This is an excerpt taken from the daily bruin here:
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.
No university police officers were available to comment further about the incident as of 3 a.m. Wednesday, and no Community Service Officers who were on duty at the time could be reached.
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.
UCPD officers confirmed that the man involved in the incident was a student, but did not give a name or any additional information about his identity.
If this were in the newspaper, how many of you would simply think "how horrible" and then just go about your day? Unfortunately, we live incredibly insulated lives. My interpretations about tragic/horrible events have changed after watching a video of the event here. It is excruciating to watch even once to say the least; I cannot watch it again but I suggest that any passer by watch it at least once.
Despite all the Hollywood violence you've ever seen, all the killings, injuries, blood and gore, I hardly doubt that any of that will ever desensitize a person from the above video. I suggest that you all see this at least once, if you want to understand the real depth of an event like this, nothing like the watered down things you'd see on TV. I can hardly think that people watch the television show COPS for entertainment.
From the video, there were a respectable number of students in the building, most watching in silent protest. There were the handful that demanded that officers provide identification, but refused to do so. I find this incredibly hypocritical because these officers are the people that decided to taser a student for not producing identification while working at the computer lab.
I am sure that there are good cops out there, but this isn't a case about them, because it is the bad ones that need to kept in check. This is a much more serious problem than it seems.
I have followed up on comments written on forums about this and the troubling question that needs to be answered is this: What would you do if you saw a man on the floor being tazed multiple times screaming in pain? For the case of this video, the actions of the other students were exceptionally civil as many approached these officers demanding identification. No violence what-so-ever broke out and even one officer threatened one of the students that he would taser him if he didn't back off near the end of this video.
Trust in law enforcement has taken a significant hit. Should an event like this be repeated in a future point in time and I have no doubt it will likely result in violence. Working environments for officers have just gotten more dangerous as the likelihood being confronted by bystanders has significantly increased. If officers want to keep their working environment safe, they had better keep their bad officers in check, else others will end up doing that, whether they like it or not.
If law enforcement cannot be trusted then justice will be taken into many personal hands-- combat and "citizen's arrest" of officers becomes a very viable option. It is incredibly easy to see how an event like this will play out-- other officers will be called out to retrieve detained officers and things will likely get ugly from there on in.
I do not believe in centralized (video) surveillance and I think a case like this proves a point-- invest in a good camera phone.
4 comments:
Wow... and I almost went to UCLA for law school.
BTW, bystanders have no legal obligation to help (thank you torts class). Of course, there is a moral obligation. Glad to see at least some students step up.
Cute, Radrex :) Let's hope that cute and asian helps to keep you out of trouble :P
Yuti:
Out of curiosity, since you are studying the judiciary. What are one's rights when dealing with the judiciary/law enforcement? I presume that it is ill advised for authority to run around with out proper checks in place.
Why haven't there been student protests already? People should have been going door-to-door in the dorms, waking their friends, getting them out on the street.
Oooh, time to apply my knowledge.
Abuse of power by judiciary: the only recourse is... the judiciary. You can appeal a decision on the basis of abuse of discretion by the judge. The higher up you go on the court food chain, the more likely the judges will be competent and fair. Of course, sometimes even the Supreme Court messes things up (but at least it's not intentional). Problem is, it takes lots of money to appeal so it's harder for poor people to get the full measure of justice.
Abuse of power by law enforcement: there are a couple options. First, the judiciary. They are usually pretty unbiased in those cases. Second, appeal to administrative agency in charge of police oversight. However, in many cases, the agency that oversees cops are... cops. So bias may be a problem. Third, you can ask your congressional rep to adopt a statute to protect/enforce your rights. But, police are also constituents, so they probably have a larger voice. Fourth, a civil rights advocacy group. I think this option is the best overall.
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