Taser Use Limited at Most UC campuses (except at UCLA)

[pnwmom]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-taser22nov22,0,1917800.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Six of 10 schools have supplied officers with the weapons, but only UCLA police can stun noncombative suspects.
By Rong-Gong Lin II, Times Staff Writer
November 22, 2006

Police officers on six UC campuses carry Taser guns, but UCLA appears to be alone in expressly allowing officers to stun not only violent suspects but those who are passively resisting their orders.

In interviews Tuesday, top officials at university police departments across the state stressed that officers should be given discretion when using Tasers but said they thought the weapons should be used primarily against suspects who posed a physical risk.

"They are not allowed to use it on a passive person," Orville King, UC San Diego's police chief, said of his officers. "It's not to be used on a restrained person unless a person poses a threat of serious bodily injury."

UCLA's police rules allow officers to use Tasers on suspects engaging in passive resistance, which is what police said 23-year-old senior Mostafa Tabatabainejad was doing last week.

SNIP

Also Tuesday, the lawyer Tabatabainejad hired last week, Stephen Yagman, said he was no longer representing the student.

SNIP

[Solon]

1. So, at UCLA, tasers are torture devices for compiance?

Seems like it to me, what's the difference between this and kneecapping someone, or beating them with billy clubs?

[pnwmom]

2. They most certainly are. It's part of official, written policy.

I have a pdf file for this. As I recall, it came from an article on the Daily Bruin website. In particular, see the first sentence below, which specifies a "passive or actively resisting individual" and part 6B, where Taser use on passive resistors is specifically allowed.

301.24 PAIN COMPLIANCE TECHNIQUES Pain compliance techniques may be very effective in controlling a passive or actively resisting individual. Officers may only apply those pain compliance techniques for which the officer has received Departmentally approved training and only when the officer reasonably believes that the use of such a technique appears necessary to further a legitimate law enforcement purpose. Officers utilizing any pain compliance technique should consider the totality of the circumstance including, but not limited to:
(a) The potential for injury to the officer(s) or others if the technique is not used,
(b) The potential risk of serious injury to the individual being controlled,
(c) The degree to which the pain compliance technique may be controlled in application according to the level of resistance,
(d) The nature of the offense involved,
(e) The level of resistance of the individual(s) involved,
(f) The need for prompt resolution of the situation,
(g) If time permits (e.g. passive demonstrators), other reasonable alternatives.
The application of any pain compliance technique shall be discontinued once the officer determines that full compliance has been achieved.

AND:

5) CRITERIA FOR USE - CARTRIDGE DEPLOYMENT Authorized personnel may use a Taser when circumstances known and perceived to the individual officer at the time indicate that the application of the Taser is reasonable to subdue or control:
A) A violent or physically resisting subject, or
B) A potentially violent or potentially physically resistive subject who has verbally or physically demonstrated an intention to resist, or
C) A dangerous animal.

6) CRITERIA FOR USE - DRIVE STUN Authorized personnel may use a Taser in a drive stun capacity, as a pain compliance technique, in the following situations.
A) To eliminate physical resistance from an arrestee in accomplishing an arrest or physical search.
B) When a skirmish line is deployed and/or for pain compliance against passive resistors as allowed in UCLA Police Policy § 301.24 (Pain Compliance Techniques).
C) To stop a dangerous animal.

[Solon]

3. You know, that policy is WAY TO PERMISSIVE...

I mean, its to be used against PASSIVE RESISTORS, Jesus H. Christ on a Crutch, I guess sit-ins and civil disobedience is out. I mean, if I were to participate in that shit, and get tased anyways, I'll go all out and crack some pig's(or wanna-be pig's) heads while I'm at it.

Why can't they limit it to the same standards as FIREARMS, seems pretty simple, only to be used if the threat of imminent physical harm is going to happen, either to the cops, or to someone else. Seems pretty simple to me, why a COLLEGE of all places has these extremely permissive rules is astonishing to me, and disturbing on so many different levels. Its almost as if the students are the "enemy" to be tortured at the slightest provocation.

Fuck it, I'll sell some rubber chest plates at colleges around the country if shit like this spreads. Great way to make money, AND perform a public service for the students. Oh wait, if I do that, the government may actually ban rubber, at least for uses that its not "designed" for, as they would put it, like as an INSULATOR.

[pnwmom]

4. Chest plates aren't enough.

They tase backs, butts, legs . . . they do try to avoid the eyes.

Solon, I was appalled to read the policy. Many real police departments prohibit tasing of nonviolent subjects and this is just the campus police. How come UCLA needs a policy like this and not Berkeley? Or any of the other campuses?

Having read the policy, I wonder how they're going to prosecute the officers involved. It seems to me that the policy leaves the door wide open to abuse.

And isn't it interesting that when other students had a sit-in outside the Regent's office a couple days later, no one got tased. The police just picked the protesters up and carried them out. I bet word had come from on high to holster those weapons.

[Solon]

5. Maybe a tightly woven rubberized nylon suit.

Should be able to prevent the projectiles from piercing to the skin, and be non-conductive itself. Could be worn under clothes, kinda like old fashioned "underclothes" that we see on TV sometimes. I doubt they would attempt to try to target the head, the probes may bounce off the skull, and you already said they avoid the eyes, so avoid the face as well.

Also, yes, it doesn't surprise me that they didn't tase the protesters, I imagine they have a temporary suspension on the use of the tasers, at least until the hubub dies down nationwide. It would be too much to ask them to change the policy, being in full COYAM(Cover your ass mode) right now.

Also, another thing of note, these officers and administrators seem to have a profound ignorance as to how excessive amounts of electricity affect the human body. You can't have a compliant person on your hands when they have NO CONTROL over their own body. Even smaller amounts of electricity causes arms to flail and legs to kick and buck, I should know, I had an EMG done, THAT WAS PAINFUL and uncomfortable(needles hurt like hell, the electricity was just weird). I imagine a taser is hundreds, if not thousands of times worst. When I was shocked in the arm, it shot up and almost smacked the tech that administered the shock in the face.

[pnwmom]

7. I know. The whole point of the shock is to DISABLE the subject,

so then demanding that he stand up was nothing short of torture, as far as I'm concerned. We were looking at the modern face of evil.

[Ka hrnt]

9. Hmmm...

"Having read the policy, I wonder how they're going to prosecute the officers involved."

It would appear to me--layman that I am--that they're in the clear. As for the department, that remains to be seen.

[Kagemusha]

6. The policy is absolutely begging for a civil lawsuit.

And I will support that lawsuit when it comes. An exceedingly permissive policy in the hands of a bully who has a history of abuse or allegations of abuse is a combination that naturally leads to outrages.

[pnwmom]

8. I completely agree, Kagemusha.

[mikdalesh]

10. There is also an FBI program at UCLA to control

"the unique culture of our university environment." I was a student at UCLA. They are a bunch of conservative whackos with cointelpro looming in the shadow of skyscrapers. Let me just say they are paranoid of terrorism there in the extreme.