Tasered Student Claims Racial Profiling

[cal04]

A student who was shocked by a campus police officer's Taser gun after he refused to show ID at a UCLA library thought he was being singled out by the officer because of his Middle Eastern appearance, his lawyer said.

Attorney Stephen Yagman said he plans to file a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of the U.S.-born student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad.

Tabatabainejad, 23, was shocked Tuesday night after arguing with a campus police officer who was conducting a routine check of student IDs at the University of California, Los Angeles Powell Library computer lab.

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.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Student-Stunned.html

[Little Wing]

1. If everyone the campus police didn't recognize was asked then

he's a dumbass. If he can prove that he was the only individual to get carded then he's got a case.

I doubt he's got a case.

[lostnotforgotten]

2. You Obviously Did Not Watch The Video Which Makes You The

Dumb ass - Don't call people names until you know the facts!

[Name removed]

5. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[VelmaD]

3. Do you honestly expect...

the campus police to recognize every student at a campus the size of UCLA? What does them recognizing or not recognizing him have to do with anything? They tasered him repeatedly...and even after he was in handcuffs fer christ's sake.

[Little Wing]

6. No, that's probably why they asked him to show them his ID

If they know someone, then I wouldn't expect them to make them show their ID night after night.

Like I said, if he can prove they marched in and asked him and only him for his ID he's got a case, but otherwise he should have shown his ID. ID, to be shown on demand at any time while on campus is a common rule in the student handbook. If nothing else, he was violating that rule.

[VelmaD]

7. Yes and violating a rule...

is a perfectly good reason to taser someone. NOT.

Look, I have some experience with this. I dated a very dark-skinned Hispanic man for a couple of years of college and I saw what the campus cops put him through. I saw the woman who ran the gift shop at the campus museum nearly trip over herself getting back to her post to keep an eye on him...while he was wearing his university staff shirt. Pretty much everywhere we went on campus people eyeballed him in a way they never did me when I was around campus alone. And god forbid he try to walk across campus at night from my dorm back to his. If I had a nickel for every time he got stopped and questioned by the cops, who saw him make that walk every damn night, well, I'd be rich enough to be a republican. *snort*

[Little Wing]

8. Yes, but we were talking about racial profiling, not whether the tasering

was correct or not.

[mondo joe]

9. Really? Then what was his lesson in "reespect for authoriity" you mentioned

up above?

[Little Wing]

11. I outlined this already

the thread is about whether or not he was racially targeted, but quickly turned into another ruckus about tasering.

[mondo joe]

12. Sorry but YOU are the one who said he got a lesson in respect for authority.

What was the lesson?

[originalpckelly]

18. Respect my authoritie mondoe joe,

[mondo joe]

19. Bwah! I'm not the only one who thought of that, I see. n/t

[pnwmom]

34. We all can change our minds. Does this mean you changed your

mind about it being okay for them to teach him a lesson with the taser?

I understand that a lot of people don't realize that the Taser involves 50,000 of electricity and can immobilize the victim for up to 15 minutes. In fact, I didn't know this until I started googling yesterday.

If you thought it was just a little "sting" (as another DU'er put it) maybe it didn't seem like a big deal to you. But do you understand now why -- regardless of whether the arrest was justified -- so many of us are so concerned about the police officers' repeated shocking of a helpless, handcuffed and prone subject?

[lostnotforgotten]

49. You Made About Tasering Because You Denied The Use Of

excessive force by blaming the victim.

Amazing how you want to change the story after you were attacked by other posters here.

[VelmaD]

10. And my last post...

mainly address my own experience with racial profiling by campus police.

If you honestly think that he would have been singled out like this if he had been white...then I don't know that there's anything else we can really say to each other. :shrug:

[pnwmom]

24. You said he was a dumbass getting a lesson in respect

and that he had no case. His case goes far beyond racial profiling into police brutality and violation of Federal civil rights. You watch him win this case.

[malaise]

13. The thing is that he must have had an ID

to be in the library. The cops went way overboard here.

[VelmaD]

15. I find it kind of sad...

that people might have to have a student ID to be in a library. I have never been asked for an ID at the big University of Texas library.

[Buzz Clik]

17. The cops were clearly sending a message. It may not be the message we received:

"We are jackbooted pigs. We have weapons, you don't. F*** you."

[pnwmom]

21. You don't get it. Even if you're right that the arrest was warranted

you're wrong about the use of the taser. This was a clear case of police brutality, which is just another form of illegal assault. The police in question behaved criminally; the student's actions hurt no one.

[readmoreoften]

39. "Probably"-- now you're just making things up.

Tens of thousands of students use the library. And it's open to the public-- it's a STATE LIBRARY. I'm sure the rent-a-cops don't know 95% of the patrons.

[JacksonWest]

37. And Furthermore

Bottom Line:

If you have a building or facility that only students can access, set it up so only students can access it. Back in the nineties, when I was in college-at the dawn of the modern internet-I had to use a student ID card to access the computer lab, and I needed a password to get on a computer. If I wanted to get into my dorm-I had to slide my ID card. In a library-if only students are allowed access-wouldn't they check for your id at the door? What college library-in this day and age-has computers that non-students can use? And if non-students can use them-what's the problem here?

It's a pretty system if this policy allows police to conduct a search of every person in a facility at any time for any reason-under the guise that "only students" are allowed in. Absent a disruptive individual-there's no reason to think that this action-even the asking for id-was a clear violation of his fourth amendment rights.

[readmoreoften]

40. It's a state university library. The public is allowed to use it. /nt

[JacksonWest]

44. Why did they ask for his id then?

These police need to be fired.

[pnwmom]

47. Supposedly they have a policy of checking for ID's

after 11 p.m.

Except other DU'ers have posted here the extensive list of official library policies and there is nothing in the list about ID's.

Welcome to DU, Jackson West!

[RagingInMiami]

29. I'm willing to bet you that this will make him a very rich man

[pnwmom]

35. Can you imagine how upset his parents must be?

I'm glad they wasted no time finding him a good lawyer. They need to strike while the witnesses have the event fresh in their memory.

[Horse with no Name]

4. When we have a President that approves torture

and major news networks insinuating that newly-elected Congressmen belong to Al-Quaeda simply because they are Muslim...this is just the natural progression of the hate.
Of course it was profiling. It was criminal.
It wouldn't hurt my feelings if this man shut down UCLA with his lawsuit.
They are the ones that placed the TASERS in the hands of the bigoted criminally insane campus police. They are liable.

[BlooInBloo]

14. Oh those silly whiny dark skins! Always CLAIMING racism!

I didn't hear the word "nigger", "sandnigger", "raghead", "macaca" - so what evidence do they have really? We should give law enforcement the benefit of the doubt, since their lives are on the line for us everyday, trying to protect us from islamofacists.


God I'm so proud to be white.

[Nikki Stone1]

16. It is possible that in today's climate a Middle Eastern appearance is all it takes

to panic some in law enforcement, especially in a university. A number of terrorists got into this country via F-1 (student) visa. I remember right after 9-11 there was an attempt to crack down on the number of international students coming into the University of California. Eventually, the panic died down and the university system kept its international students (and their money).

I can see how the refusal of an Iranian-American male to show an ID could panic school police who watch the evening news and get "terra" related updates from the Department of Homeland Security. This is no way legitimizes a taser, especially repeated use of one. But it might explain the irrationality of the punishment.

[pnwmom]

22. It's no excuse. This is LA, and these are LAPD trained officers.

In other words, they should all be retrained. And the ones involved in this situation should be kicked off the force.

[Nikki Stone1]

26. Oops. Misread your post. They may be LAPD trained, but that

doesn't mean they are the same calibre as the LAPD city cops.

I really think they panicked that they might have a terrorist and got angry at his attitude. The combination of fear and rage makes for a violent reaction.

We can thank the Junior Bush for this panic over every ME person as a potential terrorist. :grr:

[pnwmom]

31. I didn't mean to be complimenting them, in case that's what

you thought I meant. The LAPD has had lots of problems. Rodney King is one case that everybody heard of. And there's been a few others in LA just recently.

[MindPilot]

32. Trained by the LAPD?

That kind of explains everything.

[ecstatic]

20. You couldn't even enter our college library without ID

That is the question. If ID is required to enter the library in the first place, then this was clearly a case of racial profiling. Then again, if ID is not required to enter the library, then this is still a case of profiling, as there is no record of this ever happening to a white student.

[Nikki Stone1]

23. I've gone into Powell library without ID myself

I was doing some research a number of years ago and just walked in. I couldn't take books out, but I could use some library services.

[pnwmom]

27. As I've read it, that library is open to the general public

except after 11 pm when only University people are supposed to be there.

[Nikki Stone1]

30. Hmm. That makes sense, and that explains the checking of ID

Personally, I think the cops were afraid that a ME male who wouldn't show them ID was a terrorist. I wonder what their post 9-11 training is like.

[pnwmom]

33. I don't have a problem with them kicking him out of the library.

Or even arresting him, if he broke some law or some library rule.

But all he was doing when they tasered him was yelling -- he wasn't any threat. Like millions of nonviolent protestors in the past, he simply went limp when they tried to get him to leave. That's when they should have picked him up and hauled him out.

They were violating police procedure and common decency when they Tasered him, over and over, while screaming at him to stand up.

[nealmhughes]

25. I am an academic librarian. I cannot imagine anyone being refused entrance or service for not

showing ID. I hope that this was a non-library "thang" and done without the consent or even knowledge of the library there at UCLA.

What if the gentleman were a visiting scholar? Someone who had a reference appt. with a reference librarian? A friend visiting someone on campus who wanted to just use the public facilities that the commonwealth provides?

UCLA is a public institution. People have a right to go on campus and see what the public provides and traditionally public academic libraries, along with major large city public libraries, are the one place where independent scholars can go to do research without onerous fees or restrictions. The only thing that is restricted is circulation/ILL.

Oops, jargon here: Interlibrary Loan. Some of the most intense researchers I have worked with are not students anywhere. They had no school ID and I would only have asked them for it were they going to check out a book or put in a request for an article that had to be sent to them via the library.

Were the cops to taser one of my students for not showing an ID, they would be in a world of hurt: librarians are vicious creatures when cornered, and capable of research that would make the average human's head spin 180 degrees! Never under estimate the wrath of a librarian!

Everyone even remotely "looking" Persian ought to go to UCLA and read a newspaper in one of the reading rooms as often as possible, lacking ID!

[Nikki Stone1]

28. This has been my experience at the UCs and Cal States

I have never had a problem getting in to do research, even when I was not affiliated with the school. At one point, I worked for a private company preparing educational materials and needed to do some research for a project at UCLA. I had no problem getting in, getting the resources I needed.

[pnwmom]

36. There's one other thing that bothered me about the video.

How come everybody in that crowd was young? How come no older adults came to the aid of the student? Wouldn't you have expected to see a middle aged or older adult somewhere in there?

[Bassic]

38. If that was the case, he was indeed a dumbass, but

unless he actually became violent, what the fuck was he tazered for?

[readmoreoften]

41. Why was he a "dumbass"? How does anyone know that he refused to leave the library.

It's all speculation.

[Bassic]

42. I just realised I replied to the wrong post.

My response was to reply number one. If the officer was asking other people to show their id's and this guy just decided he didn't want to, he was a dumbass. I am NOT saying that is necessarily what happened, because I don't know.

One thing is for sure, I doub he deserved to be fucking shocked into submission.

[Robb]

43. Must it be one or the other?

Can't I guess the student behaved like a dumbass, and the campus cops also waaaaaaay over-reacted? :shrug:

[pnwmom]

46. Let's suppose that he had reason to think that it was racial profiling

that made the first campus cop ask him for an ID -- and that he was NOT chosen on a random basis to have his ID checked.
Was it a dumbass thing for him to shout out about the Patriot Act and engage in an act of civil disobedience -- i.e., to not cooperate?

How do we feel about fighting for civil liberties these days?

[let us vote]

45. There is a big rally planned today

[pnwmom]

48. Welcome to DU, let us vote!