UCLA Student and Taser Incident

You’ve probably heard from tons of people about this incident by now. I was first notified of this unfortunate event by MsticAzn: Video Shows UCLA Police Using Stun Gun On Student At first, I felt sorry for the student, but after reading the entire article, I felt he somehow deserved it. I agree it might’ve been a bit too extreme, but the student was being extremely uncooperative given the fact it was the student’s fault to begin with.

I quote for the article:

“This is a longstanding library policy to ensure the safety of students during the late-night hours,” Greenstein said. “The CSO made an announcement that he would be checking for university identification. When a person, who was later identified as … Tabatabainejad, refused to provide any identification, the CSO told him that if he refused to do so, he would have to leave the library.

“Since, after repeated requests, he would neither leave nor show identification, the CSO notified UCPD officers, who responded and asked Tabatabainejad to leave the premises multiple times. He continued to refuse. As the officers attempted to escort him out, he went limp and continued to refuse to cooperate with officers or leave the building.

Honestly, that last paragraph needs to be completely bolded. Also, if you didn’t know CSO = community service officers Chief Security Officer.

So this is how the events rolled out in my head:

1. CSO announces that they’ll be checking IDs
2. CSO comes and requests to see Tabatabainejad’s ID
3. Tabatabainejad either forgot it or refuses to show his ID
4. CSO asks Tabatabainejad to leave (repeat several times)
5. Tabatabainejad continues to ignore CSO’s request, so CSO calls UCPD
6. UCPD also requests Tabatabainejad to leave (repeat several times)
7. Tabatabainejad continues to ignore
8. UCPD has no other option to escort him out
9. UCPD officers put their hands on Tabatabainejad and escorts him out
10. Tabatabainejad either shakes or throws their hands off and screams, “Don’t touch me!”
11. At this point, the officers user their taser on him (a weaker version which only stuns)
12. Tabatabainejad either falls to the floor or fakes it
13. Tabatabainejad begins to scream about justice and law and Patriot Act and tries to rally for supporters
14. Police officers ask him to stand up, but he doesn’t
15. They taser him again.
16. Tabatabainejad screams that he’ll leave, but makes no attempt to stand up or do so
17. (repeat the last 2 steps several times)

Do note, that the taser has 2 settings, and the one used was known as a drive stun, which is a much weaker version, and shouldn’t affect the student’s ability to move. Plus if he can be screaming that loud, I’d expect he wasn’t that stunned at all.

So I’ve been getting event invites from a Berkeley student I have no idea who he is, but somehow he was on my list of friends in FaceBook. Anyway, after I rejected my 1st invite, he re-invites me again saying I should at least watch the video. I really wanted to message him and tell him my opinion, but given he’s the leader of this rally he’s putting together in front of Sproul Hall, I don’t think anything I’d say would get through to him, so I reject him again. He goes on and sends a 3rd request at which point I reject him and remove him from my friend’s list.

Decathanerd sent me this video: Iranian-American Student Abused By UCLA UCPD With Tazer GUN, which is an unedited version of it. If this was the only video I saw, I’d feel sorry for the poor guy. But by only watching this video which started rolling when he started screaming, you miss the bigger story of how it got to this point.

A person at that incident has posted his comments on a thread: The UCLA beat-down: We have a witness and his feeling is just the same as mine, which somewhat confirms my instinct of what really happened:

Okay kids, I’m here!

Yes, I was indeed at Powell Library at approximately 11:30 on Tuesday night, and yes I did see the entire event as it went down.

Let me start off by saying that the guy DEFINITELY was asking to get his ass kicked. He was being extremely rude with the campus patrol guys (who are college students…this was before the real UCPD got called in). He was not complying with their requests to leave the premises, and he was definitely itching for a fight. I actually know the guy and a few of his friends, and I can tell you that he’s the kind of guy that loves to make trouble.

Just as a little backstory, one of the quotes the guy has on his facebook (which he now has taken down) was “I like to find the most difficult solutions to the simplest of problems”.

He definitely taunted the UCPD into behaving the way they did with him.

Edit: Many people have questioned the fact that the cops tazed him and asked him to get up, and tazed him again even though he shouldn’t have the capability to get up. This was not the case here to my knowledge, because the cops were using their “drive-stun” method which administers less of a jolt than normal. I believe this because anyone who can ramble on about this being the patriot act and yell at the top of his lungs should have the capability of getting up.