I don't know what this country's come to. It's like you can't pick a fight with police officers anymore.

Sad.

The facts of this incident are not as most people seem to think, namely, that a policeman ID'd a student, the student fought back, and the policemen tasered him.

In actuality, IDing students after 11:00 is a standard practice in the library, and the people who do it are OTHER STUDENTS. The student did not cause a commotion because of police mistreatment; he refused to comply with reasonable directives from other (nonthreatening) students, who were required to get the police because they are forbidden to go any further than instructing that the offender leave the premises. So, when the student refused to comply with the policemen's directives, he was further escalating a situation that he had brought about.

Significantly, the police are REQUIRED to remove a person who refuses to show ID, and the student's conduct made that impossible. So, they tasered him.

The policemen should be thanked for removing a disturbing individual from the library, and instead they are to be the subject of an investigation. What stupidity!

No seriously campus cops are supposed to check up on people in the library after a given hour to make sure people aren't living there. The next time one of your liberal kids gets stabbed to death at al Jihad university by some homeless nutcase because the fascist pig imperialist cops are hamstrung about asking for ID, let me know.

People keep saying that the police should have picked the student up... it clear as day that the ENTIRE time, they are trying to pick the student up, by lifting him up by the armpits, but every time he actively resists, squirming and pulling himself down. Don't think so?

Then tell me, what is happening at 3:09 into the video? If that's not people trying to lift and move someone who is trying to not be moved, what is it?

When the dust settles, the police did exactly what they were supposed to do - they were able to remove the student from the premises, without causing any lasting harm or injury.

Kudos to them.

Dear Students: I couldn't watch the whole thing. I honor the students who recognized the travesty that was occuring, that the officers were completely personally out of control. And thank you to whoever was able to catch this all on film. Abuse like this is intolerable; these students have made it possible for it to be known. This visibility is a huge service to us all, because it is the only way we will start preventing such atrocities. I am not proud of my alma mater here, but I am proud to have once been a student like you. I hope I would have acted as honorably as you did. Sarah Martin, BA UCLA 1967, MD UCLA 1971

There is no possible justification for tasing someone who is lying on the ground offering no resistance. Were these cops too wimpy and weak to pick him up? If only. Two cops, each lifting under one of his armpits, is all it would take to drag him out. Handcuff him if he resists. Tasers induce cardiac arrhythmias and kill people with alarming frequency, even on the "low power" setting that, we are told, they supposedly used.

These cops tased him because a crowd was watching, because they didn't want to lose face, because they felt they had to demonstrate their authority, and because they wanted this little shit to feel pain for his lack of obedience. "Respect mah au-THOR-i-tay, boy!" They need to lose their badges at the very least.

As for the guy who posted here who was at Berkeley in the 60s who was oh-so-ashamed at the impotence of the bystanders to, what, get their asses kicked or get shot: Fuck off, Douchebag. If Mostafa had been incapacitated, if he'd been tied up, if he'd have had no possible way to end the assault, then absolutely, it's time for the bystanders to start throwing bricks and burning down city hall. But he made the choice to resist passively because that was a far more effective way to destroy these pigs. Remember, they were being filmed, and the consequences they face as a result of that are far worse than if he had done something stupid like throw a punch. It was a brilliant and difficult strategic move on his part. Mostafa was certainly capable of standing up and walking. The taser didn't paralyze him. He could have stopped the tasing at any time by doing just that. That door was always open for him. Thus, the crowd did well not to intervene.

Kudos to the crowd for simply bearing witness, for learning that yes, this shit actually happens in the world, and for letting the pigs dig themselves in deeper by threatening bystanders with their beloved tasers for the criminal act of asking for their badge numbers. That'll come up as an important point in court. And a big wet sloppy kiss of thanks goes to the dude who filmed the incident. If the participants in the Berkeley protests of the 60s had been slightly more strategic and intelligent and slightly less self-righteous and constipated in their thinking, the 60s might have led to something better than, ugh, the 70s. And the 80s.

What a sack of horseshit.

If the police were truly powerless to hold onto Mostafa's armpits because of said squirmage, they could have pig-piled on him (literally), handcuffed his hands behind his back, and voila! No amount of squirmage could have freed Mostafa from police officer arms inserted into the closed loop that they created with their magical handcuffs. Police do have ways of transporting unwilling suspects, even the ferocious squirming skinny college student variety (admittedly a tough breed). Cattle prods, however, are better suited for the sadists.

The video was started in the middle of the incident. We, as watchers of the video, have no idea about what happened in the events leading up to what we saw. I could barely even see anything IN the video, I could only hear the screaming. But I don't know what happened before the screaming. I have no idea.

I really don't think any of us are in a position to judge whether or not the police were being brutal, and whether or not the student was being hostile and inappropriate. We just don't know.

There is not enough evidence. All the posts I've read are based on people's personal biases and prejudices about cops, and not on any facts about the video.