This is the United States of America.
UCLA. A kid goes into a library. He doesn’t have ID. They ask him to leave. And he starts to. But he’s not fast enough. And the campus police Taser him not once, but multiple times. All the while, the kid screams, “Don’t touch me!” The kid shrieks that he has a medical condition. But these cops don’t care. And when he’s frightened and screaming in pain, trying to explain that he was minding his own business, the police still demand that he stand up. And they Taser him again. Torturing him with total equanimity. Telling him to stand up.
The horror finally kicks in around the students and a few of them are brave enough to ask for badge numbers. The officers refuse.
The kid’s dragged out into the vestibule. He begs with the officers, “Please! Please!” But they insist that he stand up. One cop has the temerity to declare the kid “mentally ill,” perhaps communicating to the considerable crowd of onlookers that the police is in the right. Mind your own business. Go study some more and be good consumers.
Finally, the kid is dragged out of the library. The students look around, slackjawed, shocked that this can happen in a library. They only came here to study.
The UCPD owes us an explanation. UCLA Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams owes us an explanation. UC President Robert Dynes owes us an explanation. The police who were involved in this torture of a harmless student need to be shitcanned on the spot.
If you found this video as disgusting as I did, then you need to let the UCPD know how you feel.
Here’s the contact info:
University of California, Los Angeles
Police Department
601 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1364
Telephone: (310) 825-1491
A man named Karl T. Ross is the UCLA Chief of Police. Direct your mail and your phone calls to him.
Here is some more contact info:
Karl T. Ross, Chief of Police
kross@ucpd.ucla.edu
310-825-1633
John Adams, Captain
adamsj@ucpd.ucla.edu
310-825-4406
Interim Chancellor Norman Abrams
Telephone: 310-825-2151
Fax: 310-206-6030
chancellor@conet.ucla.edu
I will be calling them tomorrow myself, demanding answers.
[UPDATE: The police statement: “The officers deemed it necessary to use the Taser in a ‘drive stun’ capacity.” And here’s the LA Times’ report.]
The absolute least that needs to happen is that these officers lose their jobs.
Not only do they taser the handcuffed student — who clearly is not resisting, however vocal and agitated he becomes, and who may have been unable to move because of that tasering — but they threaten to taser other students when asked for their badge numbers.
It’s the repeated tasering and threat of violence that does it for me. It’s just unacceptable.
Here’s the Daily Bruin’s report:
http://dailybruin.com/news/articles.asp?id=38960
That’s disgusting.
I’m at a loss for words and I’m sick to my stomach. There will be calls. There will be emails. This is unacceptable.
Oh my god. This is the most disturbing thing I’ve seen in a while. I’ve just sent out lengthy emails to both the Captain and Chief of Police. Hopefully these assholes will get not only fired but charges pressed against them as well. However, seeing how fucked up the current climate is, I’m sure they’ll all be let off scott free. Disgusting.