<p>I am appalled–would this happen to a non-Middle Eastern student? Should it happen to any student? The young man was in no way being violent, by all reports.</p>
<p>Watch the video, though it’s painful to get through.</p>
<p>My last question–what would have happened if they had tasers during the lunch counter protests, or marches, or, as someone in the article asks, when Rosa Parks refused to stand?</p>
<p>Of course it would happen to a non-Middle Eastern student. In fact, it definitely has - not these exact circumstances, obviously, but other students who resist have gotten tased, I can almost guarantee you. People can’t honestly think that this is the first student to get tased.</p>
<p>Take a look at UCPD’s Taser use policy at their website: <a href=“http://www.ucpd.ucla.edu%5B/url%5D”>www.ucpd.ucla.edu</a></p>
<p>Of course other students have gotten tased for being stupid and resisting a police officer. And these are police officers, not “campus security” or “rentacops” as some people assume. These are state police officers who have authority anywhere in the state and who are trained just like any other police officer in the state of CA.</p>
<p>This kid refused to show his ID and was asked to leave many many times. He has plenty of time to leave before the police showed up and this video started. He only started to leave once uniformed police show up. People think they should have just let him leave, but that is ridiculous. Police are trained to at least stop and question anyone who does something suspicious like that (i.e. refusing to show ID and refusing to leave for a long time), and they have every right to grab his arm and stop him on his way out (whether he thinks they do or not - check the Penal Code).</p>
<p>Then the officers become faced with an increasingly hostile crowd and a subject who is limp and screaming obscenities. Since presence and verbal commands aren’t working, the next step in the use of force continuum is less-than-lethal pain compliance (i.e. a taser or OC spray). Tasers don’t leave any marks and do not cause any lasting damage, while OC spray effects last for a while and needs to be cleaned up. Taser is the obvious choice.</p>
<p>He was tasered at least 4 times. After the first time, he may not have been able to stand up.</p>
<p>And should we condone this infliction of possibly lethal force on non-violent citizens? (Yes, I read the policy–like I said, it would have applied to civil rights protesters in the 60s.)</p>
<p>I viewed the tape a 2nd time and after reading Savants explanation, it seems that police officers were justified. I personally would have been embarassed to allow myself to be subjected to that kind of humilation in public. He was screaming like a little girl even when he was not being tasered. At first i thouhgt this to be campus police, but these are actual officers who dont just roam the libary of UCLA looking to taser middle eastern students.</p>
<p>Again, this is a common misconception. He was tased by the “drive stun” method, which does not involve shooting the prongs. The prongs are removed and the taser is physically pressed into the body, where it causes disruptions only around the area where it is applied. Once the shock is over, there is no lasting effects or even pain. The student could easily have gotten up as soon as the tasing was over. There is no physical reason why he couldn’t. But instead, he continued to refuse to comply. The additional tasings were justified.</p>