Clearly, this kid is resisting. Yes folks, passive resistance is still resistance and can require police to use force. The video starts with the guy yelling at the police don't touch me and the kid absolutely refuses to stand after several commands. That is going to cause some sort of physical intervention. Personally, I think they probably should have grabbed the guy, cuffed him, and dragged him out. Anyway, I'd really like to know what happened before the video started to make the campus police come after this guy. I doubt they are there just to harass some kid.
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As the video starts the kid is yelling at the top of his lungs "Don't touch me!" over and over. I take from this that the police tried to move him without the taser. I'm not convinced the taser should have been their next step. Still, some sort of aggressive force against him was coming and I doubt the situation would have evolved much differently if they'd slammed him to the floor and drug him out the whole way.
I had heard about this, but I hadn't seen the video. Here's the backstory.
Bill,
Thanks for the link. Whoever wrote the story should have listened to the recording first. The officers are clearly telling the kid to "get up" before they taze him. That would indicate that he was not walking out as the article states (not fussing at you Bill, just commenting on the article).
Ken- Particularly now that you're a prosecutor, it's all the more important that you help spread the word for police work that is humane, just, and follows the Constitution.
Whether or not the first tase was justified -- which I think it was not -- the subsequent tasing was entirely unjustified, including the failure of the police to give their assault victim enough time to get over the physical and psychological harm and debilitation from the first tase to be able to stand up and leave.
In my view, the police who tased this student were not sufficiently trained, and perhaps should not have been hired in the first place.
I've blogged in further detail about this matter at the following links: http://markskatz.com/blog2/serendipity/archives/97-UCLA-police-assault-student-multiple-times-with-taser..html and http://markskatz.com/blog2/serendipity/archives/87-Police-tasing;-police-dogs..html .
Jon
Well Steve, hilarious, huh?
Quite frankly, it should be obvious to any adult of good will, common sense and a basic understanding of the ideals this society was founded on, that there is a rapidly growing problem with police attitudes.
I guess the student should be glad that he wasn't shot dead, wouldn't be the first one. In which case he couldn't "address that later".
I suppose Ken would say, as he has in the past, that he doesn't blame the police, they do what they get away with. Wrong. Everybody who upholds and perpetuates that type of system bears responsibility. This includes you. I urge you to rethink your position, the onus is NOT on the citizen, it's on the people in whom citizens have vested their power, their trust and their tax dollars.
Besides being unnecessarily physically harmed, you seem to think it's perfectly acceptable for that student to have to expend his money and his time to file a lawsuit. What did he do to make it absolutely unavoidable to treat him like a dangerous criminal? As you seem to understand, he challenged the cops' "authority". We can't have that, can we?
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