University police officers used a Taser on a student repeatedly during an altercation at the UCLA library at 11:30pm November 15th. There was a video made by one of the students who captured only the end of the altercation with the student shouting profanities at the police and then screaming in pain when he was Tased.
What the video did not capture was that the student was asked to leave repeatedly and police had to be called in to ensure he left. When the police took him by the arm to escort him out, he began to physically struggle with officers and verbally berate them. In short, he picked a fight with police and found out the hard way why it is generally a bad idea to do so. Could police have tried to de-escalate the situation? Maybe.
Police stated that the student in question encouraged other students to join his one-man resistance, which likely led police to threaten the mob that surrounded the officers. The ACLU, of course, is calling the police’s actions an illegal assault and police brutality. Because the video on the web only shows the tail end of the confrontation, and then only mostly audio, many people have begun to jump to conclusions about the matter. One columnist for the Daily Bruin has cautioned against to rampant knee-jerk responses to the matter.
On a campus were arrests due to student disruption
seem regular it is little surprise that police take verbal abuse by students seriously. The response to the tasing largely smacks of anti-police sentiment.
The student was asked repeatedly to leave by library security and refused. This led to the police being called. When the police tried to ensure he left, he began to swear, threaten, and physically resist them. There are only a small number of ways to force an unruly individual to do what you want. You could physically strike them and encourage a hand-to-hand combat situation with a police office, which would likely threaten their own safety. You could beat the suspect with a baton causing no small amount of pain and physical harm. Or you could use a Taser, on the settting which they used, to encourage cooperation. In all but the cases of individuals high on drugs, Tasers do not cause fatalities. They choose the safest option for an uncooperative individual.
You reap what you sow. The idea, mostly coming from the left, that the police must treat citizens with the utmost level of respect while insisting that it’s perfectly acceptable to verbally defecate on police officers and physically resist legitimate orders is absurd. He picked a fight with police and he lost. It’s that simple.
John Bambenek is the Assistant Politics Editor for Blogcritics and is an academic professional for the University of Illinois. He is a freelance columnist who blogs at Part-Time Pundit and the executive director of The Tumaini Foundation which helps AIDS orphans in Tanzania with education.
He is the current owner of BlogSoldiers, a blog-only traffic exchange.
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5 users commented in " UCLA Student Picks a Fight with Police and Loses "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWhen watching the video it is clear the subject is subdued and they taser him over and over again.
The Subject was reportedly leaving the library when he was grabbed by either police or student police (not clear). There are very clear lines about assault especially when its not a sworn officer.
So, where did the need for 4+ large men to use high powered electrical shocks on one handcuffed man?
He did not get physical, that even the police are saying. He went limp. They could have carried him.
The crowed watching obviously thought it was too much, as per the crying and screaming and begging for police to stop.
I love the police, in general they are great. But in every group of every creed there are lines that people cross. This was one of them.
>The student was asked repeatedly to leave by library security and >refused
Where did you get this from? …Let me think…I remember ….Aha from The Police news release. How objective!
How about listening to the many eyewitness accounts: that he was on his way out of the library when the police kept heckling him and he asked them to let go (REPEATEDLY, by he way) and they didn’t. Instead they tasered him! And the idiots keep asking him to stand up after burning him with electricity!! And then keep tasering him for failing to stand up!
If you have decided to be an apologist for cop brutality, I advise you to pick a different case. You have picked a fight against
common sense, and you are going to lose!
What this post misses is the improper use of the Taser. I pointed out on my blog (with Taser International’s site as a source) that Tasers are meant to restrain suspects who pose an actual, immediate, physical threat to themselves or those around them. At first — in the parts of the incident not caught on camera — this might have been the case, but the video most definitely reveals some improper Tasering. The officer even says “stand up, or you’ll get Tased again,” using the Taser as a stick (as in “carrot and stick”), not a restraining device. That’s not what it’s for.
This is because there is inherent risk in Tasering. Some people have bad health effects later. In a violent situation, there is less risk in Tasering than in an all-out brawl, and sometimes a Tasering can keep police from having to shoot someone. But when someone’s on the ground and refusing to stand up, it’s a time for dragging or carrying, not shocking.
Bear in mind the kid was a jerk, and he got what he had coming in my opinion. But that doesn’t mean the cops behaved properly.
See my post here:
http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com/2006/11/college-student-gets-tasered_17.html
[…] In this situation, I believe that the police acted the best possible way to remove such an irrational person. Now, if he was tased, shaking uncontrollably with foam in his mouth, then I can say that he is being abused. However, he was conscious and coherent enough to continue his ramblings throughout the video. Furthermore, the options that the police had is limited and they used the most nonlethal way to remove the irrational man who refuses to comply no matter what. Consider this excerpt from University of Illinois professor John Bambernek in his post titled “UCLA Student Picks a Fight with Police and Looses“, […]
The video shows very little. Although it is out of the ordinary to Taser someone who is in cuffs, if the defendant is still fighting, the officers are legally permitted to use as much force as necessary to effect the arrest. That is the Law not opinion. Nothing says the Police are required to roll on the ground with the little miscreant. Also the Taser is at the same level as mace or a baton in the use of force continuum. The baton is less often used due to its perceived level of potential injury. The other tool at an officers disposal - fighting with a handcuffed violent subject, is Joint/Wrist locks, arm-bars etc, although less offensive visually, they can result in broken wrists, arms or dislocated joints. Imagine the suit on that one? The young man in the video will desperately try to show That excessive force was used, however those who follow case Law will tell you that absent an injury, as long as the underlying arrest was valid, he has nothing to support his case. Having felt the jolt of the Taser, I can attest to the fact that no one comes back for another round with the Police for another jolt. So in effect Johnny did get his mom and dads moneys worth for that semester at UCLA.
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