Wow,
When is it ever appropriate to taser people?

Had he pulled a gun?
Was he brandishing a knife?

Heck, how many times did I forget my school ID at NYU and complain and moan to the librabrian to let me in anyways.

Who cares if it was racial profiling, the Patriot Act, or simply a bad attitude of everyone's part.

WHEN IS TASERING APPROPRIATE?

Was he threatening to take hostages or blow up the school??

What the heck is UCLA doing allowing student to get into the library without an ID in the first place?

I'm sorry but it's become all too commonplace for the police to use excessive force.
Are they saying there was NO other way to get the plaintiff to leave outside of a sending 90,000 volts thru him?

Don't buy it for one second.

The law and authority is supposed to be held to a HIGHER STANDARD when it comes to use of force.
After all they are the ones with batons, and tasers, and MORE THAN 1 PERSON as backup.

This is why we should concentrate on the abuse of utilising the taser against the student, not on racial profiling or discrimination.

I do not want to see this become a race issue, when it is not.

When is it ever appropriate to taser people?

When they do not obey specific police orders and taking other actions could put officers or other spectators at harm.

Had he pulled a gun? Was he brandishing a knife?

If it got to this point, he would have been looking downt he barrel of a gun and not a taser.

What the heck is UCLA doing allowing student to get into the library without an ID in the first place?

Many libraries are open to the public until evening or night hours.

I guess that's the crux of the matter then.

WHY did they feel the need to use excessive force on HIM?

It's seems minorities get tasered at a higher percentage than whites.

I know in both Cincinnati and Denver, two defenseless people were tasered and died without justifiable causes and their families sued successfully. And they both happened to be minorities.

And I think it's naive, silly, or just outright lying to say that a person of Middle-Eastern descent or even appearance isn't looked at differently in today's current political climate.

It's simply a fact. Doesn't make it right. But it happens.
Pushing it under the rug doesn't make it go away.

As Public Enemy used to say "i got a right to be hostile, my people been persecuted"

Why do I get the feeling that's how this gentleman felt BEFORE the tasering happened?
I'm sure he was beligerent, and even hostile as he felt he WAS being profiled.

(look to the hundreds of INNOCENT Islamic-practicing CITIZENS detained without proper rights for proof for a couple years)

So what do the police do?

Reinforce the issue by using excessive force?

The articles say he engaged in common peaceful protesting tactics.
Refusal, and then going "limp" when physically escorted.

Again, LAPD and Orange County PD have A LONG history of excessive force and racial profiling.

Why do we never see videos of the LA police using excessive force on white people?

Bleh, psychology has proven that most cops have the EXACT same mental "profile" as criminals.
I'm not sure why i'm surprised by all this.

WHY did they feel the need to use excessive force on HIM?

This has yet to be determined, and most only have their opinions which are not based in full information yet.

We do not know if he had a history with the police. We do not know what the history of crime in this library was. We do not know what happened before the video. We do not know what the libraries policies are. We do not know what the local laws or police policies are.

I think the police made the mistake when they touched him in the first place, when people reported he was starting to leave. I do not think they were mistaken in using the taser once he refused to cooperate. The law enforcement should not have to risk their own health when taking care of a situation.

I do think minorities are placed in these situation for many reasons. First, minorities have a history of abuses. If someone allows this to cloud the situation when approached by authorities, it increases the chances they will reluctantly obey or not follow instructions at all.

For some reason people feel that if they bait authorities into getting physical it makes them look like the good guy. It is a poor way to present your view and usually only results in injury. There are much better ways to promote change than putting yourself in a situation to become a public target.

This is why I am wondering how long we will use our "minority" status to get preferred treatment. It was a routine check, and the student felt he was discriminated. So is it ok for campus police to only check white people for id's and not minorities. Tell me how many ethnic people were in the lab. There were certainly black, indian, hispanic, asian, and white students there.

Does the lab have a security camera? I want to see the evidence that proves he was being targeted.

Ok, just saw the full video.

- Police asked to see his ID before asking anyone else

- Student said, "I'll show you my ID as soon as you ask those white students over there for their ID"

- Police get "power trippy" and pull the "authority" crap they are so well-known for (lol..my interpretation)

- ALL of the students there were yelling at the police saying "what the heck are you doing?!" "Stop!", etc.

- As the students get more and more upset, one "white" student in particular gets in a policeman's face.
Police threatens to tase him as well but does not.

You'll have to make your own decisions about what was going on here.

But again, IN NO WAY was this student a threat or even threatening the police.

He felt singled out and from the video it looks like he WAS singled out.

I can tell you whether it was racially motivated or not, the PD and/or University is going to lose this lawsuit.

As far as using one's "minority to get preferred status"

Who cares?!

The problem isn't white, black, red, yellow, green getting "preferred status".

The issue people need to worry about is
Whether AUTHORITY abuses it's power.

Authority comes in every color, sex, and creed.

Here in the States, it's usually white, male, protestant. But it doesn't make a difference.

In China, it's Chinese, male, communist.
And the "white" chinese (from Kazakh and Mongolia) and "tibetan" chinese and "christian" chinese are the persecuted.

Because the history of the world shows that YOU and ME will probably never be in the "inner circle" that makes the rules.

And when crap hits the fan, they'll be "singling you out" because you're Asian, Black, female, not rich enough, not Christian enough, not Islamic enough, whatever.

Again, innocent Islamic US CITIZENS were in "camps" not just a few months ago.
Was that "racism"?

Blacks couldn't vote up til 40 years ago...

Japanese people were in "camps" only 60 years ago...

James, are you Korean?
ever get mistaken for Japanese?
Chinese?

Think if N. Korea decides to get stupid and launch a nuclear weapon (god forbid),
People will be looking at you funny and wondering
"where your loyalties lie?"

Cause we all know, that Asians will ALL be lumped together...whether they are chinese, japanese, korean, etc if such a thing were to happen...

Ok, just saw the full video.

- Police asked to see his ID before asking anyone else

- Student said, "I'll show you my ID as soon as you ask those white students over there for their ID"

Too bad the video does not show the security person questioning him. Too bad the video does not start until he already refused to cooperate with the police.

What a joke, "Anonymous poster."(except it's not funny in the least)

Go read/listen to the eyewitness reports of what really happened. (and watch the FULL VIDEO which about 30 minutes long)

It's unreal you defend this kind of crap.

I know I know. If the US and China go at it each other, all the Asians in America are in trouble regardless of rights or laws that should protect them.

I think tasering was too much abuse, but not all fault should lie with the campus police. The facts showed that an unarmed, student volunteer affiliated with the campus police dept did a routine check of ID's in the computer lab, and Tabatabainejad refused to show his. Plus he took his time in leaving the lab despite several attempts to ask him to leave in a timely manner.

There are so many if's to play out. Was it a blatant form of targetting a minority student or just a police officer acting so power-hungry?

I saw the videos (the longer ones). the UCPD police officers administering the taser should be punished.

I'm still on the fence on the civil rights lawsuit. why can't we just get along???

The problem might be the UCLA police policies. According to one of the west coast newspapers, the UCLA policy allows the use of a taser on passive resistance. In other words, if I drag my feet or sit down instead of obeying the officers, I can be tasered. The local city police in that area forbid taser to stop passive resistance.

Instead of the students being upset with the police or forgiving a student that refused to obey the rules, they should putting their efforts into changing the policies and/or laws of those protecting them.

When you get pulled by a cop driving, you know what to do. You should put your both hands on the wheel, otherwise you are in trouble. It is the same thing. You gotta obey and cooperate with the police.

Unfortunately, the video does not include the part before they started using the taser guns. If he really asked the cop to ID the white students, then he was already resisting.

The video reminded me of 5 year old kid fighting, screaming, yelling at the parents. I know it is shocking and painful to get tasered, but more he does, more violence the cops have to use.

Nice discovery Brain.

I naturally assumed ALL precincts used tasers only in extreme cases, not for everyday passive resistance.

That's something that definitely needs to be addressed as well.

I do think some changes may occur after this situation. I am thinking that little will happen to these officers, as it appears the policies allowed this action to occur.

I also read ironically that several of UCLA's officers just received awards from Taser for saving lives by using the Taser products over other lethal means.

I saw the video and was really disturbed by it. There was no need to use the taser. The cops needed to calm down. The student was defenseless. Geez!