybruin.com/news/articles.asp?id=38958



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 fucking 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. (emphasis mine)

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.


...And two more:
http://dailybruin.com/news/articles.asp?id=38960
http://cbs2.com/local/local_story_319101652.html

The former is from the same source, but the article is more in depth. It says that the student was shot at least four times with the Taser, even when he was already handcuffed. A study published in the Lancet Medical Journal in 2001 showed that a Taser shot lasting three to five seconds can result in immobilization for five to fifteen minutes. What does this mean? The student may not have been physically able to get up, even though the officers were demanding that he do so.

But just listen to the video. Words can't describe the feeling I got as I listened to those screams...
I was so furious that my eyes filled up with tears. I thought I was actually going to cry. How could someone do this? Why didn't anyone stop them?! Why did they just form a circle around the scene?
 
20 comments | Leave a comment
 
( 20 comments — Post a new comment )
[info]gale_wind on November 18th, 2006 05:47 pm (UTC)
I'm going to be hard on the kid on purpose here.
Really.

For once I'm siding with the cops, however what they did was still wrong, just not as wrong of how people are making it to be.

For him and the students, way to go being a stereotypical whiny rich emos by blaming the Patriot Act for abuse of tasers which has probably been around much longer than it.

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.

Yes, that usually happens when people are trying to create a riot. It happened at my school when people crowed around casuing calamity and then a teacher's head was bashed in.

Try reading the Latimes Article.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cellcamera16nov16,0,4794591.story?coll=la-home-headlines
[info]gale_wind on November 18th, 2006 05:56 pm (UTC)
Re: I'm going to be hard on the kid on purpose here.
crowded.

This all could have been avoided if he would have simply:

1. Showed them his ID like he's suppose to.

2. Not yell/scream and shout at the police when he was obviously in the wrong for not identifying himself.

What people should have been focusing on was the end part of this, what I mean those extra un-needed taserings. I believe they should be held accountable and punished for that.
Fledgling Orgiophant[info]parazel on November 18th, 2006 11:58 pm (UTC)
Re: I'm going to be hard on the kid on purpose here.
He didn't have his ID... and he was already leaving the building when they started Tasering him. He did, apparently, delay for a few minutes, though.

The whole "Patriot Act" thing was probably anger and fear coming out. I'd probably scream something dramatic, too, if someone Tasered me while I was trying to obey them...

Yes, that usually happens when people are trying to create a riot.

Except that there's no evidence that a riot was forming? Only people yelling at the cops to stop... as far as I know, nobody used physical force, except for the cops themselves.
Fledgling Orgiophant[info]parazel on November 19th, 2006 12:14 am (UTC)
Re: I'm going to be hard on the kid on purpose here.
actually, another source says he waited for 20 minutes before leaving. o.o I don't know... reports are conflicting. I still think that using a Taser was unnecessary, especially after he was already handcuffed... and after he "wouldn't get up" (perhaps he couldn't get up).
Fledgling Orgiophant[info]parazel on November 19th, 2006 12:16 am (UTC)
Re: I'm going to be hard on the kid on purpose here.
i'm not trying to say that he shouldn't have been taken out of the library, by the way, but that using a Taser was unnecessary.
A[info]descartes_rock on November 19th, 2006 12:22 am (UTC)
I have met some good cops in my time. Some of them are really decent and compassionate people doing a really difficult job, so I apologize to any who might happen to stumble across this comment.

However, the unfortunate truth is that there is a segment among the cop population who are goons and sadists, and in particular, they are goons when it comes to young people. If you are a teenager, NEVER give a cop any excuse to use force. If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you may find yourself being bated by a cop. This is an extremely dangerous situation. Don't UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES let them incite you to do something stupid.

When I was a teenager I had plenty of contact with the police and I can't remember a single time when it was positive experience. I was pretty reckless about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I had a pretty good idea of what they were capable of. The fatal mistake is to underestimate how far they will go. In those days, we didn't have camera phones, and Youtube was a gazillion years away. It was just you, your friends, the cops, and (usually) a quiet spot at night where anything could happen. Botom line, when a cop shines his flashlight in your face and says, somthing like, "What are you selling tonight faggot?". The right answer is, "Nothing, sir".

The guy in the Youtube video learned that lesson the hard way. Don't ever mess around with cops, especially if you're young.

Now, having said this, I think it is appalling that cops feel they can treat kids like this. I'm now a grown kid and I certainly haven't forgotten the treatment I got in those years. It still colours my attitude towards them. I think someone really needs to take on this issue (i.e. cops and their behaviour towards young people).

Now, I just can't resist one funny little story. One time my two friends (J&S) and I were out for a walk through a forest around midnight. We were thirsty, so we filled an empty pop bottle with water and drank it as we walked. J & I finished the water and decided to play a trick on S by filling it with with some swamp water. Just as we were about to hand the bottle to S to drink, a police spotlight stopped us in our tracks. Along came a cruiser crunching along into the forest. "Okay there son, stop right there". We stopped. This was followed by a long interrogation about what we were doing out in the forest at night. Then of course, there was the bottle. The cop took it from me and opened it up and sniffed it. I thought for sure he was going to take a sip. But then I saw his nose curl when he got a whiff of it. "It's just water, officer," says S, not realizing just what kind of water was in there. "What on Earth are you guys doing wandering around out here with water (disgusted tone)." "We were thirsty," says S. Cops eyebrows go up. "Jesus crap, you must be really thirsty," says cop, handing the bottle to S. S goes on for about a minute underscoring how it is nothing but water, just pure water, etc. etc. Cop looks at him like he is crazy, carefully backs his cruiser out of the forest and, likely, heads to the nearest donut shop.
Master of Glass Doors: Cheza - Spinning[info]coeur_de_rien on November 19th, 2006 12:25 am (UTC)
The guy in the Youtube video learned that lesson the hard way. Don't ever mess around with cops, especially if you're young.

Even if you aren't young. This 40-or-so year old got beaten to death around here recently. O.o
A[info]descartes_rock on November 19th, 2006 12:36 am (UTC)
Yeah, it's true. But I still feel a lot safer around cops now then I used to. It's funny, when you are little, they are your best friends. At some point, around age 12, they get abusive. Then their attitude changes again in your mid 20s.

Sadly, as an adult, you tend to be okay if you are caucasian and middle-class. But even then, you have to be careful.

Beaten to death, huh? Very scary. I bet he was black or poor or both.
Master of Glass Doors: Cheza - Spinning[info]coeur_de_rien on November 19th, 2006 02:21 am (UTC)
Actually, he was white, probably poor, but schizophrenic. He was also already on the ground, and handcuffed, as I remember, but they said he was "resisting arrest." :/ It was suspicious, but meh... the cops got cleared of all charges.
Master of Glass Doors: Squeaky of Doom.[info]coeur_de_rien on November 19th, 2006 12:22 am (UTC)
Now, I wouldn't have thought much of this, were it just this one incident. But there's been so much of this sort of thing happening recently that it's all making me sick, personally.

I think it was last month where officers used deadly force like... five times. =/ One was where this schizoid guy was beat to death after he was already on the ground, and I think handcuffed.

It's all such BS. -.-
A[info]descartes_rock on November 19th, 2006 03:25 am (UTC)
White and schizophrenic still puts him on the margins of society, and the police are always hard on marginal people.

That said, I hate to stereotype people. Some police are also incredibly helpful to marginal people. I really have known some terrific police officers. It's just as a group, they tend to be not very good with those types of people.
Master of Glass Doors: Sanctuary ~ default[info]coeur_de_rien on November 19th, 2006 07:52 am (UTC)
Indeed. I know a few police officers, as my mother worked with them for a while, and some are very nice. But... certain places seem to have a lot of problems, and it's just one of those jobs where people with slightly sadistic tendencies seem to lean. O.o; Such is my experience.

On whole, it's just like any other job, much like the military and government. There's good ones and bad ones.
[info]gale_wind on November 19th, 2006 01:04 pm (UTC)
Exactly, how were they suppose to know he was schizophrenic?
Master of Glass Doors: Cheza - Spinning[info]coeur_de_rien on November 19th, 2006 03:38 pm (UTC)
Well, the point is they still beat him to beat, when he was already on the ground and ...from what I could see... handcuffed. :/

One's mental health shouldn't really matter, the fact of the matter is still that the officers went way past what was needed in order to subdue him.
[info]gale_wind on November 19th, 2006 04:04 pm (UTC)
This is a different incident?

I thought he was just tasered not beaten.

Either way, I agree. The first one I could see, but not the others.

A[info]descartes_rock on November 19th, 2006 04:01 pm (UTC)
I don't suppose it really matters unless his schizophrenia had some sort of impact on his behaviour during the incident.

It's just that schizophrenic people are at risk of drifting to the margins of society because some of them have trouble living a normal life. Many deal valiantly with the disease, but some unfortunately end up on the streets or living in abject poverty.

These people tend to be seen by the police as a public nuissance. They are more likely to get the crap beaten out of them than your average person in a Toyota with a car seat in the back and a brief case in hand. There are three key reasons for this: first, the police see them as undesirables; second, they are likely to behave in ways that provoke the police; and third, there are likely to be fewer repurcussions to mistreating them. This is a bad combination.

I just want to reiterate that there are police officers who go out of their way to help these people. And then there are others.
[info]gale_wind on November 19th, 2006 04:10 pm (UTC)
I think you're talking about something different.

If not...

What does this have to do with the taser incident?
[info]gale_wind on November 19th, 2006 04:11 pm (UTC)
Oh wait I see. I didn't read that thing above.
[info]lordimperator on November 20th, 2006 04:06 am (UTC)
A Black Comedy of Errors
Error #1:
The male student did not leave the library immediately, or very soon after being asked to leave.

Error #2:
A policeman used unnecessary force to escort the student outside (grabbing the students arm as if he needed help leaving or was thinking of somehow resisting).

Error #3:
The male student began yelling at the police instead of requesting them to release him in a civil manner.

Error #4:
The policemen, after tasering the student, which would have immobilized him as stated in the post, did not remove him bodily from the scene, contenting themselves with simply asking him to get up and not resist (this tactic is known as martyring, or at least it should be, and it is never a good idea to do such a thing when one is an enforcer of the law).

Error #5:
The policemen began threatening the crowd around them with the tasers.

All in all, not a very pleasant affair, caused both by the student's bull-headedness and by the policemen's trigger happy behavior.
[info]lordimperator on November 20th, 2006 04:08 am (UTC)
Re: A Black Comedy of Errors
Oh, I almost forgot the point.

The point is that the student deserved what he got, as anyone who cannot remain calm in a situation in which his health is in another's hands, but that the policemen also deserve to get some of their own, as is the case when someone decides to become a sadistic bastard in a room full of morally self-righteous people.