Obviously, what we need to do is round up all the annoying people - the whiners, the entitled, the drama queens - and taser them, because they deserve it. Yes, in a just world, all the people we don't like would be caused extreme pain, just because, you know? Some of you will think we should wait until such people are a physical threat. But you just never know when an annoying person without proper library ID will throw a book or something. Or start nursing a baby.

As an American who has lived for a decade in Europe, who returns nearly every summer to visit his family and to experience the ways in which America becomes ever more a police state ... this is, for me, the very last straw.

I am never returning, even for a visit.

Enjoy your police state, Folks ... all standing around watching the police and other minions of totalitarianism, without ever attempting to stop them.

Bravo, O Nation of Cowards!

You're acting like you live in Xanedu, but police brutality exists all over the world, including the Czech Republic:

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR710022001?open&of=ENG-CZE

Aren't you being a bit dramatic Michael Matthew Kaylor? A quick search of the BBC shows that tasers are often used in the UK. Heck, the Germans just invented something new called a "plasma taser". I even found an article in Forbes that says that the French Government has ordered 5,000 tasers.

To all those people who ask: Why did the student ignore a request made by the police?

I give you the 4th Amendment to the Constitution (and remind you that there is a reason why the first ten Amendments to the Constitution are termed the "Bill of Rights):

Amendment IV.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and, particularly, describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Okay, let me just make sure I have the facts straight on this one:

1.) Man was asked for his ID.

2.) Man refused to produce requested ID.

3.) Man was asked to then leave the library, as per college regulations.

4.) Man refused to leave library.

5.) Numbers 1-4 were repeated a few times.

6.) School security officers leave the area to retrieve campus police, (not security guards), to remove subject.

7.) When man realizes police are coming, he attempts to leave the scene.

8.) Man refuses requests from police and becomes verbally combative. (I specify "verbally" because that's all we can tell from the video.)

9.) Man is zapped with lowered level Tazer gun.

10.) Man continues to be verbally combative.

11.) Man is zapped a couple more times with lowered level Tazer gun.

Have any of you ever witnessed someone either on drugs or mentally ill? (The police have no idea if this guy is altered, either mentally or chemically.) It's not unheard of for them to not feel pain or to not be immobilized by it. They can still be a danger to those around them, even if cuffed. (I have a family member who is severely mentally challeneged and she doesn't feel pain the same way the rest of us do. I have also witnessed times when she was restrained and somehow still ended up beating the crap out others or herself.)

Yes, the guy sounded like a total dick. I don't doubt that he one. But I also HIGHLY doubt that the police are going to beat the living crap out of someone with 100 or so witnesses around. Particularly on a liberal college campus where their actions will be repeatedly micro-analyzed to death.

The guy was behaving like a jerk. He could have easily left when he was asked to produce his ID the first time instead of behaving like a petulant child. He has NO ONE to blame for the ensuing situation other than himself. He chose to exacerbate a quickly deteriorating situation.

Maybe he will think twice before being so antagonistic in the future.

The cops would be in deep trouble. If not for the video they would have gotten away with assault.

When iw as going to school in Pittsburgh the campus police would stop black students andforce them to show ID. I was never once stopped. Why did the police grab this student and leave the nearby white kids alone?

The police committed a racially-motivated assault, and I hope they pay for it.

For me, the question is ultimately: How many lost liberties, affronts to human dignity, video cameras, chronicled phone records, intercepted E-mails, intrusive questions does one have to have before a state that has always labeled itself "a bastion of freedom" becomes legitimately "a police state"?

I wonder what percentage of the populace would assert that "one should *always* obey the police". I am afraid that that percentage is far too high.

In this case, my problem is not with the instrument used (the taser) or how common it is around the world. My problem is with the sense that we should, necessarily, extend to the police a degree of "reverence" and absolute "submission".

Such police brutality and the policies that foster and allow it are merely symptoms of an attitude that everyone is inherently a criminal, a terrorist, a subversive ...

The kid was being an ass. He was trying to make a point, probably in violation of the library's terms of service.

The officers, however, violated every commonly accepted guideline regarding the use of tasers.

First: the police, without question, have the right to use force when they feel threatened or it's necessary to insure the safety of bystanders. The first taser incident isn't on video, so I'll pass on whether it was necessary (though probably not, based on witnesses).

Using a taser on unarmed, prone college kid is just stupid, however. Especially when the kid is outnumbered at least three to one. If the cops felt threatened, they are the biggest pussies in uniform. Give me a break. The second taser attack is outrageous.

The student was clearly not threatening the officers or in any position to cause harm. Imagine using a gun or clubbing this kid under the same circumstances. Would it have been appropriate? Of course not.

The taser is not a compliance technique. There were three officers available. They could have easily removed the suspect. But someone was a bit too full of himself. He doesn't need to be a cop, and his team members should be disciplined or fired, also.

The most telling moment is when the cop threatens the bystander asking for a badge number. That speaks to the officer's frame of mind.

This is open and shut. The kid is probably liable for refusing the security detail's original order to leave. Beyond that, the UCPD are outrageously at fault. I'd think the kid has a dandy lawsuit. So does the good samaritan who was threatened.