Campus Security Guards Repeatedly Tase A Student for Failing to Show Student ID

Mostafa Tabatabainejad, an American student at UCLA, was repeatedly tased by campus security officers for what appears to be a nonviolent protest when he was asked to leave the library. The student, a philosophy major, felt he was being racially targeted when he was randomly asked to produce ID while working on a computer at the library on Tuesday evening.

The security officers asked him to leave the library, and shortly afterwards he began to comply by walking toward the doors. (There is video of the incident fom this point, taken by a student on their cell ohone camera.) However, as he neared the exit, he either sat or fell to the ground. He told the approaching security guards, "Don't touch me." They told him, "Get up." He tried totalk to them, in a calm tone. They began to argue with him and handle him, and the student said, "Let go of me." They said, "Stand up" and began to tase him. He screams in clear pain, and the security officers tell him repeatedly to, "Stand up." The student says, "What are you doing to me? I have a medical condition!" as he continues to scream in pain. What appears to be the first tase lasts almost ten seconds in pain for the student.

The guards continue to insist that he leave. The student says, "Here's your Patriot Act. Here's your fucking abuse of power." The security officers say, "Stop fighting us." He replies, "I'm not fighting you. I said I would leave. I said I would leave." As he recovers from the shock, the student asks for the officers' badge numbers, repeating that they are abusing their power. He says, "I got tased for no reason. I was leaving this god-forsaken place. You stopped me. You're abusing your power. Here's your justice of [garbled] university students." The officers interrupt, saying, "Enough. Stand up." He tells them, "Fuck off." And students begin to intervene on his behalf, very concerned, reminding the guards that they've just shocked him and he's not in condition to move. The officers try to lift him, saying, "Stand up or you'll get tased again." The students continue to tell the officers to stop, one screaming out, "Don't do that, it's so wrong!"

They tase him again. His body visibly lurches into the air and falls down again. The screaming from the shock lasts for over ten seconds, and he screams out, "I'll leave, I'll leave! I said I would leave!" The officers are insisting that he stand up, repeating, "Stand up or you'll get tased again." It's only twenty-two seconds since the previous tase started; ten since he stopped screaming and was able to speak. The students are insisting to the officers that they want his information. The student says, "This is about abuse of authority." Students are visible lurching forward to try and help the student, and then falling back fearfully. They're shouting out at them to stop it, as the officers are shouting at the student to stand and trying to lift him. They say, "You're going to get tased. You're going to get tased again." A student shouts out at them forcefully, "STOP!"

The guards tase him again. His body is in full view this time. He starts out on the ground, and with the shock, he is rocketed almost to a standing position, his body completely straight, and he falls to the ground again. The students all rush now at the guards to try and help the student. He can be heard screaming this time for at least thirty seconds. This tasing started just inside a doorway, and the camera moves with the students who are following the officers down some kind of a halway. The officers are yelling, this time some appear to be yelling at the students who are insisting that they stop.

In the chaos, the student can be heard to start screaming again, with a fourth tase (3:51 on the video). This screaming lasts for twelve seconds, and the student tells the guards that they're crazy. A fifth tase appears to occur, with new screaming starting at 4:11 on the video, followed by, "Please don't! Please don't!" from the student, who is clearly, audibly, in intense pain. The guards insist repeatedly that he stand up: "You need to leave buddy. Stand up." At 4:35 it sounds like he screams with a tase, but at 4:47 the screaming is clearly from another tase. In the video there are clearly students arguing with the guards to stop, and a huge crowd has formed and is watching. The student cannot be heard at this point. At 6:13, he is visible being carried out by the guards, who are holding him, one on each side, uder his arms. He is handcuffed and appears to be being dragged.

The students who observed the event are quoted in the articles below, along with other descriptions of the events.

See the video on YouTube.

Read initial news coverage:

• The BBC's "World Have Your Say"
  
• LA Voice.org
• The LA Times
• The Daily Bruin
• The Washington Post
• The NewYork Times
• The Register
• NBC4.TV

In case you're wondering, the general public has access to UCLA libraries, as well as students, so one does not have to be a student in order to use the library; however, the Student Conduct Code, revised November 8, 2006, requires students to show ID to campus security on demand (section 102.16). Failure to do so is considered a type of misconduct, but "Procedural due process is basic to the proper enforcement of University policies and campus regulations" (page 11). The manual describes this proper enforcement as a series of letters and meetings.

Further, according to Wikipedia, tasers are used by security and police forces " to try to reduce lethal firearms-related deaths." While they appear to be useful in this regard, "Amnesty International have documented over 150 deaths following the use of tasers," and "the US National Institute of Justice has begun a two year study into taser-related deaths in custody." Many question the safety and ethicality of a possibly inhumane weapon.