Student Shot with Taser
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
Personally, I found this incident profoundly shocking!
Just because you have the capability to be violent, and the power to decide when to use it, does not mean that you need to.
This student is a student. A kid, mouthy, teen, modern, kid. He resisted, so out comes the power. Power that is very cheap and very easy to use.
I hate cheap power. It is addictive and you always have the urge to use it. This is why I hate (real) guns. It requires no intelligence to use.
To my mind, these police are guilty of two main things,
- Firstly, they appear to have been riled to over-the-top-anger by the kid resisting.
- Secondly, one of them is fearful enough to threaten a bystander.
Abuse of power sneaks up on you. One minute you are dealing with the baddy, next moment you have crossed some vague line and have become the baddy.
The real trick is to use diplomacy. Diplomacy says, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” In this case there was (such as we see) absolutely no reason to grab the guy. Grabbing someone should only happen when you arrest them, not when you are escorting them out of the building.
This whole thing could have been handled with a realisation that the kid was angry and embarrassed about the cops being called. So, why not defuse the situation rather than inflame it? A quiet word. Something like, “Excuse me sir, but are you actually refusing to leave?” Followed perhaps with “I am sorry sir, but myself and Officer Brian here will have to walk with you to the exit to be sure.”
When watching the video I kept expecting the whole thing to pause and a man to walk in front of the camera suddenly, saying, “Now class, can anyone tell me what this officer has done wrong?”
He did everything wrong.
Mainly because he engaged taser before brain.
So what will happen? Will this be swept under the carpet?
Hundreds of UCLA students march down Westwood Blvd. towards the University of California Police Department to protest the excessive force used against UCLA student Mostafa Tabatabainejad.
And he is suing.
Of all the comments I have read on the topic, the best has been one short line from the Arnies forums, “Where in China did this happen?”
Enough said!
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From this (“Airsoft knife kills?, yes or no?”) discussion,
The word humiliate makes me wonder…
One the subject of humiliation, it is an unfortunate side effect of airsoft that someone is going to get hit and someone isn’t. There are two types of humiliation and two different reactions:
- Caught unawares. E.G. Shot in the back of the head, from a hiding place etc.
- Dominated. Domination in airsoft is when one team is so eating the smack down on another that the second team is unable to mount a defense anymore.
As a marshal I spend a large amount of my time keeping the game balanced to avoid people being humiliated by domination. Often by giving advice, making certain people swap sides, perhaps shooting a few people myself, or even calling a halt and resetting the floor/game.
It is the opposite of when as a player I try to “break” the opponents mentally all the time. I want them so afraid that they won’t come out of their respawn. I want them frozen in fear in their defensive positions. I want to flank them and crush them utterly. I want my lack of fear of the pain of being laced to be my advantage. I want to work harder than they and respawn quicker to flood a room with more men firing faster…
… etc. This is the Darkangel way and our “aggression” has won us many battles.
The problem is the reactions once the fight has gone to total domination,
- They get upset and humiliated. Take time out. Sit down, shake, cry, etc. They are in effect shell shocked. This is not good for them. Not good for the flow of the site or the game.
- They get angry. Start shouting that people aren’t playing fair. That they are not taking their hits. They start to cheat, often blatantly. Eventually these people leave the game in a huff. It is not fair that they have been humiliated, etc as they are special.
In situations where people are getting this “stressed” then rubber knives have no place and should be withdrawn for the night.
In games and on nights where the play is equal (ish) then rubber knives can be a safe fun addition to the mix.
It is for marshals to know how to make the game balanced enough for everyone to have a good time and not to go back to the safezone in tears.
Basho
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I will write more about my last few weeks (NINJA-FLU, House hunting in Sussex, etc) but for now here is the wonder that is the Lewes fireworks.
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