this is all over the internet... I am amazed at how many responses are "well, he didn't obey the cops, this is what he deserved."

really now.

* the student's name is "Mostafa Tabatabainejad."

* he was cuffed, and on the ground AFTER BEING TASED

* he was told to get up AFTER BEING TASED

* he was tased anywhere from 4 - 6 times WHILE CUFFED

what is so hard to understand here? this is not "some liberal kid whining about his rights."

this is police abuse, bordering on torture.

troll away, guys...

I'd have to say I'm not disturbed by what I saw. I've spent many a day in Powell library, and there have been many incidents with violent people coming in, assaulting students, whether they be drunk frat kids or individuals with mental problems, etc.

No, you do not tase someone for not showing I.D... but you DO tase someone for resisting arrest, repeatedly failing to obey orders by a police officer, screaming insults, and acting like a general jackass when it's a dangerous situation and the obvious course of action is to remain calm.

"I was going to GO!" Really? Then why didn't you "go" the ten thousand times you were allowed to get up and walk? He never said he wasn't physically able to. He just screamed "**** off!" Well, guess what, you get tased. No tears here.

Is it only me who finds this quote disturbing?

In our society, you don't get to resist arrest. You comply with the police, then see a judge [...] fighting the police will only result in an escalation in force by the police.

How is it that so many people think we just automatically "obey" (to quote another letter writer) the police? Have we not seen enough abuses of authority to be at least a little bit on our guard when a police officer orders (think about that word!) us to do something? They are our servants not our bosses; peace officers. Since when did they become the Gestapo?

I ask not because I want to Godwinize the debate, but because I was recently followed into my own driveway by a police officer who proceeded to take exception to my alleged lack of response to his "instructions" and ended up cuffing me and throwing me into the back of his cruiser in front of my 12 year old son, at one point threatening me with his 9 millimetre. Over a month later, the bruises on my wrists are only just disappearing, but what doesn't seem to be disappearing is the kind of resentment and anger and distrust toward the police that will almost definitely get me into trouble one day if I can't find a way to rid myself of it.

I have no criminal record, by the way. My actions that evening did not involve abusive language, a raised voice or any kind of threat toward the officer. Oh, and my "crime"? Allegedly rolling through an otherwise deserted suburban 4-way Stop sign at 9:00 at night. Definitely worth a ticket if I did it. Not anywhere near worth this awful aftertaste, though.

Everyone, please, -- but especially you compliance-addicted Americans --stop automatically trusting that these people in uniforms have your interests at heart.

To start with, we need to stop assuming the guy who ends up in this kind of situation is some kind of wrongdoer. He could be, of course. This dude here might well have been a stubborn jerk, but that is beside the point! I suspect this has been happening for years, but until the ubiquity of various kinds of handy recording device, the victim was rarely believed. Recent YouTube videos of such abuses of authority are very likely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Scary shit.

No, you do not tase someone for not showing I.D... but you DO tase someone for resisting arrest, repeatedly failing to obey orders by a police officer, screaming insults, and acting like a general jackass when it's a dangerous situation and the obvious course of action is to remain calm.

As many have pointed out here, tasing can be lethal. Let's see....

No, you do not kill someone for not showing I.D... but you DO kill someone for resisting arrest, repeatedly failing to obey orders by a police officer, screaming insults, and acting like a general jackass when it's a dangerous situation and the obvious course of action is to remain calm.

http://messageboard.tuckermax.com/showthread.php?t=12336

"Okay kids, I'm here!

Yes, I was indeed at Powell Library at approximately 11:30 on Tuesday night, and yes I did see the entire event as it went down.

Let me start off by saying that the guy DEFINITELY was asking to get his ass kicked. He was being extremely rude with the campus patrol guys (who are college students...this was before the real UCPD got called in). He was not complying with their requests to leave the premises, and he was definitely itching for a fight. I actually know the guy and a few of his friends, and I can tell you that he's the kind of guy that loves to make trouble.

Just as a little backstory, one of the quotes the guy has on his facebook (which he now has taken down) was "I like to find the most difficult solutions to the simplest of problems".

He definitely taunted the UCPD into behaving the way they did with him.

Edit: Many people have questioned the fact that the cops tazed him and asked him to get up, and tazed him again even though he shouldn't have the capability to get up. This was not the case here to my knowledge, because the cops were using their "drive-stun" method which administers less of a jolt than normal. I believe this because anyone who can ramble on about this being the patriot act and yell at the top of his lungs should have the capability of getting up."

To those of you who are committed the logical fallacy of blaming the handcuffed guy on the ground for getting tased approximately five times after being subdued--in this particular instance, you are either terribly misguided by following this red herring, or you are very horrible human beings.

You either are too weak and cowardly to fight against power out of control, have a 'daddy' complex--believing those in authority will always 'do what's right,' or you are sadistic jerks who don't believe and/or understand the responsibilites of citizens in a free country, where our civil rights are vital to a continued freedom. Or you are some combination of one or more of these qualities.

I guess that's name-calling, but I really don't care about your feelings. I care about our country and how compliance with authority, when those in authority are abusing their power, creates a weak, ineffective population of fools who deserve to lose their freedom. What these officers did was wrong. Whatever the boy did before he was handcuffed and tasered, which, frankly, appears to be pretty much nothing, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES did he deserve to be tasered multiple times. Plus, multiple tasings incapacitates large muscle groups and his nervous system. It's likely he couldn't stand up. There were four strong-looking police officers there. They could have carried him out. They chose, instead, to brutalize him while he was helpless on the ground. They've been trained with these weapons. They knew he couldn't stand up.

Also, to threaten a student asking for a badge number is very offensive. If nothing were really wrong with the way that the officers were behaving, doesn't it follow that they would feel free to give their badge numbers? Plus, there's a good chance that they never even identified themselves as police officers.

It's on tape, and still, people are pretending to themselves it must have been justified because no police officer or other official in authority would ever abuse that power.

Are you kidding me?!? Please. Police officers, often quite good men and women (as opposed to these very bad eggs) put themselves in harm's way on a daily basis. These men, these cowards, these bullies, who abused that power, don't deserve that kind of admiration. They are cowards, hiding behind the nobility of that badge and what it represents. They should be fired.

I hope he sues the crap out of everyone involved, including the university, the police department, and the individual "officers." This whole story, and the reaction by some of those here on Salon, disgusts me.