We’ve covered Mostafa Tabatabainejad’s tasering here.
Associated Press – August 3, 2007:
A UCLA police officer’s decision to repeatedly shock a student with a Taser during a confrontation in the school library was “unnecessary, avoidable and excessive,” an independent investigation concluded.
The officer violated school use-of-force policies, but those policies are also “unduly permissive” and out of step with policies at other universities, the report said, police accountability expert Merrick Bobb said in a report released Wednesday
However, Bobb also said the student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, may have invited the confrontation.
Bobb’s findings on the use of force contradicted the results of a separate review prepared by an independent investigator retained by the police department at the University of California, Los Angeles. That review, which by law will be kept confidential, concluded the officers did not violate campus policies, according to then-acting UCLA chancellor Norman Abrams.
When did the overseers of any campus rent-a-cops ever admit to being incompetent, hamhanded morons? Anyway?
“Bobb’s findings on the use of force contradicted the results of a separate review prepared by an independent investigator retained by the police…”
Are these the same two Bobb’s that were in office space?
Punk had it coming.
Well, he certainly had it coming – Just look at this name: Mostafa Tabatabainejad… that sounds like a terrorist’s name to me.
Good Work for Bad Cops
WTF? This should be titled “Wannabes Abuse Of Power”. Have you ever seen the rent-a-cops at the mall, walking around with their arms at their sides like they’re ready to draw? And what the hell are these guys doing with a weapon that has been proven to kill (low statistics, but it has happened)? It makes me sick that this happened. It’s the people that crave authority that abuse it. The people that don’t ask for it are the genuine deal.
“DON’T TOUCH ME!!” …. ass. He’s being a whiney douche and could have handled the situation alot differently and not encouraged things to spiral to the point shown in this video. If the police tell you to stop doing something and offer to taze your ass, you should take the hint and stop. However, these weren’t police. They were campus rent-a-tards. IMO, campus ‘cops’ have/will always been/be lazy-hung-like-hampsters-mutant-nazis who get aroused by abusing their false sense of control and power.
This was an unfortunate case of too many morons in the same room. At least they didn’t open fire.
The student refused to comply with legal police officer requests. (Campus police are police in the same respect that airport police are police.) The Library had a policy requiring only students with IDs during certain hours, and he refused to produce an ID, and he refused to leave. Then he verbally abused the officers, began to shout.
He should have been arrested, and detained. the problem is that once someone starts to resist arrest, everyone screams police brutality. He should have been tazed ONCE. then cuffed, and carried outside.
#5, The taser has not ever *proven* to kill anyone. It has been blamed, but never held up as the weapon scientifically.
Just do what the cops say, and sue later.
Why is that so hard to understand?
All you radical 60s people who say “fight the man” are getting people Tasered. Why should cops put up with screaming and threats when they’re just trying to do their jobs?
> Yagman said his client declined to show his school ID because he thought he was being targeted for his appearance. His family is of Iranian descent.
Just show you fucking ID! If they are racially profiling you, then perhaps being a student will mitigate the situation. If they think you are a dirty Arab, AND you are not a student, you are fucked. How does not showing your ID help the situation?
Just do what the cops say. ALWAYS.
They didn’t need to use the Taser. He was no threat. All they needed to do was handcuff him and drag his ass to jail for not showing an ID and failing to leave the building.
Simply solution to this problem. Make the Cop pay for his Tazer and its replacement charges. Then they won’t be so quick to unload them onto every malcontend they come across. The idea reminds me of that black standup comedian suggestion about making bullets cost $5,000 (each). So it would greatly slow down everyone’s tendancy to let them fly.
What the heck, the cop was just doing his job.
In the 60’s, and 70’s, by the way, most of the cops and many, many citizens hated protesters. The cops would routinely beat students into a bloody pulp in plain public view. I watched it happen many times.
i only wish i was there to give him a couple zaps… i keed
Powell Library Investigation Report
Investigator: Tell us what happen Officer 1.
Officer 1: We were called to the library about a student who wouldn’t produce his ID after 11pm and refused to leave. Upon arriving at the library we found the student apparently trying to leave without showing ID. 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. The student began to yell ‘get off me’, repeating himself several times. It was at this point we handcuffed him for non compliance of the ID Rule.
Investigator: What happen after that?
Officer 1: We commanded the student to stand up and he refused mumbling something about a medical condition. So we tased him for non compliance of the Stand Up Rule.
Investigator: Did the student stand up after this?
Officer 1: No he refused to stand up after being tased. After ordering him to stand again he refused my direct order so I tased him again for non compliance with the Direct Order Rule.
Officer 2: At this point several other students asked for my ID. I threatened them with my taser because I felt in fear for my authority.
Investigator: What happen next?
Officer 1: I commanded the student to stand again. Again he refused so I tased him again for non compliance of the Stand Up Rule. This continued 6 or 7 more times until myself and officer 2 decide to just carry the student out of the library.
Investigator: Did it ever occur to either one of you that a student who has been tased perhaps can not stand immediately after such an event?
Officer 1: No, thats not how it happened, we tased him then demanded he stand up. He violated the ID Rule, the Stand Up Rule and the Direct Order Rule.
Officer 2: What he said.
Investigator: Do you two idiots realize you have opened the University up for a major lawsuit?
Officer 1: Doh!
Officer 2: What he said.
Chancellor Norman Abrams: Compliance is critical for the safety and well-being of everyone. Whats the problem here?
Where’s a picture of Cartman on his police big-wheel saying, “RESPECT MY AUTHOR-A-TAY!” when you need it?
#7, Tim
The scary thing is you actually believe you are right.
The police officer made no “legal request”. There is no such thing as a “legal request”. There is something called the Bill of Rights though.
Shouting is not illegal. Assaulting a student by grabbing his arm is. Even a cop isn’t allowed to assault a student. If he was asked to leave the building and he was in the process of leaving the building, he was not violating either LAW or POLICY. That is the important error the cops made.
BTW, he was never told he was under arrest until they got him to the station house. Tazing someone just for the hell of it is abuse and torture.
What is the most disturbing is that there was a room full of full grown people and they made NO effort to cover the student with their own bodies or stand between the student and these abusers.
So you get tasered for protecting another human being from this abuse. If EVERYONE did that how many times could they taser until they figure they had better get out of there.
It is important, that when confronted with abusive and illegal authourity, that people need to work together to take away or limit the ability for an oppressor to be successful in their tactics.
This was not done as the people presented with this abuse stoof by and did nothing more than threaten the abuser, thereby escalating the situation. These people who did not act to protect and show solidarity with their fellow man are the more reprehensible then even the abusers.
This shows how selfish Americans have become since the 70’s. It is appaling they did not act on the behalf of a fellow human being. They should not expect anyone to come to there aid the next time when it happens to them.
Cursor_
#8, I agree. An unarmed man is no match to a gun-weilding police officer. The highest power is the power to take one’s life away. Police have that ability. Unfortunately, even when an officer is wrong he is right.
That said, expecting a person to “stand up” after being tased is a form of torture. It was an act of power and punishment displayed to upkeep their image of authority in a potential mob attack from the students.
I think a couple of the students should have intervened by accosting Mostafa themselves and carrying him out of the library instead of escalating the tension by screaming at the officers.
Hindsight is 20/20.
I got to agree, right or wrong, when the police tell you to do something do it – without the back talk!
Back in the 70’s I was an assistant manager of a Radio Shack in a strip mall. I was there late on Friday night working on a display for a stereo sale when a cop runs up to the door with a shot gun yelling at me to freeze.
At first I thought it was a joke as we always gave cops free batteries for their flash lights and I was being set up. I did what he said and moved slowly to the front door (with my store keys still in the lock) and unlocked and opened it slowly and asked “do you need some batteries?”
The look on that cop’s face was priceless! He said in a rather confused voice “You have keys?”
“Yep” I said “I work here.”
At this point a lot of squad cars screeched up with cops running everywhere and a few of them suddenly realized its me – the guy who gives them batteries and they all started to laugh!
They said that when the call came in that the Radio Shack is getting knocked off they came running. It only showed that by looking after them they would look after you!
I had to ask that cop though with the shot gun, what would have happened if I ran…
He said he would have fired…
Well aside from almost getting shot, we all had a good laugh for a long time after that! 🙂
Cheers
I hope every single rent-a-cop (not just the guys doing the tasering) lose their jobs and face civil lawsuits. They are as responsible for what took place here.
The students have a right to be at the University. The guards *primary* responsibility are to protect these students.
#19 Hi MattD
Walk a mile in cops shoes and see if you have the same view after that.
I am not sticking up for cops (or rent-a-cops) wholesale but damn, they put up with some shit that just doesn’t let up 24/7365.
The point that many people are making is JUST do what they ask you to do without the lip and back talk. Its that easy! If you are in the right then everything will be ok.
But as the original SNL John Belushi would say
“But NOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo”
Cheers 🙂
TIHZ_HO – But you have to understand… that’s the intelligent thing to do and 90% of the public is not all that intelligent.
Was he a legitimate student that had the right to be there? Yes, he was.
Was the student acting like a jerk? Looks like yes, but that is not just cause for the kind of abuse he was subjected to.
Did he have reason to be defensive? With a name of Mostafa Tabatabainejad he had some legitimate concern that he was going to be hassled. It’s my understanding that’s why he was trying to leave.
Did security seriously screw up? Unquestionably – if they had used their heads this whole incident could have been avoided. Force of this severity should only be used if they or other students were in danger.
#7 Tasers have been identified by several medical examiners and coroners have as a secondary or a contributor to cause of death. The student declared loudly that he had a medical condition… security is unqualified to determine if this is correct. He was already handcuffed, they had many other ways to control the situation and failed to use them.
“right or wrong, when the police tell you to do something do it – without the back talk!”
You people make me sick. Police need to act within the law and not make up bogus reasons to harass, beat up, and abuse people. This cop should be fired and not allowed to be a peace officer ever again anywhere.