Tased UCLA Student Whitewashes His Personal Profile
That student who was tased at the UCLA library has changed his FaceBook profile, according to blogger BruinPied, who has screenshots. (Hat tip: California Conservative.)
Previously, — before the student hired Stephen Yagman to pursue a lawsuit — the student’s profile stated (under “Interests”):
i like to take simple problems and find the most difficult way to do them. i have a talent, what can I say.
This sounds like great fodder for cross-examination:
LAWYER: So you take a simple problem, like being asked to leave the library because you have no I.D. — and you find a difficult way to handle it, like refusing a direct order to leave, and falling limp to the floor. Is that about it?
STUDENT: Uh . . .
[pause]
HERE’S YOUR [expletive deleted]ING PATRIOT ACT!!!!!
Might not come across too well, eh?
But now that he has hired the indicted Stephen Yagman, for the purpose of filing a federal civil rights lawsuit . . . the “Interests” section is gone. Poof.
The “About Me” section has also been changed. Before, the student said that, when he didn’t play soccer, he could become “a different person . . . like dr. jekyll and mr. hyde.” In the updated, post-Yagman version, all references to Jekyll and Hyde have been whitewashed out.
I think the UCLA attorney is going to be thankful for the technology of screenshots.
OK, let’s assume the student was a rabble-rouser trying to make a scene. And let’s also admit that he was using his ethnic background as an excuse to claim that he was profiled and stereotyped. For the sake of this analysis, let’s also agree that the student worker had every right to call in the campus police, the perpetrator was uncooperative and provocative. And while the stories conflict about whether he was in the process of leaving the library or that he dropped limp to the ground, let’s even concede the version most favorable to the campus cops — that he was screaming for other students to join in his civil disobedience.
Granting the version most favorable to the campus police, does that give them the right to Taser him? No. That is an unjustified escalation of force. If a group of campus cops can’t defuse a situation where a student goes limp, they are incompetent and badly trained. Even if he was screaming for others to assist him, there are absolutely no accounts that any onlooking student began to interfere with the campus officers.
I will admit that the student was acting like an asshole. But that in no way justifies the escalation in the use of force. Just another instance of cops exacting revenge if someone fails the attitude test.
nosh (ee9fe2) — 11/19/2006 @ 8:19 pmOne of the higher ups in the UCLA police said the student was engaged in passive resistance.
Welcome to the wonderful world of pain compliance.
actus (10527e) — 11/19/2006 @ 8:44 pmOne other major difference between the two screenshots: The ‘favorite quote.’
Before: ‘that hurts, stop it’ -Shahab
After: ‘Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is in prison’ -Henry David Thoreau
Well, if nothing else, this incident has convinced the young lad that quoting the Crown Prince of Pacifism is a better way to get bucks from the Guvmint than would be quoting one of his drunken buddies. Too bad BruinPied busted him.
My Thoreau quote for the young lad would go as follows: “I am a parcel of vain strivings tied, By a chance bond together.”
JD (044292) — 11/19/2006 @ 9:05 pmLet’s make it three common sense responses in a row here at Jack Webb TV land.
“Just another instance of cops exacting revenge if someone fails the attitude test.”
yup.
Alois Pacino (4218e6) — 11/19/2006 @ 9:05 pmAs to UCPD – Haven’t police agencies in the LA Basin figured out how to do crowd control?
The first thing I would do in that situation is, if the young man is just going to sit there and pout, and he is well covered by two or three officers, is to pass down the order to EVACUATE THE ROOM OF ALL OTHER PEOPLE! Having 10 or 20 pissed off college students crowding the doorway was a colossal security breach, and those cops were lucky they weren’t overrun, guns or no guns.
Next – asking someone who has been ‘tased’ to immediately stand up is tantamount to asking Mel Gibson to walk a straight line.
There are some serious procedure issues UCPD has going on, and they are (unfortunately) going to end up paying through the nose to this snot-nosed brat because of them.
Frankly, in the above situation, the cops should have cracked the kid across the melon and dragged the meat outside.
JD (044292) — 11/19/2006 @ 9:12 pmNosh……why should any police officer (campus or municipal) be required to risk their life and limb wrestling any non-compliant punk at any time?
No way they should be. They should use the most non-lethal weapon they have to MAKE idiots like this guy comply, and that is often the Tazer
senorlechero (360f45) — 11/19/2006 @ 9:14 pmThey shouldn’t have wrestled with this guy
actus (10527e) — 11/19/2006 @ 9:55 pmWhy not the whole building? The whole campus?
That’s what I thought too, but then I looked up “drive-stun.”
Jim Treacher (c4006e) — 11/20/2006 @ 12:09 amGadwin Printscreen all the way.
Christoph (9824e6) — 11/20/2006 @ 2:10 amCAIR Calls For Probe of UCLA Student Tasered By Cops…
Update: the tased student whitewashes his personal profile after hiring a lawyer for a civil lawsuit. Hmmmm.
My question: What part of “stand up” does this moonbat retard not understand? Didn’t the ACLU teach you anything on …
Stop The ACLU (aa6604) — 11/20/2006 @ 5:20 amWhen you deliberately pick a fight with men armed with Tasers and pistols, you get what you deserve.
Daveg (a721ef) — 11/20/2006 @ 6:37 amHe didn’t ‘pick a fight.’ He resisted arrest. He didn’t present a danger to the other students in the room, therefore they needn’t be evacuated. HE needed to be evacuated for disruptive behavior.
paul from fl (001f65) — 11/20/2006 @ 8:17 amHis disruptive behavior, unabated, would have incited a riot, which no doubt would have caused more harm and injury.
As one cannot yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater for ones own personal, sick amusement, Loud,inflammatory speech in a library is also not permitted. I am sure that consideration and quiet is requested by signage or policy in the library.
So that fact that he was violating school policy is established. The UCPD had every right to REQUIRE him to leave. His overwrought reaction to a drive stun is indicative of his intent to manipulate the situation (yes, I have been stunned and while I grunted, I surely didn’t carry on like this fellow).
No worse for the wear, the issue remains ,why is this idiot still in school? Why isn’t he barred from the campus and it’s facilities?
Because Liberal bleeding hearts will feel bad that he was tased. You should feel bad when he gets shot or cracked over the head with a baton.
All he is left with now is the lesson that, when the Police order you to do something you do it first and argue it later in court.
paul from fl: “He didn’t present a danger to the other students in the room….”
That is 20/20 hindsight. Who knew what this clown was packing at the time? And why should the police be required to take that risk to their lives, as well as the lives of the other students in the library at the time?
As for the lawsuit, this clown should not be paid a dime for his antics; he got just what he deserved — you f*ck with the police, the police are gonna f*ck back. From witness reports I have read, he was making a scene much earlier than shown on the video that just about everybody’s seen by now. He refused to show his college ID, which he was carrying in his pocket. His being tasered is nobody’s fault but his own (The Rule of Unintended Consequences). As for the claim of excessive force, if this clown had pulled in some of his beloved muslim countries what he pulled at the library, he’d be in jail without a prayer or the ACLU. I trust that any civil case this clown brings will be promptly thrown out once depositions are made, including the many witnesses who support the actions of the campus police (who are not rent-a-cops, but fully empowered peace officers). Another reason to toss the case is the screenshot of his original FaceBook profile. He was looking for trouble and found it. Now he’s whining and seething about the consequences of seeking and finding trouble. Typical.
Personally, I think if he’s in the US on a student visa, his visa should be revoked and he should be kicked out of the country post haste.
RickZ (ad8779) — 11/20/2006 @ 9:07 amFirst off, the website material will be suppressed as either immaterial to the case or unnecessarily prejudical to the jury.
But I think it is utterly ironic that in the same week that 4 women were attacked at CSULB, the UCPD is lambasted for enforcing campus safety measures. The student was a moron who thought the rules did not apply to him because he had a special reason to ignore them.
Never forget, it was at least fifteen minutes between the first encount he had with campus security until the UCPD showed up. At anytime, he could have hit Ctrl-S, gone to his dorm, car or whatever to grab his wallet and show his ID. But he decided that he wanted to play “Quien es Muy Macho?” and fight The Man.
Look, if breaking rules is not going to carry any sort of repercussion, then why have them at all? Yes, some rules deserve to be broken, but if, and when, you do you HAVE to be ready to pay the piper or it is jsut a spoiled child acting out at the world that won’t give him a cookie five minutes before dinner.
MunDane (9babe9) — 11/20/2006 @ 9:32 amMunDane,
As I stated in my post just above yours, the clown had his student ID in his pocket the whole time! He refused to pull it out to make some kind of grandstanding play, and got rightly tasered for his troubles.
RickZ (ad8779) — 11/20/2006 @ 9:42 amRick Z and MunDane,
paul from fl (001f65) — 11/20/2006 @ 10:55 amAmen!
UCLA: Students or Political Activists?…
Obviously, too much time on their hands…
Zafir Omair, a first-year UCLA student, marched Friday afternoon with 200 fellow demonstrators to protest the UCPD’s use of a Taser on a student in Powell Library last Tuesday. Protestors marched fr…
California Conservative (f55714) — 11/20/2006 @ 11:11 amAgree or disagree, the taser, as part of its effectiveness, has a pain compliance use. It is called a “drive Stun”, and is much the same as the stun guns of old. To my knowledge, all of the deaths “attributed” to the taser have been the result of the probes being fired into someone. The “drive stun” does not make use of the probes.
Physical means of pain compliance, whether a wrist lock or an arm bar, frequently result in injury to the person they are being applied to. I have yet to read or hear about a significant injury from a taser used in this (drive stun) manner.
What I’ve gathered from reading the two threads about this case is that most of the people commenting 1) don’t really have a basic understanding of function of the taser 2) Lack a signficant base of experience to question the tactics used by the officers.
I submit the use of force was proper given the circumstances that have come to light at this point if the taser was used as pain compliance.
One thing to consider is where the department in question places the taser in their use of force policy. In my department it comes right after telling someone to comply.
I believe there is far more risk of injury to both the suspect and police by getting into a physcial altercations (Either actually fighting or using physical force to move and unwilling subject). If they had picked him up by his ear or the scruff of the neck as some have suggested, they’d be far more open to liability IMO.
The fact that this kid is yelling, reportedly while the taser is being applied, strongly suggests that the taser was being applied as a pain compliance tool. It is virtually impossible to speak if you’ve been struck with the probes after they were fired from the taser and while the system is cycling.
Again, there are no “Settings” for the officer to choose. it’s 50,000 volts no matter what. The only variable is how those volts are applied, either by firing the probes into someone or removing the probe cartridge at touching the terminals to the suspect.
Patrick (d928f7) — 11/20/2006 @ 11:12 amIf we give in to this goon student, we’re not going to come back from political correctness. He deserved what he got. He was wrong and the police were right. ALL students are required to show ID when asked.
He provoked them because he knows we are a bunch of sissies and that these days the person in the wrong is regarded as the victim. He should be expelled and charged, and the police and/or the college should bring a lawsuit against HIM.
rightisright (2cbc9b) — 11/20/2006 @ 2:08 pmSo, if someone disobeys instructions to leave, the Cops are supposed to stand around looking at his and then what? At some point there has to be a consequence to refusing to obey instructions.
Chas Van Sistine (ebf47c) — 11/21/2006 @ 5:39 amPatrick,
MT (f8b8d8) — 11/21/2006 @ 3:12 pmYou make some interesting points. I agree that it sounds like the taser was being used for pain compliance. How much pain compliance is permited after a suspect has been handcuffed etc?
Wow. The “he got what he deserved” mentality. If someone engages in nonviolent protest, going limp, then the campus cops can become prosecutor, jury and judge and impose punishment on the spot.
Doesn’t anyone remember Kent State?
nosh (ee9fe2) — 11/21/2006 @ 3:13 pmNothing to do with protest or Kent st., nosh. This has everything to do with some a** being a baby.
artie (ca2359) — 11/21/2006 @ 3:26 pmTo be fair. It is my opinion that many people deserve a hard slap. However, I would urge the arest of anyone handing them out.
He did refuse a lawful police order. He deserves to be called a moron. But I don’t think the police should be allowed to do that either.
Reguardless of what he deserved this may well have been over the line. It certainly SHOULD be over the line.
MT (f8b8d8) — 11/21/2006 @ 3:36 pmThe protesters at kent where arguably a lot more dangerous than one kid in handcuffs passively resisting. So he’s an a**. Doesn’t let the police off the hook.
MT (f8b8d8) — 11/21/2006 @ 3:38 pmWhy stop there, throw in Hiroshima and Nagasaki while you’re at it.
Jim Treacher (c4006e) — 11/21/2006 @ 4:12 pmnosh reminisced: “Doesn’t anyone remember Kent State?”
I sure do. The lesson I learned as a 13-year-old from that incident was “don’t bring flowers to a gun fight.”
RickZ (ad8779) — 11/22/2006 @ 11:15 amThe thing that annoys me about this is the Wikipedia article on this student.
Timothy Clemans (a0bb7e) — 11/23/2006 @ 1:01 amthat shit was funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
otto (53e2e0) — 1/9/2008 @ 11:44 am