You do not taze a person just because they do not have a piece of plastic on them. I remember several times in college when I did not have my ID on me. Cops did not taze me because of it. What ever happened to hand cuffs and picking a guy up and walking them out? I would probably fall to the ground out of pain if I were tazed and not want to get up. So why couldn't the cops use those nicely pumped arms of theirs and pick him up?

Also, he could have been laying there out of protest, which is awesome. Its awesome when brave people like him decide to take some pain to show the rest of the country how tyrannical our government is behaving. I mean isn't Berkeley the place to do it? Remember the 60's? I do have to say, this kind of protest is better than the bullshit planned peace parades we have, which do NOTHING.

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I started crying from watching this. These policement should be in jail. Yes, tasing has killed people and is considered torture. It is only to be used as an absolute last resort.

I can NOT believe that they inflicted this torture over and over and over again on a young man studying (who according to some, was already on his way out), first for not showing his ID (he probably could sense, to some degree, what monsters he was dealing with) and then for not getting up after suffering unbelievable pain over and over again, at their hands. After he had been treated in a way that no animal should be treated, he shouldn't have had to get up, or listen to any more of those abusive people's orders. If someone tased me for such a ridiculous reason, I may have been morally unable to follow their orders, even if were physically able to (unlikely).

The people who minimized this crime make me feel very, very disheartened.

So there's no racial aspect. But I'm sure someone will find a way to make it racial. Everyone do their best!

But I must say, it's neither haunting, nor disturbing. It's annoying, and about 1% funny.

The cops could have picked him up and carried him out.

Yes, the Taser can be deadly. Yes, it certainly appears that hitting someone with a Taser 5 times for not having a "piece of plastic" is excessive. Yes, the police may have over reacted. But there are two sides of this coin, and no one who wasn't there directly witnessing the entire sequence of events can pass judgment. I tend to trust the police on this one - and I may be 100% wrong.

From the limited video we have all seen, the student had already gone to the floor - prior to being tazed. The police are called to the library to deal with a disturbance, that is their context. They have been told that someone is refusing to show ID or leave so the situation is escalated from CSOs to police. They show up and find an allegedly combative student who first tells the police to "get off" and then falls to the ground. That is resisting arrest, plain and simple, and the situation goes from refusing to show "a piece of plastic" to actively resisting arrest. In our society, you don't get to resist arrest. You comply with the police, then see a judge. Bypassing the rules and fighting the police will only result in an escalation in force by the police.

We don't know, because we could not see, if the student was fighting attempts to be handcuffed or flailing uncontrollably. We don't know. But we do have a few clues as to his demeanor. He was screaming out about the Patriot Act and abuse - how in the hell is that relevant? He claims he was racially profiled at UCLA? Pure horsecrap.

I hope that a full investigation brings to light all the facts, and justice prevails. If the officers Tasered a student passively laying on the bround - they were wrong, but I highly doubt that was the case. None of know for sure, but I have spent a lot of time on the UCLA campus, including many nights at parties where the police responded. My experience is that they are not brutal thugs, but experienced officers used to dealing with college kids exploring the boundaries.

then tasing him ONCE may have been justified. Tase him, cuff him and escort him out.

Five times is excessive. They could have killed him. Also, he might not have been ABLE to stand by then. It was a shameful abuse of their authority.

That was the funniest thing I have seen in weeks. The noises he was making were priceless. Squeal like a pig - WEEEEEEEE WEEEEEEEEE WEEEEEEEEE!

THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING

I hope he sues the shit out of UCLA.

I'm so sick of showing everyone my god damn driver's license/I.D., etc. Is it really necessary, how does it protect us, isn't just a big scam. You think smart terrorists or library patrons who want to secretly use the publically funded UCLA library aren't going to figure out how to forge an i.d. Come on, all this double checking of papers, passports, i.d.s is just wooing us into sheepledom. We are all so f'ing trained to respond to the request for our papers that I am happy to see someone, anyone, resist the request.

Rock on!

i wonder about the historical and political perspectives of those arguing that the police response was justified in this incident. would they have been the same people who, in the 60's, watched with satisfaction as the alabama police brutalized non-violent black men and women who passively resisted unjust laws? granted, requiring students to show ID at the library does not constitute an injustice. but, like breaking the rules to sit at the front of the bus, perhaps what's really being challenged here is a broader conception of justice, humanity, morality....

what troubles me most, aside from the victimized student's obvious pain and humiliation, is the good many of my fellow citizens (and salon readers!?) who seem to condone the violent overreaction to a perceived threat -- in this case, a defiant young man with a dark complexion and an iranian name. is this what the home front in the war on terror looks like?