Don't taser me, I am a student
That's the sign that many students were wearing yesterday on their shirts after a rally to protest an incident that happened in the library on Tuesday. A student who was without his ID card was shot four or five times with a "taser" (a device that produces an electric shock), including after being handcuffed.
In better LA news, this afternoon there is some kind of sports event involving a UC Berkeley team and a Los Angeles team. A Berkeley faculty member is organizing a viewing using a big screen TV in his lab (why does a computer science lab need a big screen?). The invitation email explained that "Cal can be conference champion if it wins Saturday, for the first time since 1959" and I can only assume that being conference champion is a good thing. Go Bears!
In better LA news, this afternoon there is some kind of sports event involving a UC Berkeley team and a Los Angeles team. A Berkeley faculty member is organizing a viewing using a big screen TV in his lab (why does a computer science lab need a big screen?). The invitation email explained that "Cal can be conference champion if it wins Saturday, for the first time since 1959" and I can only assume that being conference champion is a good thing. Go Bears!
posted by Luca at 9:48 AM
14 Comments:
11/18/2006 11:00:00 AM
Here is my favorite comment, from the police chief:
UCLA Police Chief Karl Ross said the officers decided to use the Taser to incapacitate Tabatabainejad after he went limp...
11/18/2006 05:11:00 PM
I think it is a tradegy that there is nothing like Berkeley outside of the US.
11/18/2006 07:32:00 PM
Anonymous #2: the way I see it, it is a miracle that there is something like Berkeley inside the US.
What, by the way, prompted your comment?
11/18/2006 11:45:00 PM
For what it's worth, it seems the student in this incident was not without fault. He didn't produce a University ID when asked (why?), and apparently tried to incite some sort of protest among the other students.
(Note: The above does not mean that the use of the Taser was justified. Just that sometimes it is better to be wrong than stupid.)
11/18/2006 11:47:00 PM
maybe the comment was prompted by the fact that, in the main uc berkeley library, you can frequently find weird, smelly, unshaven senior citizens surfing for the gnarliest kinds of porn, and they are never tasered.
11/19/2006 08:02:00 AM
Man. Aren't libraries suppose to be quiet?
11/19/2006 08:05:00 AM
I don't believe the guy was shot (with the taser) just for not having his ID. There must be something else; this video certainly doesn't convey it.
11/19/2006 11:40:00 AM
As has been pointed out he was tasered because he was 200 pounds and went limp.
11/19/2006 01:14:00 PM
the guy is an american citizen of iranian descent. he thought he had been singled out because of his apperance. maybe the guy was a brat, but the point is that police are paid, not to act macho and dole out punishment (which I'm sure they would do for free), but to protect citizens, even the ones they are arresting.
can you blame the guy for not wanting to go somewhere private with a bunch of police officers? look at the kind of stuff bush is trying to pull with the "military comissions act." he could be taken into the night and never heard from again.
11/19/2006 04:07:00 PM
As some M/S executive said in a very different context, "Brown is the new black".
11/21/2006 11:35:00 PM
Believe it or not, but this happens a lot more frequently in many universities in the USA, to MANY PEOPLE of noncaucasian descent.
University police think they have unlimited power. Blue is the new white.
12/14/2006 02:52:00 PM
The guy was an asshole. The taser is a non-lethal device to get submission from a non compliant subject. It has been proven over and over to be a safe method with no lasting aftereffects. Quit whining.
9/19/2007 12:09:00 PM
Facts that everyone seems to ignore. When the rush to the defense of the student and start screaming "FREEDOM OF SPEECH" like idiots.
It was a function run by the school. And they have the right to moderate it in any way they wish.
He cuts in line but gets to ask his question anyway.
He starts to rant and become unruly.
They first asked him to step down.
Then they cut his mic, but he wouldn't stop anyway.
The police tried to calmly escort him out.
The instant he tried to jerk away to break away, he was resisting the police. That is a crime. You have zero choice if you getting arrested. If its a wrongful arrest you can easily sue the city for tons of money. (Thats why police dont just do around arresting ppl willy nilly.)
They warned him several times to cooperate and stop resisting.
It was a full 40 seconds between the first warning that he would be tasered and the tasering.
He should have cooperated.
9/21/2007 03:08:00 PM
wait until it's you.
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