"Smug Opinions and Self-Induced Consequences"

It is amusing though that you try and compare your pathetic violent fantasy to different situations. What a desperate ploy to try and obtain moral authority.

Because we all know that hitting an annoying student in the head with a textbook is the SAME THING as guys rushing to defend a battered woman.

Anyway, in the spirit of what's good for the goose....I glad you leave open the option of getting punched in the face if you "deserve it". For your sake though, I hope the people who would hold such a privlege continue to be better people than you and exercise restraint.

It reminds me of that new york state judge that dismissed battery charges against a husband, saying to the wife "every woman needs a good beating now and then."

Ah see now you're conflating legal rules by which we all must live (and which the judge was sworn to uphold) with the actual reality in which we live, to wit: It is illegal to hit another person just because you don't like them. However, some people really could benefit by a good old-fashioned throwdown just to clear the air. If they do toss punches around, they of course face any consequences that come their way, whether it be a fat lip or an arrest for battery.

Maybe you're right. Maybe you should go out and taze yourself and see if you think it was appropriate to taze this person in this situation.

For what? Failure to comply with my own directive to vaccuum my livingroom? Not doing my dishes in a timely manner? Sitting around on my couch reading Salon on a warm November afternoon when I should be outside? I've never engaged in open defiance of the police, but if I did I don't think I'd be too surprised when they reacted negatively.

Somehow I think if Mostafa here were a blond girl name Kate Smith (or something like that), no one would have tazed the girl. In fact, i think no one would have given her a hard time about not having her ID. They would have let it slip. But not with a Mostafa-looking Mostafa.

Perhaps, perhaps not. Tossing around racism as a concept is pretty much a discussion-killer, though. I can tell you that Kate Smith -- blonde or not -- wouldn't even have gotten into my college library without ID, she would have been turned away at the door.

Somehow I think if Mostafa here were a blond girl name Kate Smith (or something like that), no one would have tazed the girl. In fact, i think no one would have given her a hard time about not having her ID. They would have let it slip. But not with a Mostafa-looking Mostafa.

Exactly. This guy was the Emmett Till of tasers. All he had to do was look "different," and whistle at someone "inappropriate" (i.e. someone not of his race and "social class"), and he "got what he had coming to him." There's no way in the world they would have done this to a cute blonde cheerleader or football player no matter how snotty she/he was to the cops. Not five fucking times, not when she/he was already lying on the ground immobile. And if they ever did, those cops wouldn't be alive right now, let alone still have their jobs. But nobody really cares what happens to a dark guy with a funny accent. Right?

The spoiled brat deserved it. If the cops truly asked him to leave and he wasn't authorized to be there then he should have just left and returned with his Student ID. I don't agree with aspects of the so-called Patriot Act he screamingly referred to, but he flatters himself if he thinks his recalcitrant, assinine behavior had anything to do with it.

His parents probably never said "no" to him and his fragile ego probably couldn't stand taking orders from lowly Security gueards. He's the mollycoddled, over-entitled fool I couldn't stand in college. The one who wastes class time trying to impress everyone with ill-formed, puerile opinions.

The sad part is that he'll probably win his case vs. security further galvanizing his unearned sense of misguided rightousness. He should be ashamed. And all of the intellectually horrified people shoud snap out of it. Cases like this cheapen the situations of people who have a suffered a legitimate incident of police brutality.

Patriot Act. What a Dork.

Your argument is semantic. It is their job to subdue me if I become resistant, unruly, threatening, or violent. I could wind up tased, teargassed, beaten, shot with a rubber bullet, or shot with a live round, depending on what I happen to be doing at the moment. That is, in all practical terms, physical "punishment" for my immediate actions. Legal punishment comes later.

No, ma'am, it's not a sematic argument, it's the law. Their job is to serve, protect and keep public safety. In apprehending you, their actions have to ALL be towards one goal: to apprehend you. Not to punish you. They are not the punishers. IT's people like you, who don't know the law, but more importantly, don't WANT to know the law, and are willing to excuse the actions of police officers and defer to their very fallible judgment, that are the enablers of this kind of thing.

So, in this case, if you watch the video, towards the middle they have ALREADY HANDCUFFED the suspect, yet they continue to tazer him. They could have, the three of them, simply carried him out of the library, but no...

No, they don't have blank check but they do have a set of specific guidelines and conditions under which they may resort to non-lethal force to control a situation. No lives were in danger here, so they didn't resort to lethal force. The problem police face when confronted by shouting, struggling, tantrum-throwing people, though, is that they don't have time to dither over whether or not that person is just being a pain in the ass for sport or if they're really going to pull a dangerous stunt. You don't like the law, change it.

1) the law is already on my side, honey.

2) He was already handcuffed. Originally, he "went limp" when they asked him to leave. he did not attack the offiers, or anyone else.

Plus, I imagine these security people thought they could get away with it because the guy's name is Mostafa.

How would they know his name if he refused to show his ID?

We will soon see what Mostafa here looks like, and if his physical looks had anything to do with it. I have a friend, he's jewish from Switzerland. If he doesn't shave, he looks very terroristic, and even when he does shave, he's stopped at every airport. It matters.

I have twice witnessed such events, both of them happened to be immediate and deeply satisfying retribution for guys who hit their girlfriends.

You're really into retribution. You should go work as a prison guard -- you'll get to mete out justice to prisoners every day, lady.

Once was on my own college campus, when a guy outside my dorm thumped his girlfriend. Two of my roommates immediately went running downstairs -- one with a metal vaccuum cleaner pipe in her hands -- only to be met by two guys running from *another* dorm who chased the guy, tackled him, and pounded the holy hell out of him.

Every single one of them except for the girlfriend should have been apprehended and charged. We have a justice system so that people don't take the law into their own hands. Perhaps your male friends should have caught him and called the police, instead of just being violent animals just like the girlfriend beater. Make no mistake, the pursuers broke the law just as much, if not more, than the original girlfriend beater.

plus, where were you, lady justice? why didn't you call the police? why didn't you go talk to this girlfriend and help her go to an abuse counseilling center? Or you prefer to send the angry men to dole out justice, while you sit back and watch?

The second was walking through Kenmore Square one night after clubbing and first hearing a guy his his girlfriend and then seeing another guy who was walking towards them at the time haul off and slug the guy in the jaw and shout "like the way that feels?" then just continue on his way.

It seems you're really into men being violent towards other men. Again, if we wanted people to just mete out justice and violence to each other, why even have courts and prisoners? It's very expensive and time-consuming. Best to just let every one of us every second decide who deserves punishment. For example, you and your biology book could enforce the law.

And of course you would never be one of those people who deserve to get punched in the face now and then, right?

I certainly try not to be, but I won't deny that I've done some obnoxious things in the past and I'm sure more than one person has wanted to give me a good belt over the years. That it hasn't happened probably says more about them than it does about me, of course, but you are free to draw your own conclusions.

I think i agree with you there. I just hope for your sake that you don't cross someone who has the same views about the police and justice as you do.