UCLA Student Repeatedly Tased By Campus Cops

I was on another forum reading a discussion about this. A couple of posters were actually there. One is a student worker at the library. It went something like this:

1) After 11 PM or whatever time, it's required that you show ID. The campus rent-a-cops go around asking random students to show student ID. This happens every night.

2) This guy has been acting weird, according to one of the forumers I mentioned. Like he's on something. He's being a bit loud for a good while beforehand.

3) Rent-a-cop sees this weirdo and asks for ID. He refuses. Rent-a-cop asks again. Weirdo refuses again. This goes on for like, 20 minutes. Real cops are called.

4) Weirdo finally decides to leave right as cops arrive. Or maybe he decides to leave only when he sees them arrive. This part wasn't clear.

5) As the guy is walking out, a cop grabs him by the arm. This may be unnecessary for getting him out, true enough. The cops probably should have walked out with him and then given him a good talking-to, if for no other reason than to do this outside the quiet library. Actually, they were within their rights to haul him off to jail for creating a disturbance or trespassing; but it would have been smarter to do it outside.

6) Guy resists. "Get your hands OFF ME"

7) Police use tazer, which is what you do when someone physically resists.

8) Guy goes down in pain, throwing a tantrum. Cops may or may not have cuffed him at this point, it's unclear. If they didn't they should have. So far, the police have only shown a little bad judgement in not doing this outside.

9) This is where the controversy really begins. Cops keep telling him to get up, and tazer him for not getting up. I've heard some people say that being tazered may or may not leave you stunned, depending on the intensity and duration, so maybe he couldn't. Either way, you'd think they could have just cuffed him and hauled his scrawny ass outside, there were at least two cops.
 
The problem people are missing here is why are tazers taught to be used in non life threatening situations? Why is it taught to taze some one who resists arrest? If the person is threatening a cop physically then by all means taze the guy. If they resist excessively (IE physically hurting a cop not just pushing and shoving) then taze the guy. Too often now cops use the tazer as the first line of defense when it should be the second to last resort. So it must be taught ot be their first line of defense. Why? What if they taze someone with a pacemaker? Were they non-lethally bringing him in when his heart stops due to unneccasary tazing?

The point is that when people are stopped and they feel they are innocent, they are offended at being stopped. So naturally some people are going to be mouthy. Every situation with a cop isnt going to have a nice polite "Yes sir, No sir" dialogue. Isnt it then in the best interest of us all for the cops to be trained to have patience and better judgement in these situations rather than going right to the tazer for every solution?

Its starting to look like Communist Russia here lately with these local cop stories. If you really think about it, right now a cop can pull you over for a traffic violation (speeding, red light, stop sign etc). He then asks you for your ID which you have the right to refuse to give them but in doing so it places you automatically under arrest if they choose too. He also could search your car under "suspicion" of whatever they feel like (weapon, drugs, etc). He then could pull you out of your car, taze you for being beligerant then arrest you for resisting arrest even if they found nothing in your car. Your then locked up indefinitely for a crime that never occurred. IS this America?
 
The problem people are missing here is why are tazers taught to be used in non life threatening situations? Why is it taught to taze some one who resists arrest? If the person is threatening a cop physically then by all means taze the guy. If they resist excessively (IE physically hurting a cop not just pushing and shoving) then taze the guy. Too often now cops use the tazer as the first line of defense when it should be the second to last resort. So it must be taught ot be their first line of defense. Why? What if they taze someone with a pacemaker? Were they non-lethally bringing him in when his heart stops due to unneccasary tazing?

The point is that when people are stopped and they feel they are innocent, they are offended at being stopped. So naturally some people are going to be mouthy. Every situation with a cop isnt going to have a nice polite "Yes sir, No sir" dialogue. Isnt it then in the best interest of us all for the cops to be trained to have patience and better judgement in these situations rather than going right to the tazer for every solution?

Its starting to look like Communist Russia here lately with these local cop stories. If you really think about it, right now a cop can pull you over for a traffic violation (speeding, red light, stop sign etc). He then asks you for your ID which you have the right to refuse to give them but in doing so it places you automatically under arrest if they choose too. He also could search your car under "suspicion" of whatever they feel like (weapon, drugs, etc). He then could pull you out of your car, taze you for being beligerant then arrest you for resisting arrest even if they found nothing in your car. Your then locked up indefinitely for a crime that never occurred. IS this America?

Absolutely agree. The cops are becoming too militarized, and the citizens are suffering for it. Then when the lawsuits come, the taxpayers lose.

We have a failed war on drugs, police forces running around with minimal training and oversight using SWAT tactics for damn near every situation they encounter and still have a justice system where a kid who smokes crack gets more jail time than a guy who rapes someone, or a person who murders someone.

WTF is wrong with this country's justice system?
 
The problem people are missing here is why are tazers taught to be used in non life threatening situations? Why is it taught to taze some one who resists arrest? If the person is threatening a cop physically then by all means taze the guy. If they resist excessively (IE physically hurting a cop not just pushing and shoving) then taze the guy. Too often now cops use the tazer as the first line of defense when it should be the second to last resort. So it must be taught ot be their first line of defense. Why? What if they taze someone with a pacemaker? Were they non-lethally bringing him in when his heart stops due to unneccasary tazing?


Well there is a thing called deadly force, and the steps at which you apply force to the amount of resistant received. Like a knife at a gun fight, he has a knife and he is across the room is he a treat to me? No but if he tried to cut me I'm gonna shoot him in the ass. This tazer deal is kind of funny because until you've been out on the streets and personally witness these wise asses you may think it was unnecessary. The use of deadly force should be done with the reasonable man concept; maybe this was the lucky guy who finally pushed officer numb nuts over the edge that night? You see at least this scumbag can still breathe because he could have gotten shot dead. Now which is worse?
 
Well there is a thing called deadly force, and the steps at which you apply force to the amount of resistant received. Like a knife at a gun fight, he has a knife and he is across the room is he a treat to me? No but if he tried to cut me I'm gonna shoot him in the ass. This tazer deal is kind of funny because until you've been out on the streets and personally witness these wise asses you may think it was unnecessary. The use of deadly force should be done with the reasonable man concept; maybe this was the lucky guy who finally pushed officer numb nuts over the edge that night? You see at least this scumbag can still breathe because he could have gotten shot dead. Now which is worse?

Yes but for "Mouthing off"? The guy was unarmed and didnt pose a threat to the officers. Your telling me that the 4 officers there couldnt have restrained him with shooting 5000 volts of electricity into his ass? Now if the guy has a knife and he's across the room, then he is a threat. Thats when a tazer would apply over deadly force from a gun. The gun is the last resort. The tazer should be second to last. Ive seen many videos of people getting tazed for not handing over their ID's to officers on a routine traffic stop. Sure the person is dumb for not coopertating but then you take them in. You don't shoot them up with electricity. If your talking about non lethal restraint then use mace or pepper spray. At least then your not shooting electricity into another human being.

I can't say ive ever been tazed but i have been shocked electrical equipment before and its not fun. It hurts like hell. For those brief seconds of pain you wish you were dead. So repeatedly tazing a person for "mouthing off" to me is beyond ridiculous.
 
Alright but look at the Rodney King deal. Take away color and the police attitudes. Just keep the focus on the situation as the media played it out for us. He was hoped up on drugs and was mouthy and resisting arrest. Points are he was out of hand. What those cops did wasn't right, but when being a public servant it takes one too many to just freak out. About the cops being para-military what do you expect when the criminals have better equipment and have better skills attacking the cops. And attitudes across the board need to be in check authority is just that, but when cops hide behind the badge they are punks.
I again stand behind force with force that is what I did when I was a MP for a few years and it worked and I never had any issues because you always had somebody who would push buttons on the authority panel. If I reacted then they won, but if I warned them and they refused the were going in and I wasted as much time as I could while they were in custody because I ain't gotta put up with disrespect because I'm doing a job and they have an authority complex.
And yes I agree with the fact 4 cops to one idiot isn't a fare match, but add some high end drugs and you have a serious match.
 
Its disgusting too that the education of students will suffer because the universisty will have to pay out 10-30 million dollars for this stupidity.

How many scholarships is that? Research grants? Lab costs?

Which is exactly why such lawsuits should have limits to the amount of money that can be won. I mean who ends up paying for it? In this case the students. How is that fair? How are they liable for anything they did? Even if the lawsuit goes against the local government (of the real police called in) how can we justify taxing citizens to pay for one employee's mistake?
 
Alright but look at the Rodney King deal. Take away color and the police attitudes. Just keep the focus on the situation as the media played it out for us. He was hoped up on drugs and was mouthy and resisting arrest. Points are he was out of hand. What those cops did wasn't right, but when being a public servant it takes one too many to just freak out. About the cops being para-military what do you expect when the criminals have better equipment and have better skills attacking the cops. And attitudes across the board need to be in check authority is just that, but when cops hide behind the badge they are punks.
I again stand behind force with force that is what I did when I was a MP for a few years and it worked and I never had any issues because you always had somebody who would push buttons on the authority panel. If I reacted then they won, but if I warned them and they refused the were going in and I wasted as much time as I could while they were in custody because I ain't gotta put up with disrespect because I'm doing a job and they have an authority complex.
And yes I agree with the fact 4 cops to one idiot isn't a fare match, but add some high end drugs and you have a serious match.


Thats a case where the cops would be able to determine that the person isnt in their right mind and could pose a threat to themselves or others. That is a situation where i can see using the tazer to bring the suspect down. But when its routine traffic stops or not showing your "papers", then your going into a Gestapo area and that scares me.
 
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Thats a case where the cops would be able to determine that the person isnt in their right mind and could pose a threat to themselves or others. That is a situation where i can see using the tazer to bring the suspect down. But when its routine traffic stops or not showing your "papers", then your going into a Gestapo area and that scares me.

I believe this could have easily not happened, I worked the job for several years and it was a daily battle of someone being a wiseass. A guy I ran with sometimes would taunt people so he could violate them physically. I wasn't like that but I did crack this guy over the head one night after a bar fight got ugly. It was kind of racially motivated and I had enough and put this big dude down, I thought I killed him and for a few weeks I was miserable but also mad at these people that is one of the reason I left because I could see I could cross the line. Those are truths here from me but it was years ago and well I've moved on in life.
 
I believe this could have easily not happened, I worked the job for several years and it was a daily battle of someone being a wiseass. A guy I ran with sometimes would taunt people so he could violate them physically. I wasn't like that but I did crack this guy over the head one night after a bar fight got ugly. It was kind of racially motivated and I had enough and put this big dude down, I thought I killed him and for a few weeks I was miserable but also mad at these people that is one of the reason I left because I could see I could cross the line. Those are truths here from me but it was years ago and well I've moved on in life.

My heart goes out to you guys who have to deal with these a-holes on a daily basis. I know human nature gets involved but its important that a cop is above that kind of behaviour for all our sakes. They possess so much power over us individually that its scary. I think its important that training includes the understanding that tazers as well as weapons should be used as a last resort when they or others are physically threatened and not merely to subdue a mouthy asshole.
 
My heart goes out to you guys who have to deal with these a-holes on a daily basis. I know human nature gets involved but its important that a cop is above that kind of behaviour for all our sakes. They possess so much power over us individually that its scary. I think its important that training includes the understanding that tazers as well as weapons should be used as a last resort when they or others are physically threatened and not merely to subdue a mouthy asshole.

I know that all cops are not compassionate, kind, and service minded, but most are. Really, I do believe that. I called my brother a couple days ago, after parent conferences. One parent, was truly abusive, verbally to one of my students. Problem was, the parent scared me.

My brother is not in the town my school is. So he gave me the name of a detective that was. I called that detective, he said I was right to be concerned for both my student and myself. He would take care of the reporting, the police had a long file of complaints, including reporting to DCFS. Now they could add the school-an important addition. He thanked me, while I should have been brave enough to have reported on my own.
 
I know that all cops are not compassionate, kind, and service minded, but most are. Really, I do believe that. I called my brother a couple days ago, after parent conferences. One parent, was truly abusive, verbally to one of my students. Problem was, the parent scared me.

My brother is not in the town my school is. So he gave me the name of a detective that was. I called that detective, he said I was right to be concerned for both my student and myself. He would take care of the reporting, the police had a long file of complaints, including reporting to DCFS. Now they could add the school-an important addition. He thanked me, while I should have been brave enough to have reported on my own.

There are people that are just nuts. You can sense it in them. Those are the people in those situations that tazers were invented for. Was the abusive parent a male? I don't think a female teacher would be able to restrain an enraged father. Thats where you would be physically threatened.

I dont think this was one of those situations though. The man could have easily been subdued by the 2, bigger officers.
 
Absolutely agree. The cops are becoming too militarized, and the citizens are suffering for it. Then when the lawsuits come, the taxpayers lose.

We have a failed war on drugs, police forces running around with minimal training and oversight using SWAT tactics for damn near every situation they encounter and still have a justice system where a kid who smokes crack gets more jail time than a guy who rapes someone, or a person who murders someone.

WTF is wrong with this country's justice system?

I'm wondering what is wrong with people in this country who IMMEDIATELY blame the cop. Baronvonbigmeat just gave a second-hand, eyewitness accounting of what happened. So it really just depends on who tells the story.

We can take this all the way back to Kent State. If you're so stupid as to throw rocks at soldiers armed with rifles, don't act all surprised when you get shot.

I can't stand over-the-top, arrogant cops. But they DO have a job to do. Last time I got hit by cops I was a long-haired, rebellious teenager all full of myself. Dumb move. I have never had a problem with cops as long as I dealt with them for who and what they are, and didn't act like them asking me my name was some invasion of my privacy.

If the cops went to far, and a jury decides that, Mom and Pop are going to collect some payola. But if this moron teenager isn't charged for disurbing the peace, trespassing and resisting arrest as well, then I have to ask you what is wrong with our justice system.
 

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